My Struggle With PCS - A Success Story
 

Hi guys,

I thought i'd compile my previous posts on this forum over the course of my recovery, to showcase how far i've come.

Although my initial injury was October 30th, 2009, I was not in the right mindframe, nor did I have the visual capabilities to use the computer until a few months into my PCS.

My first post here on March 18th, 2010, five months into my PCS...

URL: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread117042.html


After writing that, it would be a long time before I would post again, December of 2010...

URL: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread144270.html


I regret not writing more information down, as these two posts are tiny snippets of what I was going through. Even prior to writing the first one, I went through the absolute worst five months of life. The gap between the two also lapse quite a considerable amount of time.

The purpose of this post is to illustrate my success story. Today, 18 months following my initial blow, I am virtually symtom free. The only thing I experience is some visual issues, but they are showing impressive improvement thanks to a recent visit to a vision therapy center.

I write this today after cramming 10 hours almost without breaks for a statistics midterm in a couple days. I absolutely despise statistics but the feeling of happiness simply makes everything I do these days a joy. Even my family and friends notice how bouncy I am. My sister recently told me, "your back to your old silly self". Today, I can't be prouder or happier to be who I am. I've battled the hardest feat of my life. Nothing will stand in my way. :)

I wish all of you the best. Rest up, and always keep your head up. :)

I am from Canada too, and boy can I RELATE. Neurologists, though smart and well educated on the brain, have NO idea of the implications of concussions. None whatsoever. I am also now fully recovered after my concussion (FINALLY). I saw a neurosurgeon and 2 neurologists along the way and all they had to say was "it will all go away in 4-6 months". I am not a doctor but 2 months in, standing in their offices, I could have told them that was not going to happen.

Seriously Canada, get a grip. One of our great Canadian heroes (Sidney Crosby) has been out for MONTHS following his head injury. IS THIS WHAT IT TAKES TO GET SOME ATTENTION THESE DAYS? I am sad this has happened to him at such a young age...my age actually...but he is starting to bring much needed publicity to the CORRECT management of concussions

5 weeks after my concussion I was experiencing vertigo...and my doctor said it was anxiety and told me to go for a run. A RUN??? SERIOUSLY?? After a head injury. She spent that much time in medical school and had no idea that if I actually went for that run it could have been enough to cause second-impact syndrome. Drives me bonkers.

End rant.

Carmell

It's unreal isn't it? My neurologist supposedly sees concussion victims "all the time" yet he had no real advice what so ever to give me. No information, no possible symptoms, no danger signs. He just told me, "you'll know when your ready". When I asked him how long concussion symptoms could last, he said 18 months but because I was not knocked out, it wouldn't be more than a few months. :eek:

Amen. I love Sid, as well as hockey. As unfortunate as his injury is, I hope it will be much needed attention to an issue that is getting out of control in the NHL, among other places. He's been out for months, with little to any indicators that he'll be playing again this season. The lack of knowledge and correct management is lacking immensely, I agree.

Wow, just wow. I would hope this would be an MD and not an neurologist. My MD had no helpful advice at all along my recovery. She was totally confused. I thought I times she didn't believe my symptoms because she was giving me a hard time when I was requesting continuation of my sleeping meds.

My father recently had a horrible spell, when he was in excruciating pain, bed ridden for almost a year. Doctors suspected he might have had cancer but could not locate the source of his pain or the stressor. In the end, my mother's non-stop research on the internet solved his problem. Turns out ten minutes of groin exercises a day is all he needs to stay pain free. Thank you Canadian medical system.

My mom, for the last seven years has struggled with Lyme Disease. Canada does not recognize it as an illness. She has been off work for two years often times in crippling pain, forced into bed 24/7. Our insurance company, Sun Life, recently denied her coverage and we're suing their ***. My mom is finally on a road to recovery, but it was through self diagnosis and research. The Canadian doctors were useless.

Combine that with my recent PCS and hell I went through without any support whatsoever from our medical community. Oh my, how lovely our medical system is.

/rant

(Sorry for that, but you started it Carmell :rolleyes:)

my regular MD didn't even tell me I had a concussion...she said I had a "little brain bruise" and to rest the weekend. She barely wanted to write me a note to get out of work when I went back 2 weeks later!@

Though many feel we are fortunate here in Canada to have a "free" medical system, it has MANY down sides. We have LONG waiting lists, especially to see neurologists, which often leads to mis-management of head injuries. I feel that if I saw a good doctor within the first week of my concussion I would have had a concussion that resolved uneventfully. Instead, I continued to try and "train" through it and ended up with severe post-concussion syndrome.

