PCS symptoms, what kind of symptoms and feelings do you have?
 

i read many things about PCS, and the most common are symtoms like these:

headache's
dizziness ( lightheaded or vertigo )
fatigue or sleepiness
double or blurred vision
anxiety
irritability
depression
etc etc

Some people on this forum are feeling very suicidal and depressed, some have extreme headache's.. Some people have dizziness but more vertigo based and not lightheaded, some people still do their work/school, some can't do anything.. So theres is a lot variety of symptoms by each person.

The symptoms which I most have (for 6 months) are lightheaded dizziness, blurred vision and extreme fatique, every morning its a struggle to come out of bed and as the day passes (i work a lot with computers) i get a light headache, and pain around my left eye. When i'm stressed the dizziness seems to get worse. On a good day i work for 4 of 5 hours with some large breaks, on a bad day i can't get out of bed, don't work at all, and then i'm more sensetive for light and sound. I'm in a lucky position that i run my own company with 10 employees, they replace my work, still can pay the bills, and for now that works fine, but in the near future i have to be better and work 100% again, otherwise i will get into some serious problems!

I don't have suicide feelings or extreme depression like other people on this forum but i'm scared and have anxiety that it won't go away and that this is permanent..

my questions to you people are, what are youre symptons and feelings? do you still work or go to school? do also have good day's and bad day's? and what are youre expectations in the future and what kind of possible treatments do you consider?

again, i'm from europe, so sorry for my terrible english! :winky:

i forgot to mention the treatments that ive done..

first i got an:
MRI scan
EEG

did some Homeopathy ( arnica, Natrium Sulphuricum, Cicuta virosa, Cytisis Laburnum ) these pills didn't do that much..

i went 3 times to an eye specialist because my neurologist said sometimes after an TBI a patient can be squint-eyed (and i don't know if this is correct english)

the eye specialist did 3 vision tests in a period of 3 months, and now i have to wear prism glasses, i about 2 weeks from now i get these glasses, but i don't know if this effect my symptoms, i hope so!

Since 2 weeks i'm going to a Chiropractor, and since yesterday i also go to Cranio Sacral therapy, on this thread on page 5 t PCS McGee alks about this therapy:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...t=14378&page=5

i must say, the Cranio sacral feels quitte relaxed, so thank you PCS McGee for this tip! :) but i don't know if this will work for me but i hope so!

For the future, if the Cranio Sacral, Chiropractor and the Prism glasses don't work then i'm thinking on neurofeedback, ( just started a thread about neurofeedback on this forum ) but in my country its very expensive (about $10000 to $15000) so i hope that there is someone with neurofeedback experience who can share this!

i also read an article about chinese herbs, see: http://www.herbchina2000.com/therapies/NCS.shtml

this sounds to good to be true!:winky: so i'm a bit sceptic about this one!

Longer than longer: Longest
 

Just for the record Applesap, your english is perfectly fine (sadly, you write in english far better than most Americans). You don't need to keep apologizing all the time!

In response to your questions...

For the first two years of my PCS experience, I was in college and remained there, eventually getting my bachelor's degree in 2005 (my grades didn't slip after my accident, but I'd gotten decent grades through my first 3 years of college without studying at all... for the last 2 I had to study all the time to keep up with my former pace). After I graduated I had a nervous breakdown, then started working 5 or 6 months later (doing mindless stuff, like answering phones or filing papers). I'm still doing these mindless jobs from time to time, but I'm seeing therapists twice a week so it's really hard (actually, impossible as far as I can tell) for me to find work that can accommodate my schedule.

I had really bad pressure headaches for the first 2 years that I had PCS, as well as constant dizziness for the first 3 years. Anxiety and depression came on at the 2 year mark for me and have stuck around until the present (though my anxiety's nearly completely gone and my depression is about 10% of what it used to be). I still have days where I'm really irritable, but I've learned to just stay clear of people when I'm in that kind of mood... I have faith that the irritability will go away when the rest of this injury is cleared off. I have odd vision problems that I can't exactly describe, but they aren't crippling at all, they're more just annoying. I also had a disconnection from reality problem, as a lot of people have brought up on here, and that only went away for me (it returns for an hour or so every now and again) a month or so ago, but man was it ever nice for that to go away! Yeah, so I'm not doing as well as I was before all of this happened, not yet anyway, but through good therapy I'd say the problems I'm having now are about 5% of the problems I was having through the first 3 years after my injury. I also have PTSD, which raises a multitude of social problems, but I won't get into that here.

