Extreme Cranial Sensitivity (post-trauma)
 

Hi,

My name is Patrick.

In the past (as a teenager) I sustained lots of head traumas from sports, but I always just walked it off and I never had any post-concussive symptoms.

In January 2013 I was in a car accident overseas - I was thrown full force into the ceiling of a taxi at about 80kmph (ceiling 1 inch from my head) when the taxi hit a large unmarked speed bump.

The doctors overseas never diagnosed it as "concussive", so I returned to Canada and tried to push on (at the time I was in my final semester of my undergraduate studies). As headaches worsened I ended up in a hospital in Canada in April where I was diagnosed with post-concussive syndrome. The out-patient clinic neurologist told me to "push myself" and to take a mild dosage of noretryptylin.

Within a month (May 2013) I was back to normal functioning; in one day I could do 30 minutes of cardio on a stationary bicycle, walk outdoors for an hour, go out with friends, etc. On occasion I bumped my head and this would bring back dizziness, nausea, & headaches for several days. But after the several days elapsed, my problems would clear and I was able to return to normal.

Since late August 2013 I have regressed. I have had a few innocent bumps to my head and after each incident I have plateaued at a lower level of functioning and greater level of cranial sensitivity than before.

In late spring/early summer 2013, when I "pushed myself", I would be able to achieve the same level of activity (or more) the next day. Since late summer 2013, pushing myself only makes things worse and all I can do is rest.

When I walk I feel the impact of my heels against the ground resonating in my head. I now wear basketball sneakers in my house to cushion the impact.

If I "miss a step" on the stairs, it will hurt terribly.

When I am in the car, bumps on the road hurt. Badly.

If I bump my head when I hug someone, the impact will echo throughout my head and hurt for a day and leave me in a worse-off state.

I have had to take a medical leave of absence from my Master's program because I cannot manage the commute (the train's rattling would trigger headaches and the overall academic work-load didn't allow me to cater to my symptoms when they arose due to deadlines).

Luckily I live with my Mom and I can rely on her to help with the mundane things (grocery shopping, house chores, etc.). I simply can't do any of this.

Has anyone been through a similar situation? How have you managed, and how have you gotten over it?

I have been through a gamut of tests with many doctors; Brain & spine MRI shows nothing, bloodwork is normal, etc. One neurologist says it's from the shearing force of the impact, another says I simply have tension headaches. They're guessing.

Are there any other tests I should pursue or diagnoses I should consider?

I go to physiotherapy once a week (he does osteopathic techniques, sacro-cranial therapy, etc.) - I get symptomatic relief in terms of headaches, but I can hardly walk around any better.

I eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and lean meat. Grain too. My diet is very healthy.

I need to get over this extreme cranial sensitivity. I realize that it will probably just take a long time, but I need to figure out how to best facilitate my recovery. Any help, advice, or discussion of similar situations would be much welcomed.

Warm regards,
Patrick

I have the same sensitivity. Rough roads set me back for days, innocent head bumps while hugging someone do the same thing.

Have your neck examined by someone who specializes in upper cervical care. I'm currently seeing an Atlas Orthogonal chiropractor and do see some positive results after adjustments, and have at least some hope that most of my symptoms are actually neck-related, at least I can focus on fixing that instead of playing the guessing game and just waiting for a miracle like most of the doctors I've seen been telling me.

Read through this forum, it's literally been a godsend with my PCS.

Patrick,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I don't think you problem is as much cranial sensitivity as upper neck sensitivity. You describe vertical impacts and movements/vibrations as causing problems. The joint between C-1 and your skull can be out of place, injured, have weak ligaments, or other instabilities. C-1 to C-2 can also be messed up. These can cause head aches and other PCS symptoms. I bet you have tender spots at the bony part behind your ears. This is a common symptoms of an upper neck injury.

I suffered a vertical compression cervical vertebra injury with concussion that cause a wide range of PCS symptoms.

There is no quick fix to an upper neck injury. Some gentle traction with gentle manipulations to mobilize this area may help. You will also need to be very disciplined with neck posture, especially during rest and sleep.

You may also have other spinal problems that cause your spine to be stiff and not absorb foot plants. Spasming muscles along the spine can overcome the ability of your spine to absorb bumps. I find it helps to roll my shoulders forward, especially when riding in the car on a bumpy road. This spinal curve creates more ability to absorb vertical impacts.

Maybe your physiotherapist can help you with some exercises to loosen up spasming muscles and strengthen the ligaments. I would be very cautious about any cranial-sacral therapy that tries to manipulate your cranial plates.

btw, MRI's will not usually show the strain injuries from a vertical impact. Unless the radiologist has expert skills at measuring vertebral alignment, the MRI report will be normal. In fact, studies show that vertebral imaging has very little correspondence with symptomology. People with abnormal images can have no symptoms as much as people with normal images have severe symptoms. There are issues with spinal injuries that are not measurable with imaging.

So, try to get your spine healthy. Expect improvement to take weeks if not months. The soft tissue of the spine is slow to heal.

My best to you.

Thanks to both of you for your advice, I really appreciate it.

I'm going to look into the possibility that this may be related to my upper neck; I was thrown into the ceiling of the car and then back down into the seat so it makes sense that my neck would be involved.

That being said, I don't want to close the door to the possibility that it is a head problem either.

I'll speak with my physiotherapist today and have him take a closer look.

I'll also speak with my family doctor and ask her advice in how to otherwise pursue this.

If problems with my upper neck (either bone, muscular, soft tissue, etc.) don't show on MRIs etc., how would one determine that the problem is actually in my upper neck? Could a specialist actually feel such problems through palpation and visual examination? Or would they determine it as per success of treatment (i.e., if minor adjustments & neck exercises help, they follow the hypothesis that it is in my neck?).

Thanks so much for your help, I really appreciate it; I hope your difficulties get better too.

If you have tenderness at the bony part behind your ears, that would be a symptoms of a neck injury. Also, palpating it can help. Plus, as you said, success of treatment is a good sign.

Much of medicine is 'success of treatment' oriented.

An upper neck injury does not rule out a brain injury too. It is best to try to treat both. There is not a real treatment for the brain injury where there is a positive treatment for the neck.

You may have to ask for a referral to find a good neck specialist or even do your own research. Ask about specialists who successfully treat whiplash.

Mark what do you mean when you say the spine is stiff and can't absorb foot plants? Are you saying that since the spine may be stiff the impact is not being absorbed and is litteraly jarring the brain? Just asking since I experience this issue and hard foot plants/missing a step can sometimes aggravate my symptoms and make me feel sick and foggy for a bit. It also sometimes causes an impact I can feel in the top or back of my head.

I am referring to the impact in the disks in the neck. Jarring a stiff neck can cause inflammation in the neck. The spine can lose its resilience. When the spine is resilient, it absorbs impacts. When it is not, it gets inflamed. That inflammation can disrupt nerve function and cause muscle spasms that lead to headaches. It can also decrease blood flow that can cause brain fog and fatigue.

It is not healthy to look for reasons to obsess about additional brain damage.

Alright thank you, the symptom can just be very debilitating at times unfortunately.

They become many times more problematic if you focus on them.

Alright I will keep that in mind and I have been working s lot on my anxiety but you have to understand it's normal for people to be anxious about things like this especially when the anxiety stems around something big like not wanting to cause yourself more brain damage/cte