NeuroTalk Support Groups - TBI, Tension Headaches

In 2007 I was in a motorcycle accident. I don't remember it. I was on a small dual sport in major city and someone turned in front of me without seeing me. Wearing a helmet saved my life.

I had a TBI with SAH, GCS of 3 and intubated on the scene. Fortunately I wasn't far from a major trauma hospital. I had multiple orbital and sinus facial fractures, pelvis fractures, lip and arm lacerations, and a broken finger.

I spent a few days in ICU and another week in the hospital. After the educational legal process and the full round of neurological testing, I realized I wasn't going to get much medical direction now that I was "healed." I made a pretty good recovery, considering the "acute respiratory failure" and all that.

A few years later I moved home after my father passed away. Later that year I started getting headaches which would sometimes lead to vomiting. I've been trying to cure those headaches since. I wake up almost every morning with a headache.

I started having a lot of general pain too. I saw two PCP's, and eventually a neurologist. I had a bunch of blood tests, and a sleep study. They gave me anti-depressants (Wellbutrin, which really helped the pain). Anti-migraine medicine didn't help, the neurologist thought Ibuprofen was best. I think we're all in agreement I have tension headaches, not migraines, and occasionally my neck is tight enough if bothers my stomach.

I work in computers and have okay posture in a chair, but bad posture on a couch. Last week I was down with a cold which meant a lot of time on the couch and a lot of headaches.

The sleep study indicated mild sleep apnea and minor periodic leg movement. An auto-pap and a 'script for gabapentin didn't do much. I've gone back to the auto-pap a few times for a couple weeks, as hard as it is, and it doesn't seem to help.

I'm on my second fancy pillow, which doesn't help much. I've been trying to sleep on my back, by pressure on the back of my head makes my head feel funny, almost tingly, and eventually a little nauseated.

Lately I've been noticing jaw pain. I had significant dental work done last year, fixing everything up from years worth of soda abuse. I drink too much black coffee now instead. I just went in to see my dentist this morning because my face is sore underneath my cheekbones. He looked around and decided it wasn't a dental problem. He referred me to an osteopath but said I could try a mouth guard after if we didn't get anywhere.

My first daughter was born a year ago, which didn't help my sleep at all. A few nights of solid sleep doesn't seem significantly different than a few nights of interrupted sleep, in terms of the headaches at least.

When the headaches started I had a lot of fatigue problems. Losing weight, exercising, and changes in my work space have seemed to help. I work from my new basement office remotely for a software company.

For the past year or so, I've mostly taking welbutrin and 5000 IU of vitamin D. I stayed home over the past weekend getting better from my cold, and researched a new vitamin regime from this site that I've started. I've added 50 mg methyl B12, a B complex, niacin, magnesium, calcium, and omega 3 fish oil. I think, the list is upstairs.

My goal is to wake up most mornings and feel okay.

Bryan