As far as the suicidal stuff goes... I don't blame people for being suicidal within this condition, especially when a doctor may tell you that your condition may be permanent, "so you should probably learn to live with it" (leaving you to say "oh great, every day for the rest of my life is going to be a living hell, fantastic!"). There have been plenty of times that suicidal thoughts have come into my mind during this regardless of whether I actively invited them in or not, though I haven't gotten to the point where I've attempted suicide, or even strategized about how I would do it. Personally, I feel that being completely honest with yourself is the best way to get through any brain-related problem... within this mindset, I realized about a year ago that if I didn't beat this PCS and PTSD, I would end up killing myself, and really it wouldn't matter whether I lived 1 month, 1 year, 5 years, or 50 years before I did so, because as long as I had this condition I wouldn't accomplish anything within that time anyway. I'd leave absolutely no imprint on this world. I wouldn't find a rewarding job, I wouldn't find love, I wouldn't have a family, I wouldn't have anything, because no matter how long I happened to live I would spend every moment of every day psychoanalyzing myself and wishing that all of this had never happened. To me, that's not a life worth living, so I wouldn't live it. But coming back to where you were before your accident? Oh wow, that'd be sweet... I think it'd be better than living a life where "none of this had happened", because you'd have such a stronger appreciation for it. There have been times recently where I've felt it... I'm just an inch or so away from feeling just like I used to, and it feels amazing.

Of course, I've been feeling really good for the past few days that I've been writing on here, so I might not have such an uplifting tone once I start writing on here while I'm depressed, but that'll all pass (it's one of the things about the therapies I'm doing... the therapy makes you feel FAR worse for a few days, then you come out the other side feeling better than you felt before the therapy).

Crap, I've gone and written way too much on here again. My apologies.

thnx for your post, and please don't appologies for the lenghtness of your post PCS McGee! :) i found it very interesting and I have very similar thoughts as you, it also helps me to feel like i'm not the only one with this crappy PCS! What kind of treatments have you done?

before the accident i had 10000 wishes, now i only have 1...

I like that 10,000 wishes quote... I might save that one. Well put.

Let's see, over the course of my run with this stuff I've done chiropractic (didn't work), accupuncture (occasionally helped, but the effects seemed pretty temporary, though my accupuncturist was not all that good), some weird physical therapy called "matrix repatterning" (worked a little, but not much), somatic/gestalt therapy (helped a bit with anxiety, but not much else), anti-depressants (didn't help at all), hypnotism (caused me to have a complete breakdown the first time I did it, but now I'm doing it again and it's doing GREAT things), cranio-sacral therapy/bodywork (has done absolute wonders for me), and a kind of light therapy that my practitioner calls "fight or flight therapy" (basically ended my pronounced panic attacks, and I believe made the cranio-sacral therapy and hypnotism therapies far more effective than they would have been on their own).

There are a couple of other therapies that I am investigating right now in case the stuff I'm currently doing doesn't completely get rid of my ills... there's a new kind of brain wave therapy called Brain State Technologies that an old therapist of mine is using (he claims to be getting really positive results from car accident people, which is the group that most PCS people can be lumped in with as far as general traumatized people go). Also, my light therapy guy recommended something called Eyelights, which are these glasses that you wear for half an hour a day or something that flash lights in front of your eyes and have the end effect of exercising your brain. That same light therapy guy is also treating people with this new kind of supplement therapy, that apparently is the first attempt by medical science to treat people's problems using the principles of quantum physics... it sounds really interesting, but I don't think I'll try that one unless I've got nowhere else to go.

All that said though, I'm really close to being completely back online, I can feel it, and I seem to be getting better each and every week, so I think at some point I'll go in for therapy and realize afterwards that there's just nothing left to be fixed. That's gonna be a good day.

Applesap, I'm not sure that I've heard the story of what caused your brain injury in the first place... if you're comfortable talking about it I'd be interested to know what happened.

Thank you to everyone for sharing their experience. I think it really helps others to know that they are not alone in feeling this way especially as it looks like there is no simple cure to PCS.

My symptoms are the typical ones experienced by others with PCS:

Extreme fatigue on some days where I struggle to do anything other than lie down.
Poor concentration and memory
Depression (it seems to happen randomly, though I am not suicidal)
Headache at the top of my head
Vivid dreaming every night (but not nightmares)
I've also experienced head pressure at the back of my head but only once.

