Heading to the hospital or facing it at home
 

Hello there,

I am caught in a situation, where I can see very little hope.

I suffer from Post-Concussion and PTSD. Also I lost my father 2016, and still feel a lot of rage and sadness about it. The PTSD is from an older trauma, 2006 and has been propelled out of control by a concussion in March 2017. I have priorly experienced concussions and recovered within 3-6 month without worsening in the PTSD. This time I have descended into some sort of dark age of epic proportions, my mind is circulating and pulling out all this old garbage. It is distorted and the flashes just appear. I am also not able to stay with my bodily sensations and start to panic particularly when alone.

I am completely depend on others, can't sleep alone. Now my girlfriend left me, and my mother had a breakdown after taking care of me. I have survived on yoga, chi qong, healthy foods and support from friends but it has been exhausted. I now have to find a way to either live alone or get hospitalized. Or I have to very quickly find a roommate interested in caring for a sick person.

I am currently not taking any meds, I have tried various anxiolytics, Tryptophan and Lactium and have reacted very poorly, (like I am flying out of my mind) The meds also seems like they get stuck in my neck, probably where the injury is, they create a feeling so displeasing that I feel like actually pulling the meds out of my neck with my hands.

Now I facing some kind of crazy decision between potentially very unpleasant scenarios:

1. Stay alone, face my demons, without meds. I migh get some support during the day, maybe I can rent out a room and be supported a bit at night.

2. Take the meds, (but which?? morphine, valium, Beta blocker, Alprazolam, Seroquel are at my disposal), stay home and see how it goes.

3. I get hospitalized and leave it to others to make the decisions. They will probably have to sedate me completely in order to get around my fight and flight response. in this case I get a diagnosis and maybe some rest, in the worst case the fill me up with medicine that will leave me even worse off.

Things to consider are: recovery, where and how do I recover after I have been hospitalized? How much damage can the meds do?
Is there something valuable in trying to live through this without meds, or is it just self torture.
Should I ago for the neuro or the psychiatric department?
If I stay home how do I get treatment my conditions has made it difficult to get to appointments, I have tried acupuncture, chiropractic and craniosacral work with little improvement?

Wow that was a lot. Let me know your thoughts.

Hit my head against a door, March 2017
Symptoms: nausea, tinnitus, pressure in the head, anxiety, trauma, aggression, agitation, distorted thinking, unable to focus, crying spells, unbearable sense of pain.

I think you need to seek care from a combination of psych, neuro and possibly expert PT since you feel a neck injury might be part of the problem.. .
Perhaps the psych first, to treat the PTSD grief and other factors, then see if some of the other symptoms reduce.
Hopefully they will all work together for your best results..
Maybe a teaching hospital will have all of those available for you..if one is near you.

A stent in a facility to get your meds adjusted sounds appropriate. If you could get yourself to the PNP Center in TX that would be the best. Contact them and see if you can get assistance. Also, if you could find someone who is WELL VERSED in EMDR, that might help for your PTSD. I am a firm believer that stress is the root of all our illness so keep up the yoga! So sad to hear of your situation & sending healthy positive vibes!:hug:

Hello Copenhagen Concus,

After reading your post it reminded me a whole lot of an article I read a few years ago that I believe will help you get on the right track. It is about a father who hit his head in a bad car accident and dealt with similar symptoms as you for 13 months. After visiting several different specialists with minimal improvement he found the help he needed and got back to normal.

Here is the article about his PCS recovery story:

How I Recovered from Post Concussion Syndrome Blog: My PCS Recovery Story

I understand finding the correct help for treating a concussion, even if it has been a year or so after it occurred, can be very hard. So when I read this article a few years ago and was going through PCS myself I traveled out to this UPMC Pittsburgh Sports Medicine Clinic and met Dr. Collins myself. He also put me on a recovery program and I went back to my normal self.

Now I understand not everyone can afford to fly or drive out to Pittsburgh, so it might be worth looking into medical facility where you can take the ImPACT Test.

You can look up local facilities offering the ImPACT test here:
Find a Concussion Care Provider | ImPACT Applications Inc.

I wish you the best of luck and a healthy recovery :)

update
 

thanks for the replies, get out and doing normal stuffe is the most important. so I ended in hospital, unfortuntaely littles trained in concussions, got through a whole regiment of drugs, xanax, quetiapine, pregabaline. It is powerful stuff for a concussed mind, but at least some of it gets me through the day. A lot has been said about xanax, addictive and bed for the brain, thing is when you can't get oiut the door and excercise not even go shopping that is bad for the brain as well. Now home trying to figure out whats next considering Cannabis and back to the regiment of ginger, curmeic, B stress and magnesium, most importantly triggerpoint massage a couple of hours a day. Also considering Theanine, trytophan..Finally thanks for the replies, get out and doing normal stuff is the most important, brain needs to understand there is nothing dangerous it is not damaged just out of balance, needs calming and correcting.

I suggest that you use the "Interactions Checker" of this site to search for reported negative interactions between these and any other drugs you may be considering.

Drugs.com | Prescription Drug Information, Interactions & Side Effects

Your bedrock is sleep. You won't make progress without sleep as the foundation. You also need to work hard on getting a good support group around you. You've got a lot of meds going on. Find a lead practitioner, preferably a concussion clinic to manage your medications. What we found with concussion is you can have 'too many cooks in the kitchen.' Best to find one you trust and stick with their advice and dosing, including supplements. You've got biological and emotional stuff going on, so find a good counselor too.

Hang in there.

I agree with rgthree about sleep being a great healer, the one main lingering symptom I have is insomnia and I feel it's slowed my recovery down a lot.

Have you been prescribed anti depressants? Many PCS sufferers (not all) respond well to SSRI's they can help the brain heal. Many PCS and PTSD symptoms are similar especially the anxiety based stuff, so regular cognitive therapy could be helpful.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences. My heart connects to your feelings, expressed and between the lines. Post-concussion syndrome is typical of ”syndromes” in that we each experience the downsides, the treatments, the recovery, and the relapses differently. Generalist providers for syndromes are not likely to steward our forests but might add a tree or remove a tree here and there. From that standpoint, generic neurologists or physicians may have limitations in helping us. Tending our own forests can really be challenging when our brains are involved. If I ever have resources for medical care again, I would seek out concussion specialty providers, medical physicians more so
than others, with strong track records. Please continue to share and heal.


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