Living with a Concussion without knowing it?
 

I have a very close friend, who plays hockey and football. He knows of my current condition, and that I am quite obsessed with my brain health.

He constantly complains to me about getting very bad, "head pressure," when at practice and games, as well as not being able to remember the previous days events.

He had a very bad head to head hit in a hockey game about 11 months ago, which was much stronger than my concussion hit, and was experiencing concussion like symptoms, which I know that he never addressed.

Could PCS symptoms be mild enough to almost go unnoticed? I really want to talk to him about this, but I don't want make myself seem paranoid.

I know that I, who have always had chronic headache problems never realized I was concussed until about 2 weeks in. Also wouldn't the symptoms get so unbearable that it would be very hard not to notice?

Thanks in advance, Mrsmith.

My guess is he is in denial about his symptoms because he doesn't want to give up the sports he enjoys. That said, the memory deficits along with the self described "head pressure" suggest mTBI. Symptom severity vary, but his sound like they are to the point where they are no longer "unnoticed".

If he continues to play and receives additional insults to the brain (which will happen with football and hockey) they could have serious consequences.

I'd have the discussion with him. Sounds like an evaluation from a neurologist or clinical neuropsychologist with experience with brain injury is in order.

There is nothing magical about the term concussion or concussed. He has subjected his brain to injury. He has probably had many head impacts from sports and been able to continue to play. He may believe that not losing consciousness means he was not injured. This has reinforced his denial of being injured.

You could just ask him about his brain health. "Aren't you concerned about the long term effects of your head impacts ? Do you know what CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) does to the brain ? Do you know that all head impacts, even those that do not cause concussion symptoms, can combine to cause life long brain dysfunctions ?

Keep in mind that if he is a denier, you may be talking to a brick wall.

It honestly makes me angry because I see him daily get hit with a stronger force than I did to get my post concussion problems, and not seemingly have any problems, where I have been working super hard for the last year to help my brain heal, and am still having problems.


That sounds horrible but it's how I feel

He may be just building up to a catastrophic event where his brain no longer has the ability to tolerate these hits. I would be cringing every time he is impacted.