I have good days and bad days. I have continued to work but some days it is a struggle to concentrate on what I am doing and feel very tired. I feel as though I am not performing at my best and could be doing much better. I am hoping that my PCS symptoms will go away soon and that my life will be back to normal again. I will be so happy when that day comes...I don't want to give up but I am anxious that this will not happen.

I've been keeping track of how I have been feeling over the last few months to see if I am getting better. It looked like I was slowly getting better but then things took a step backwards when I tried exercising again (I was originally injured doing sports) and now it feels like I am starting the recovery process all over again! :(

Yes, great quote. It really sums up how I am feeling.

also thank you Mint & PCS McGee for your posts! i find it very helpfull to meet other PCS people, it really changed my mood in the last couple of days, and i'm more possitive then before!

@ PCS McGee, is the Brain State Technologies a sort of Neurofeedback therapy? as you know by my previous thread i'm very interested in this kind of therapy! If my prism glasses & chiropractic won't work i'm thinking serious of doing the neurofeedback thing... yesterday i had one cranio sacral session, it was relaxing, but didn't do that much for my dizziness etc... Did you have quick results with the cranio-sacral therapy?

the story about how it happened is really like a stupid home accident, 6 months ago i hit my head against a thick massive construction pole with a big point, ( i don't know the correct english word of these things, they are the wooden pieces sticking out in the wooden frames of old 18th century houses in a attic seeling) it went straight into the back of my head. I was sitting squatted and someone called me so i stood up really fast... and BANG!! After this i got really dizzy and felt sick, had the feeling of trowing up, i didn't passed out. So i went straight to bed, hoping it will go away in the morning, but it didn't. So the next morning i thought, maybe if i'll rest till after the weekend it will be ok! I called my doctor, and he said:' oo don't worry, it's just a light concussion, don't panic, just relax for a couple of days and you will be ok!'

unfortunally this was not the case, the first 6 to 8 weeks i had really troubles with watching TV or sitting behind my computer. Then for a while it went quitte ok, i felt no extreme dizziness and my mood was almost as normal as before the accident. So i thought let's go for a swim in the pool, but that wasn't a good idea. The pressure of the water made me feel worse, and the symptom came immidiatly back and since the swimming thing, i bassicly have no improvements at all...

@ Mint, don't you have the continuous dizziness? and do you feel lightheaded of more vertigo?

I'm not sure what Brain State Technologies would be classified as... you can check out their website (www.brainstatetechnologies.com) if you want to, that will probably have more information than I could provide. From what I've heard though, a BST machine basically runs all of these diagnostic tests on your brain, and maps out the way that each section of it is operating on a brain wave level (I don't know how this is done, but apparently it's pretty accurate). The machine then provides a counter balance to your brain waves to bring them to where they're supposed to be (there's a certain frequency and wavelength that brain waves operate on when a person is in a state of good mental health).

This probably doesn't make any sense... but to over simplify things, imagine that the left hemisphere of your brain is supposed to be producing brain waves that would register as a 5 by this BST machine, but instead it's producing brain waves that register as an 8. The machine then produces a counter balance of waves at a 2 level, which eventually pull your 8 back down to a 5, where it's supposed to be.

I don't know if this is anything like neurofeedback, as I've never tried that stuff out or heard anything about it, but you can be the judge of that.

As far as craniosacral stuff goes, it was obvious to me after my first appointment that the work was doing something positive, though I didn't start to get the really profound effects until a few appointments later. I kept waking up in the middle of the night (this was not at all rare for me at this time) and it was like my body had a craving for more of the therapy (sort of like when you wake up and you really want a glass of orange juice or something, except I was craving this therapy). So that's when I knew it was working for me. Nothing works for everyone of course, especially when it comes down to matters of the brain, so it might not be the answer for you (it hasn't been the entire answer for me, just a very very large chunk of it), I just highly recommend it from personal experience.

Thanks for sharing your story, by the way. It's good to know that someone else's story is as random as mine.

@applesap

A similar thing happened to me. I was starting to feel better, enough to try to do some exercise since I hadn't done anything for a long time but it turned out to be a bad idea and as soon as I got tired my head started to hurt again and the symptoms all came back. I'm going to take it easy now until I am very sure that I am better.

I was dizzy the first 10 days after I hit my head but then I haven't been dizzy much since, maybe only slightly when I am very tired. I haven't felt vertigo or lightheaded. My main problems are the tiredness (but difficulty falling asleep) and poor concentration. I am very forgetful and it is hard doing things in front of the computer. Do you experience these problems too?

