Wakeboarding Concussion - Newbie Looking for Support
 

Hello Everyone,

I am a 24 year old male, physically fit and healthy (at least before the concussion), and I have just finished university.

I believe I sustained a concussion about 4 months ago (122 days to be exact) while wakeboarding. I slammed the left part of my head - I was not wearing a helmet because I had read helmets did not help during wakeboarding. I saw stars, but I did not black out, and I was feeling fine after.

I did not know I had had a concussion at first, I just felt like I had a small headache. I went out drinking 5 days after, I got drunk really easily, and I fell asleep on my friend's couch. The day after I was extremely dizzy, but I thought it was just the hangover. The feeling never completely went away...

My symptoms are:
1. Dizziness (shaking rhythmically, if this makes any sense at all)
2. Headaches (in the back of my head, behind my eyes)
3. Muscular pain and clicking on my jaw, neck, and shoulders
4. Difficulty focusing with my eyes, when trying to change from a far away object to a close one. I also have difficulty following fast objects.
5. The edges of objects look very weird.

I tried getting massages, and I realize I feel worse after getting massages. I also got about 10 physiotherapy sessions, after which I felt kind of worse every time, but I kept going until the 10th session. They recommended me to stretch every day, but I'm not even sure if that's even helping.

Its been 4 months now, and I feel like I have been slowly improving, but I am not 100% sure if I am still improving at all. I am starting to feel extremely discouraged, I even forgot what normal is supposed to feel like any more. All the doctors told me I would get better at about the 3 month mark or so, and I still have symptoms to this day.

I feel that this was such a silly hit, and I didn't even black out. I can't do anything, and I feel like I may never go back to being "myself" (whatever that was) again. A lot of people I know are starting to tell me I am just imagining these things, and it is extremely difficult to deal with this, specially because there is no hard proof of my symptoms, and people think I am making it up.

Reading more and more doesn't help either, it just makes me think that I'll never get better. The only thing I've realized helps is meditation.

I just don't know what to do any more.
Should I actively try to do more difficult activities (even if it gives me symptoms)? Or should I just lay in bed all day long without doing anything?
It seems that actively trying to improve (slowly getting back to activities) is useless or even detrimental to getting, and no one knows anything about anything. I am starting to get depressed.

I know its useless to think this, but my brain is starting to think I'll never get better. I've moved back home with my parents now (because I can't work enough to support myself any more).

I have also seen 2 doctors now, and got a CT and an MRI. Two neurologists said everything was fine, and that I just have to wait it out.

WakeboardingPCS,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

First, stop reading stupid stuff. Where ever you read the helmets don't help with wakeboarding is dead wrong. They are not a lot of help against a normal speed hit against the water but a strong slam against the water can really ring your bell. Plus, you can hit your head against the wakeboard.

What did the physio focus on ?

You likely have a subtle neck injury that needs careful treatment. Not the standard 'push for range of motion' therapy but rather gentle traction and mobilization. You also need to be disciplined to maintain good straight neck posture during rest and sleep and no extreme neck movements, especially fast one.

It will help to read the Vitamins sticky at the top. Look for the updated post on Nov. 8 It is post number 101.

Welcome WakeboardingPCS. :Tip-Hat:

Thank you for your support and the fast response!

I will look into the vitamins. I was thinking about taking the Centrum multi-vitamin pills and adding others as necessary.

The physiotherapist told me I have a bunch of muscular spasms. They used ultrasound and laser for my neck and jaw. They also sent me a bunch of neck stretches, that I'm unsure if I should keep doing.

For your vision symptoms, you may want to look into vision therapy. You can find a practitioner at http://www.braininjuries.org or http://www.nora.cc who can evaluate your vision properly and let you know if you would benefit from this.

Hang in there man. With mine I also didn't lose consciousness, I just remember having a bright white flash over the left side of my visual field briefly and then seeing stars and streaks (from what I've read that's your optic nerves getting rocked). It's a long haul but improvement does happen.

That's so funny you mentioned this one, I smacked my left temple and for a couple months I was also noticing 'patterns' with the edges of things. Can't really explain it better than that. Still not sure if it was something to do with my visual field being affected, a part of the brain that processes shapes and outlines of objects to get altered or what but hey, when that started going away so did the brutal shooting head pains I was also getting.

You are not just imagining your symptoms. I've struggled with that too, it's always people that have never experienced a bad concussion that are ignorant enough to say stuff like that. Disregard it and focus on your healing.