Post Concussion Syndrome for 11 months
 

Hi!
My name is Emily and got my second concussion almost a year ago on april 2016. Since then, I have been struggling with post-concussion syndrome. I am 20 years old and am not at school right now given that doing any type of reading or looking at screens for more than 10 minutes is very difficult. I had a lot of symptoms in the beginning but now I only have a couple. urgently, I have bad neck pain, headaches, and eye fatigue/pressure behind my eyes. I am not working and have bad anxiety. I also start to get increased headaches and neck pain when I go on walks or do any sort of physical activity. I got an MRI of my head and it was clear but not of my neck. I had bad anxiety before but now all of this has made it worse.
i have tried many things to help my symptoms from massages, chiropractors, acupuncture, acupressure, biofeedback, and vision therapy. Some of these gave me slight relief but nothing has held. I would love to be able to return to school and working out since i miss being with my friends and living a normal life.
Does anyone have any advice for things they found helpful or doctors that they found helpful? I think my neck tightness and pain is causing some of my headaches but the big problem I am still struggling with right now is my eyes.
I live in Vermont so my resources are limited but my family and i are all up for traveling to different states. Any advice would be so helpful! Thanks!!

Hi Emily,

I also had Post concussion syndrome after being in a auto accident. I had a lot of head and neck pain and I ended up seeing a neurologist along with a physical therapist. The neuro did tests on me and found that my brain was swollen which was causing the headaches and neck pain this lasted for about a yr. or a little longer. I also went to physical therapy and they sent me to Pain Management Control and these Drs. did a lot of different tests and excerises
which in turn helped me a lot. If you are having trouble with your eye sight while on the computer you may be photosensitive now which means certain colors or the brightness on your screen is causing problems. My advice to you is to have your family Dr. refer you to see a neurologist who can help you out. I wish you the best of luck and May God Bless You!

Sue

Dr. Nemechek
 

I have a friend who just gave me this doctor's name in Buckeye, AZ. She is taking her mom there soon. I don't know anything about him, and it seems very expensive, but you might look him up and see if he could help.

Good luck and God bless!

Don't be discouraged
 

Hi Emily. We can all feel you. I myself experienced my concussion in January of 2016. I am much better now - the last frontier for me being loud sounds/music. That is getting better slowly.
Things that helped me:
- physical therapy from a concussion specialist who helped with my neck and eyes/reading issues - this was a huge help
- in the beginning, meditation helped somewhat
- I have sleep apnea and using the sleep apnea machine provided needed oxygen to brain at night and that helped.
- I recently went on a high fat diet (eat fat, get thin book) which involved saturated fats. I noticed an improvement. Now my excuse for eating cheese!

The neurologist was not much help. Just wanted to give me drugs which I didn't want. Theory being that the anti-depressants restart your brain after six months. Some people say that helps.

The only help that I know of for sound is time. And good earplugs.

Also take a lot of B12 and magnesium. Can't really say if they are helping but I'm doing it. There is a lot of information on this site regarding natural remedies.

One thing all the docs say - as you probably know - is that everyone improves at their own pace. Best to learn how to cope and adopt a positive mental attitude. For example, when I couldn't read or watch tv, I started listening to audio books and that was really a pleasant experience.

:welcome_sign: welcome to NeuroTalk Emilie! :Wave-Hello: We have a great forum with folks who are willing to help, post concussion https://www.neurotalk.org/forum92/. Take care and hope things work out for you!:circlelove:

help
 

I received trigger point injections which relieved me after 5 months of concussion
brainy