My symptoms
 

I am into my fourth month since I was whacked in the head. I have been back to work for about 15 hours a week (some less, no more that 20 in the 5 weeks I have been working again)

Fatigue (staying awake for days getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night)

Waking Hangovers - When I do sleep and wake up I feel like I have a really bad hangover that lasts from an hour to a few hours in the mornings

Vertigo- Mainly in open spaces, driving, and quite noticable when walking

Nausea

Flashes of Temper- which I have termed as Red Rage from very minor incidences

Ear Pain

Vision problems- periphrial seems to be the main problem as I can not always tell where things are and feel lost in space at times

Migraines - funny enough I have had them so consitently, I really only notice when I DONT have one

Balance Problems

Word recall- for some reason this affects me mainly when I am typing. I will type random words and only realize it makes no sense when I go back and reread

Random forgetfullness of what I am doing, or rather what I intended to do lol

Concentration - Most of the time I can focus just fine on things, but I do seem to have a higher tendency to be flighty on bad days

Concussion girl:

If I remember correctly, you sustained your brain injury at a bar, right? If so, and if you don't mind my asking, were you drunk at the time this happened? (may seem like a stupid question, but I don't know if this incident happened at 9pm or 3am).

I ask because my concussion happened when I was drunk (drunk as hell actually, it was my 21st birthday), and since then whenever I go out with my friends I wake up the next morning with these horrible hangovers, despite the fact that I haven't had a drink in years. I thought I was the only person on the face of the earth dealing with this phenomenon of hangovers without alcohol... eesh, now I kind of feel like we're a pair from some sort of noah's ark of horrible brain problems.

Regardless, it took me 2 years to realize this, but this was occurring for me because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which, depending on which brain scientists you listen to, is the reason that my concussion hasn't completely healed in the first place. Now, your situation seems a little different since it's just happening every time you get sleep, but PTSD therapy (talk therapy, EMDR, whatever you feel inclined to do) might be something worth looking into.

Response
 

No I wasn't drunk at all, in fact I had only been in the bar 10 minutes before I got hit in the head. I had had one beer a couple hours earlier in the night however. I am only guessing that the meds I am on leave me with that hangover feeling, or possibly because I don't sleep very often maybe it is a reaction from that?

I was never a big bar person before, so these days you could not pay me enough to go. Maybe in time that will change

Odd thought
 

A friend of mine was knocked unconscious for about 20 minutes when he was drunk at a bar and oddly enough he is perfectly fine. He had a concussion too but hasn't seen any side effects after the first couple of days. I guess this is all part of the mystery of the brain. :)

not to mention the radically unfair nature of life...

i've been away for couple of weeks, so sorry for my late reaction... Thanx for all youre post, i really is nice to read all your story's!

The last few weeks i felt really good, i though i've got the PCS more under control, there were days that i didn't think about the PCS at all, i had a great time, went to dinner party's, dilivered some good work, met some friends etc...but... last saturday when i was driving all the symptoms were instantly back!

i had this kind of 'downfalls' before, and i really hope this is a small one, life felt really good the last couple of weeks! :) I'm more positive, and i think being positive is a way to make the PCS more suitable..

Does anyone also has this kind of downfalls?

And to PCS McGee, how are you feeling?

Yes the downfalls come with the uptimes. So enjoy the good and just go
with the flow.

It just takes time.

Donna

I appreciate your asking, applesap...

It's been a rough past couple of weeks for me, but I'm holding on to the hope that I'll come barreling out of this bad space like I've done so many times in the past. It's just hard, and my patience is wearing thin (of course, I don't fault myself for this, 4+ years is a long time to be sick). The advent of these social networking sites like myspace and facebook have allowed me to keep tabs on all of the friends that I had before this happened, and it's just exceedingly difficult to see everyone I was going to college with buying nice cars, getting married and/or dating loose women, going out 3 nights a week, and all the rest while I've basically been on house arrest for years now unable to do anything. And you know, a few of these guys I knew had 5, 10, 15 concussions during their lives, some of them serious, and they're all doing just fine now. I only had one minor concussion, and if god's ever going to give me a second chance, he's certainly taking his sweet *** time getting around to it. I just recently saw an old friend of mine who was hit by a drunk driver a little less than a month before I had my concussion, which left him in a coma for 2 months, and he's doing a whole hell of a lot better than I am at this point. I mean... this whole thing, it goes well beyond life being unfair. This condition is just downright cruel. If I don't get out of this I'm going to request to be buried with a baseball bat so I'll have something to hit god in the shins with.

