Iicp
 

Hi. Ill start by summarizing my situation. I had my first concussion with noticeable effects about 7 months ago. I felt fine after a few weeks and then hit my head again on a table. I did not feel fine after this and felt very bad for 2 months with symptoms improving everyday. One thing I did notice after the second hit was that after any bumps or even stumbling a little walking would cause me a headache. And by headache I mean my head would get foggy, id be irritable, could not think straight and just felt bad. These would go away depending on how bad I hit my head. And I noticed when these 'headaches' went away there would most times be a pop in my ear and all the sudden I felt much better. It was like I could see, hear, and think more clear. Well everything started to get better and I was feeling like myself when 4 months ago I hit my head again. I have been recovering from that since then. Everything has gotten alot worse and my head has gotten much more sensitive. Those headaches I would get come on alot easier. Even washing my hair is really stressful. Many simple tasks are hard to do now. I titled this IICP because I thought it may be that. My question is is this IICP? And if it is or isnt what should I do about it. Ive seen plenty of doctors, most turn to anxiety meds. Should I just take those and rest until Im better or is there something Im missing? Thanks, sorry for the long read.

IICP : Increased intracranial pressure

IICP comes up from time to time. I think the only way to diagnose it is with a spinal tap. It is an invasive procedure. Have you been seen by an ENT to look at your inner ear ?

The head ache you describe I call a mud head ache. It is like my head gets packed with mud and feels stuffy and lethargic.

How is you anxiety level doing ? What anxiety med are they prescribing?

Anxiety and overall mood is pretty bad honestly. It has gotten better but driving in a car, washing hair, those things get really stressful. Even when I dont have the headaches I feel bad. Medications prescribed have been amitriptyline, and a couple SSRIs. Im currently taking none of those but I do take a b complex everyday, and I used to take naproxen often.

The B-Complex is likely just better than worthless for PCS. The B-12 and B-6 amounts are just too small. Read the label.

Well, my question right now is what should I do from here? If its ICP how is that treated? I would get the spinal tap done if it meant making me feel better.

You dont necessarily have to have a spinal tap, they wouldn't really do that for mild/mod. I believe that is a step taken with severe head injuries, if a person is hospitalised and the pressure is v.high and v.dangerous.

Have you had any medical care/tests? Opticians can measure pressure on the eye, DRs/Neuros can assess your symptoms and see if they correlate.

Mine did, although neuro was doubtful about some of other symptoms he ordered a CT scan and 1000mg of naproxin a day to reduce brain swelling (which is a cause of increased pressure.) and pain. This has helped a lot, though may symptoms still persist.

Actually was looking up something else and found that a spinal tap is not used at all. In v.servere cases that may fit an ICP monitor by drilling a small hole in the skull.

Hope your keeping your spirits up and can talk to a medical professional about your symtoms and get help to alleviate them. :)

I got an MRI after my second concussion which came back with nothing and did the memory, balance, follow the finger with your eyes test but nothing other than that. Should I just continue to rest and hope it gets better? What tests would show increased pressure, and should I pursue that and try to get that treated? Something Im worried about but Im sure isnt likely is that the swelling and pressure is causing more damage. I worry about this especially when the headaches are bad even though theres never much pain; its hard to explain.

If your neuro exams show no problems, there should not be a risk of damage from head pressure. Many of us get a sense of pressure, with and without head aches. PCS can manifest in a wide range of ways with many ups and downs. Learning to live with these ups and downs is important to recovery.

I had an ear surgery recently to fix a fistula in my left ear. About a month after the surgery I was prescribed diuretics because of the increased pressure in my ears (and I believe that correlates to increased cranial pressure as well). The pressure was high before the surgery, but was supposed to drop on its own after, and it didn't.

The explanation I got that I had a leak in my inner ear for so long that my body was trying to adjust to the loss of fluid in the ear by increasing the pressure to push more fluid in and now it needs to relearn back to not push fluid in.

Among my other symptoms, i do get the popping ear (borderline painful sometimes) and other weird feelings in the ear.

So I've been taking diuretics for just over a month and I think they're helping with my overall symptoms. It usually takes a while to see any benefit from diuretics, so I'm hoping that this will keep improving.

Try and see an ENT (or better yet an otoneurologist) to have your ears checked, there's a test they can do to test pressure in ears (I believe it's the ECOG test).