Post Concussion Syndrome...
 

Last August I suffered a concussion while filling a tire with air. It exploded in my face. I was knocked unconcious, when I came around I couldn't remember what had happened or what I had been doing or why. I didn't start to remember until I had been in the ER for almost 30 minutes. While I suffered a concussion, my eardrum was also ruptured and I lost 70% of my hearing in my left ear. So while I was experiencing all the symptoms of post concussive syndrome, at the time I thought it was strictly related to my ruptured eardrum. On January 10th I had surgery to repair my eardrum because it was not healing on it's own. Now that I have been on the road of recovery for my ear and everything is healing well and my hearing is restoring slowly but surely. I'm still experiencing the same symptoms as before only now they seem to be worse. Since my accident I have been getting what seem to be migraine headaches on average of once a week. I've felt nauseated on and off but usually with the headache. Some months ago a walk in clinic told me I had sinusitis, put me on antibiotics and prescribed an anti-nausea medication...but my symptoms persisted even still. And I'm not sure how to explain my memory but I lose pieces of time during my day. This doesn't happen every day but too often for comfort. I have also experienced unexplained pain in my muscles, sharp painful stabbing pain. For no apparent reason at all, not sure if this is related. I have not slept thru the night since before the accident. And I seem to be tired ALL the time. I recently started taking melatonin, which seems to be helping some, but I just started so we shall see. I haven't actually seen my doctor about this yet, but have an appt next week. I just started surfing the net on concussions and stumbled upon all this information on post concussion syndrome and was almost agast at the similarities in my symptoms...I'm thinking chances are this will be my diagnosis...though I'm no doctor.

Good luck.
How is your hearing these days?

airhead,

I would not expect a great reception from your doctor if you say you have Post Concussion Syndrome. Most doctors do not respond well to patients who self diagnose. They call them cyberchondriacs. Try to be in a questioning mode. "Hey Doc, help me understand" may be a good way to discuss your concussion.

Write down a list of your symptoms and try to avoid medical terminology. Don't use vague terms like "I just feel weird." Try something like, "Sometimes, I will lose track of time." or " I will entirely forget what happened for a portion of the day."

Ask about getting your neck checked out. You pain may be from a unresolved neck injury. The head bone is connected to the neck bone. Most doctors should know this but few consider the neck when the head has been impacted.

How do you feel when and after your sleep? Daytime tiredness can be due to a failure to sleep deep enough for all of the phases of sleep. Upper neck injuries can cause the autonomic nervous system to malfunction causing a failure of your body to properly regulate breathing when you are asleep. The is called Central Sleep Apnea. It is often associated with stressful or weird dreams. It will cause excessive daytime sleepiness.

Write down any questions for your doctor. You don't want to forget to ask them all. Explain how you needed to write them down because you tend to be more forgetful.

Good luck with your doctors appt.

btw, Next time you post, try to put lots of double paragraph spaces so each paragraph is only 5 or 6 lines long. Many of us struggle to follow from one line to the next if the paragraph is too long.

My best to you.

Thank You Mark...
 

Mark,

I actually spoke to my doctor via phone and she is the one who suggested that I may have Post Concussion Syndrome. I was concerned mostly with my memory loss and how it isn't like forgetfullness where your thought or actions come back to you within a few minutes. It seems to be completely lost. And this is very scarey to me.


All the other symptoms I can learn to cope with as I have had severe allergies all my life and have had to deal with chronic sinus headaches as well as migraines. The nausea is something new, I used to only get nausea when I would get a migraine, now I seem to get it whenever, spuratic throughout the day. Not everyday though.


I have been keeping a journal of my symptoms, I learned that from when I was in a car accident about 17 years ago. And I do have a neck injury which my doctor is also going to look at. She is scheduling an MRI for me. I'm staying positive as well, power of positive thinking! :)


Thanks!
Heather

Getting there...
 

My hearing has improved some what. It is difficult to tell as it is gradual. Since the Tympanoplasty I have regained noticable pressure in my ear which I had not had prior to surgery. My first post op audiograph is scheduled for May 17th. Which is the recovery time frame, roughly three months from surgery.