Certainly my tone has soured a bit since I was last writing on here a lot, but at that time I was having a lot of really great changes happening, so I was very excited about the fact that I could feel this whole mess coming to a close. Unfortunately, it seems as though the therapies that had been working for me have plateaued, leaving me far better off than I was before I had those therapies, but still in a place that even the most staunch optimist would deem unacceptable. I'm researching new therapies now, so maybe someday soon I'll find something that will work for me again, but until then I'm probably going to be a few shades short of pure sunshine.

I think my situation is a little bit different than most of the folks on here in the first place, though I wouldn't venture to say whether it's at all better or worse. For all intents and purposes, my brain is functioning an awful lot like it used to before my fall, but I have all of this chronic pain in my head that just drives me absolutely nuts. It's not a common thing with PCS, but I also have PTSD from my fall, which has left a trail of pain through my body that just will not go away. That's why at this point I'm directing most of my therapy-related attention (with the exception of craniosacral work) to my psyche instead of my brain. I'm still holding out hope that if I can get that PTSD resolved, the whole trauma will just slide off like a bathrobe in a poorly produced porno. If that never happens though, I really don't know what I'm going to do. I won't get into the impact the PTSD has had on my life, as this note is depressing enough as is.

So yeah, to succinctly answer your question (though that's kind of a lost cause at this point) I'm basically just where I've always been for the past 6 months or so: I've been a lot worse, but I've been a lot better.

PCS symptoms, what kind of symptoms and feelings do you have
 

Hi, I'm glad to read that some of you are getting better. It's been three month since my accident and I also have good days and bad days. Today seems a little better and my head doesn't really hurt, but I still feel lightheaded. I still find it hard to drive my car and using the computer or doing other work that requires concentration for any lengths of time. Some of my symtoms are much better, like I don't get nauseated any more and I can taste food again. I was on anti-anxiety medication for a short time and that really helped me get back to a normal sleep pattern.

Like Applesap and Mint, I also got a lot worse after trying to get back to exercise. It happened about a week and a half after my crash and my doctor thought it would be good for my legs to go on an easy bike ride (I had a lot of bruises on my lower legs.) The ride went well, but the next day I started to feel worse and went back to the ER the following day thinking my head was going to explode.

Like Applesap, I'm also from Europe, but have been in the US for over twenty years. I'm wondering if anybody has any suggestions on what to take for the tension headaches. Mine seem to start from the back of my head and I'm still taking Fioricet (Butalbital/Tylenol/Caffeine) every day and sometimes they don't seem to work at all. Is there anything that can help with the lightheadedness? Like some of you, morning are usually the worst and it takes me hours before I can get going, also I don't feel fatigue. I'm going back to my doctor on Monday.

One more question, does anybody have any experience with Elavil (Amytriptyline)? A nurse friend told me it might help with headaches.

Sorry to be asking all these questions, just desperate to get back to normal again.

Head & other pain
 

Headaches have been a Big problem for me. Immmediately after the head injury accident ( I was struck in head when wheelchair lift on van malfunctioned) the worst pain was trauma area-top left side of head. but soon developed "other" headaches. Pain is constant, but vary in severity; mostly back of head, that goes into neck/cervical spine but at times will radiate up thruout head to temporal area and become what I've known as migraines.
Neurologist feels are complex migraines and wanted to treat w/ Botox (while waiting to see if insurance would approve, have been researching botox; seems could be beneficial but expensive) I've also had some strange episodes that manifested as stroke w/ paralysis, speech problems & more. DX: Hemiplegic migraine, a rare type of complex migraine.

The "other" headaches continue--one DR. thought were resulting from cervical spine injury from accident. Recommmeded going to neuro-surgeon & treat w/ pain meds . Prescribed Toradol -prn

another DR (rehab/physiatrist) prescribed anti-convulsant meds used to prevent headaches. Tried topamax (which I used years ago & did help migraines then) but I couldn't tolerate it this time. He also tried some other meds (for neuropathic pain) but many side f/x. Seems I've developed many sensitivies since TBi

I went to new pain mgt DR; she validated PCS Dx & agreed there are problems w/ cervical spine but focused treatment on spasms. Prescribed combo of Fiorecet ( which I had but was taking PRN-not daily-when headaches worsened. DR said take it 3 times day) also Soma, & Ativan. I had muscle relaxants which I'd taken PRN but again DR said must take regularly. At f/u appt last week Fiorect was d/c since it didn't seem to be helping & also stopped Ativan. said continue Soma & added Valium.

