New user, First Concussion
 

Good Afternoon Everyone:

Last Wednesday I hit my head on a heating vent in my home. After going to my doctor that afternoon, he directed me to the ER, where they did a CAT Scan. Fortunately, they didn't find anything. However, after experiencing prolonged blurred vision, dizziness, and nausea I returned to my doctor on Friday. He confirmed that I did have a concussion. Since then, I've been experiencing the aforementioned symptoms, as well as fogginess, sadness, confusion, and an inability to think clearly. I've been at home, on bed rest since Saturday (which is starting to drive me crazy). I'm glad to have found this site, because through this experience I have felt somewhat alone, unable to explain exactly what I'm feeling. And the people around me are unable to relate/understand. Does anyone have any general advice? How long do the extreme symptoms last? Are there any resources that you're aware of that can help me? Thank you.

ACooke,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I am sorry to hear you suffered you first concussion.

What you are experiencing is very common. There is no way to prognose a time line for relief of symptoms, but, you are very early in your recovery. You have a good chance of a quick spontaneous recovery.

A great percentage of concussions resolve from the extreme symptoms within a week or so. Then, some concussions will not even start to manifest symptoms for a week to a month.

The best thing you can do is rest in a quiet area. You do not need to be in bed. Simple activities that do not require intense mental effort can be helpful.

Manual activities like painting, crafts, knitting, playing cards (not on the computer), and just about anything you can do where you don't have to think any faster than your hands can move ( except computer and video games).

Avoid anything that causes frustration or stress. Limit your TV or music to non stressful types of programs.

Reading can be OK if you do not get bleery eyed. If you find yourself rereading a line of text, you are over-working your brain.

Avoid social situations with multiple voices. A one on one conversation can be fine. But just listening to 3 or 4 people talk, especially if they are talking over each other will likely do your brain in.

There are two good online resources.

YouTube has a video series called "You Look Great" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Xso...ature=youtu.be.
It is 6 segments that take about an hour total.

The TBI Survival Guide at www.tbiguide.com is great too. You can download it and print it out (84 pages)

You probably should just lay low for the time being. Your family can check out these resources to understand what you are going through.

Stay away from caffeine, alcohol, artificial sweeteners (aspartame/Equal/Nutrasweet is the worst) MSG and high sugar content foods, especially High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Many of us have a supplement regimen that includes B-12 (500 to 100 mcgs daily), a B-50 complex, D3, Omega's, all of the anti-oxidants (C, E, etc), magnesium, calcium, and good protein for essential amino acids, especially the Broken Chain Amino Acids that are found in pork.

Nutrition is not a quick fix. It helps the brain slowly detoxify and protect itself by strengthening the blood brain barrier.

Feel free to tell us more about your struggles. there are lots of people here with good experience and ideas.

Now, go relax and rest in a quiet place if you can.

My best to you.

There is a great site called SuperBetter, invented by a game maker who suffered a concussion. She developed it to help people get through the phase you're in of "doing nothing" while recovering.

You might be able to get in on the beta test!

http://www.superbetter.com

Try this Link it has lots of useful info.
Good Luck!