Research on things like Lyme Disease IS minimal. Much of treatment consists of "try this drug" instead of looking at lifestyle changes.

OH CANADA. Great Country, poor medical system.

Carmell

Thanks for the good news.

Hearing someone recover from PCS is now one of my great joys.

18 months is a long time, but I hope to be posting a bunch of smile faces as well.

Only really soon- 9 months. Lord willing. :p

It is unreal to me how little doctors seem to know about concussions. Surely they have been around since human species existed. How is it possible that so little is known? :confused:

My family doctor was not even aware that concussions could last more than a week. She was completely confused by my symptoms.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. People internationally hear of the Canadian medical system as "great" and "something to aspire to", such as in the movie Sicko. Although I appreciate the fact that health care is universal, the waste and neglect for the system causes extremely long wait times. Compounding that, the overbearing amount of work pushed onto doctors forces them to speed through everything, misdiagnosing conditions such as concussions.

PCS can be incredibly painful and frustrating. I wish you all best Jeffrey. :)

There is a simple reason why doctors know so little about concussions.

First: There is very little the Medical Doctors can do to help the PCS patient. There are no drugs approved for the treatment of concussion so the drug companies do not support the care of the PCS patient either.

Second: Since many concussions do not cause lasting symptoms, they think that all concussions should have no lasting symptoms. Also, by the time many of the delayed concussion symptoms show up, they are attributed to psychological causes.

Third: The liability insurance industry has thrown big money behind the denial of concussion as they defend against those injured in auto accidents.

Fourth: The sports doctors have been paid to get players back on the field for the financial gain of the professional sports team or the collegiate sports team.

Fifth: Very few neurologists have any skills at diagnosing any ailment that is not imageable on an X-ray, CT, MRI, EEG, or EMG, etc. If it does not show up on one of these imaging systems, it does not exist. The qEEG has a high reliability (95% and above) at diagnosing concussion but the insurance companies and Neurological Medical Associations have been successful at discrediting this fact.

Sixth: Because of the above, there are many old wives' tales that have been accepted as medical fact, such as any concussion with no Loss of Consciousness (LOC) will recover 100% with no after effects.

Seventh: Now, with most health care systems using a managed care protocol, there are many roadblocks to follow-up care of those who are diagnosed with a concussion.

btw, One of the big problems with the Canadian health care system is free services get overloaded and then many of the best doctors leave Canada to practice in the USA.

Very insightful post Mark. All of those reasons ring true. The overload in the Canadian health care system is a detriment to the quality of the medical profession. I would imagine money is an insentive for doctors to migrate to the US as well.

Wow
 

Wow my story is almost the exact same as yours, I was headbutt for no reason at all on halloween night and experienced concussion symptoms for 2 weeks. When I was starting to feel better approximately two weeks later I was struck in the head by a hockey stick and had to receive 4 staples for my head. Again I was out for about a week with symptoms which seemed to go away. After this week I was able to work out, go to the gym party etc. After 2 weeks of heavy studying and exams I partied hard 4 days in a row, after this I thought I had cold symptoms as my entire body was feeling like crap. I continued to exercise and hang party as if it was nothing but a cold. However over my christmas break I experienced brutal symptoms of dizzyness and nausea I spent my entire christmas day in a hospital for 5 hours watching star wars because I couldn't open a damn present. My doctor told me I would need to stop drinking and rest as much as I could for my symptoms. Its tough because people who have never had a concussion dont understand what it is like, they think you are a wuss and are just being "soft". The last 2 months have been the most stressfull of my life with school work, my roomates party 3 nights a week which makes it very hard not to drink alcohol. I wont have a drink for a month feel slightly better then fall off the wagon and get back with my symptoms. The last couple Months I have felt depressed and have had very weird thoughts about life and other subjects. It sucks cuz I need to be better within the next month to make money for school at my summer job. Im tired of this **** I cant do anything cant exercise, play hockey, can barely play video games and stress harder then ever in all of my classes. Ive already told myself im not going to have a drink for the next month but who knows if doing any of this will make my damn symptoms go away.

Thanks for listening, Mike