I still have headaches, and fall asleep if sit down. But can't sleep when I go to bed. at nite I'm having more spasms, and also neuropathic pain esp. Burning.

I do have neuro issues & chronic pain disorders. those problems began after accident when I was hit by car 12 yrs ago (TBi & other injurys)... but since last injury 8 mths ago --worse. Pre-existing problems exacerbated & new ones emerged.

the first few months after last accident were very difficult. I was so dysfunctional, cognitive & perceptual problems, emotionally volitile & more. then went thru a period of improvement. then problems came back. It's been up & down since ...... presently in a "down"....

Have appt. w/ neuro this week, will see what he thinks... I'm also looking into some more "alternative" non drug treatmts, like Syntonics.

2 months and a week since concussion. Unfortunately, I did not take care of myself the first week and am I ever paying for it. Current symptoms include (others have gone away fore the time being)...

1. wierd Headaches/feeling on one side of head
2. major concentration problems
3. unbearable fatigue
4. memory is not great
5. feel dull
6. anxiety

I am a law student in my last semester of law school. I have to postpone graduation, which really sucks. I am sure there are other cognitive disturbances that I can't put my finger on and describe. I will let you all know what they are as I attempt to finish my degree.

PCSVICTIM

Have you been to a neurologist about the headaches.

If not please go see one. It might be that you also need a MRI.

I am hoping things slow down with the cognitive issues, and the fatigue.

IT sometimes helps if you can take it one day at a time, and really
try to rest when you need to.

I"m just past the one year and one month point of my PCS. And
I can say that I'm starting to have a better year. Its because I've
been in PT for my central Abnormalities that have been with me
for life though. I am glad that the things that I've been dealing with
that helped lead to my concussion and pcs lead me to seek help
with my other issues. So that hopefully I wont have anymore of
those issues too.

ITs really strange to know that there is a reason for my balance and
vertigo problems.

Donna

Thanks Donna for the encouragement. I do need to rest and take it one day at a time.

Yes, I have been to a neurologist and had an MRI. The neurologist said the headaches weren't life threatening b/c my MRI was normal. I am going to get a second opinion from a neurosurgeon that is a friend of the family. I am also going to see a neuropsychiatrist to see if I can take anything for my attention problems.

You also need to see a different neuro. One that specializes in headaches
would be preferred. The one you saw was a idiot.

Tell him, if you ever see him/her again, that if it weren't for the fact it
hurt and was hard to live with you wouldn't have came to spend the money
or been there.

Idiot is too nice a word.

Donna

Also Post-Concussion
 

Hi, thanks all of you for sharing your stories. I received a strong blow in the head a little over a month ago, got what I now see is called a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury considering my symptoms (I never lost consciousness and there was no bone fracture). A post fell in my head at a dinner party, a sharp wind came suddenly and lifted the canvas the post was holding up and it fell right on the back of my head, just about an inch from the center of my head (the Dr said I was very lucky). It was very sudden and totally unexpected. I don't drink alcohol so that wasn't a factor. The doctors were not very helpful in letting me know what to expect, and I've been having all sorts of symptoms. Today it is a light-headed feeling with also strong pressure in the right side of my head (the side of the blow), sometimes the pressure is in all of my head and it gets worse if I lay down. I also get that hang-over feeling every morning, that makes it difficult to get out of bed, sometimes I wish I could just stay there all day. In my bad days, I get some ringing in my ears, and I find it hard to concentrate, but not impossible, and some things are hard to remember at some moments. Other days, I feel almost ok except in the mornings. Also some days my eyelids get all bloated, others get that symptom too? At the emotional level, I get some anxiety and sad feelings, and a strong urge to make radical changes in my life. I was told the symptoms could last for a few months or up to a year, but I seen in some of your histories that some of you have had symptoms for years now, which is a bit discouraging. Anyway, thanks for your attention.

My best advice to you is to rest, don't drink any caffine, surround yourself with love ones who *try* to understrand and will take care of you, eat right, and take your vitamins. I also had a head injury where I did not pass out(Ialso did not have a problem remembering the event). I must have exacerbated it the first week the doctors have said...so here I am, I am still having problems two months later. The good news is that I was a lot worse a month ago. By the way, your headaches sound similar to mine except mine are on the left side. Go see a neurologist as soon as possible if u haven't already.