18 Year Old with Post Concussive ADVICE PLEASE!
 

Hey everyone, I just wanted some advice so I guess I'll explain my story.

I'm 18 and a freshman in college.

Three months ago, I was showering in my dorm room and I dropped a shampoo bottle. I picked it up but when I was standing up I hit the back of my head on the shower knob. It just seemed like a nasty hit, but I wasn't really that phased and it didn't hurt that bad.

The next day I was out of it, but I just thought I was having an off day. The day after that I started feeling very disoriented, having frequent anxiety, and having a lot of trouble falling asleep.

I went home and did some research and figured out that I had Post Concussive Syndrome. A day or two after figuring this out, I felt 100x better, almost back to normal! I felt that way for at least a week, but then my symptoms returned.

Over winter break my symptoms fluctuated, some days they were really bad, but then I'd have a couple days where I felt a lot better.

This has continued, but not as severely as I've returned to college. I don't have trouble doing homework or focusing in class, it's just that I sometimes feel out of it and have very mild anxiety at times.

There's been few days periods where I feel almost back to normal, but my symptoms always end up coming back to me and I feel crappy again. I get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, eat healthy, and I'm a very low-stressed person

Any tips to help me recover? I've had an MRI but it came up as nothing was wrong. Is it natural for my symptoms for fluctuate or should I get a second check up?

Thanks a lot!
:) Alex

hi,

sorry to hear of your problems...I am 1.5 years out from bad concussion and still not better....what are your symptoms exactly (you said feeling out of it and anxiety)....you talked about getting back to "normal"...so my guess is that you wake up everyday and do not feel like you did before the injury (almost like a different person)...anxiety is very common w head trauma....try not to worry as hard as I know that it....tell people that you still do not feel right....pcs can last years....or forever....most docs dont understand (your best bet is a physical medicine and rehab doc with experience in brain injury....

My symptoms are:

-I feel out of it almost all the time, like I'm not really experiencing things fully.
-Occasional anxiety, it's worse on days I feel especially out of it.
-About once or twice a month I'll have trouble falling asleep
-I get very fatigued and sleepy at different periods of the day, but usually if I rest a bit or eat something I can get over it in about an hour or so.
-Uncomfortable sensitiveness sometimes. It's hard to explain, sometimes if something is touching me but it's not in my line of sight, it will start to bother me until I look at or touch it.

"Feeling normal" to me is still feeling a bit out of it, but a lot less than I normally do. I don't get fatigued or get that "uncomfortable sensitiveness." No anxiety at all, almost like if I just continued on that path for a few more days that I'd be completely fine again.

But usually I'll "feel normal" for two days, but at the end of the second day I just start feeling crappy again. It's a strange cycle, but I mean a few days after my accident I felt better than my "normal" period for a week straight, so this gives me hope for recovering again.

I was hoping in not getting tied up in therapies or medicine and simply depending on living healthy and resting to get better. :icon_confused:

Alex,

I suggest you relax and stop trying to figure this out. Your symptoms may or may not be PCS. They are so varied and atypical that they could be just a cluster of odd symptoms. There is not much you can do for PCS, especially when the symptoms are so mild and infrequent.

If any of your symptoms were more frequent, then there might be things to do to help with them.

If you start having memory and cognitive difficulties, then it is more likely you have PCS.

You could also keep a journal to see if you can find a link between triggers and symptoms.

Your last statement about living healthy and resting is your best bet.

mark already said it all, thought I'd just mention you really ought not to worry at 3 months:-)

just fyi andy, you sound like me from the past, exactly. I had a wicked concussion and it was hell for 2 years, and even with the lack of hope i had, it went away entirely. Stay strong buddy

Thanks a lot, everyone! This really gives me hope to recovery. :)

I'll try to remember to post updates! If there's any more tips I'd be happy to hear them as well.