[gershonb]

Well, I went to see the neurologist, after they discovered only one artery supplying my brain on the right side. Amazing what will get you in--long history of concussions in the past will get shrugs from most folks, but an out and out warranty issue is something else.....

The last time I had asked a neurologist about the concussions was in 1986 when I suddenly lost my balance (with no dizziness) and took out a fish tank with my elbow. He shrugged off the concussions but said I had bad blood pressure.

THIS time, I wrote up the concussion history in detail, along with all symptoms, etc. The guy glanced at all this, and said "so you've been having headaches?" I went into my "Extremely Scientifically Literate" mode with him, because some of these types will not take you seriously unless you can speak their language. So I did, noting with some irritation that he hadn't glanced at my concussion history, or did so very quickly, or did so at his leisure while I had a seizure, or something. Basically, he said that being born with a missing artery is obviously no big deal, since I am alive and "working." I mentioned that I had been laid off, but he said that "since this wasn't your fault, there's no issue."

Basically, you have to present yourself as clinically knowledegable and able to indulge in "doctorspeak." Since I have a history as a clinician working with doctors, this wasn't as hard as it could be. Basically, I told the guy that I'm concerned about the brain fog that has been settling in for the last 18 or so years and that now I pretty much can't function without ritalin. He scheduled me for an MRA to see where the blood supply to my brain went, and for an extended sleep latency study, because I have central apnea and hadn't had one of these in 9 years.

Then I pressed him for a neuropsych evaluation, and he was rather distant about that, providing me with a lecture about the different tests involved (which I knew, having administered some of these myself) and saying that all they might learn is that I would probably have to take ritalin for the rest of my life. I finally got the neuropsych by telling him that I am terrified of Alzheimer's. That got his attention. He said "Well, Alzheimers' is something to be terrified of, indeed." People with a heavy concussion history like mine supposedly are more susceptible to this, which I don't find comforting.

So now, I'm set up for the MRA on monday, and then the sleep study and the neuropsych study. Meanwhile, nobody has a clear picture of my endocrine system. I keep getting attacks of the violent sweats, and I feel like I'm about to menstruate, which is a tricky thing to do as a guy.

Also: these DAMN migraines! Folks in the forum talk about headaches a lot. I don't know if they are migraines or just headaches. I had relatives for whom migraines were some excuse to bore everyone with dramatics at family gatherings--so I never paid the flashing lights any mind. As migraines go, they aren't severe--3's and 4's. But they come day after day, and afterward there is little brain left. Maxalt usually helps.

Meanwhile, I really can't bear to watch all these corporate shills in Congress "debating" health care reform, so eager are they to preserve the All-American vision of patients as profit centers. We've all become......Ferengi!

.....one of my crabbier days.....

gershonb

[Dmom3005]

What a report you got. I hope you get more information out of the neuropsychologist report. And the other reports.

Not sure what else to say.

Donna

[Mark in Idaho]

Sometimes, the 'medical speak' works against you. The doctors decide you are a cyber-condriac. You learned about this stuff on the internet and they learned it in medical school. They trump you. Been there, done that, been dissed by the doctors.

I am concerned that you are still taking the Ritalin. Stimulants can be counter productive to brain healing or function for the brain injured. Do you have access to a neuro-psychologist? It might be a good place to get advice about the Ritalin. Maybe the neuro-psychologist can refer you.

Some doctors are concerned that Ritalin can make brain injuries worse. Check out Peter Breggin at www.breggin.com

The Ritalin studies were predominately with comatose patients with a GCS of 12 or much less and hospitalized after regaining consciousness. It appears to be focused at getting the patient out of the hospital faster. It does not show any greater level of recovery.

Talked about having a menstrual period. I though I was giving birth earlier. Turned out it was just impacted bowels. Sometimes, my brain forgets to tell the peristaltic muscles in my bowels to work.

I used to have the severe sweats, only mine tended to be only on the left side of my body. The right half of my body would be bone dry and the left side would be dripping. I think it was connected to a problem I have in my high cervical area/brain stem. I get inflammation at C-1/ left occipital condyle that coincides with these problems

Sometimes, I stop breathing, whether asleep or awake. Good ol' central sleep apnea. It is what nightmares are made of.

[concussionkate]

"Also: these DAMN migraines! Folks in the forum talk about headaches a lot. I don't know if they are migraines or just headaches. I had relatives for whom migraines were some excuse to bore everyone with dramatics at family gatherings--so I never paid the flashing lights any mind. As migraines go, they aren't severe--3's and 4's. But they come day after day, and afterward there is little brain left. Maxalt usually helps."

It's funny you should bring this up. When I was in the hospital recently, they were asking me if I had a headache, and I just laughed and answered that I always have a headache. They found this appalling, but I guess I've just gotten used to shrugging it off.

I wake up every morning with a regular headache at about a 6, as the day goes on, the more I do, the worse it gets. Sometimes just having too many people in the room is not good. Extra stimulation worsens my headache, and if it gets to be too much, it turns into a migraine.

I take Treximet when I get the migraines, but take nothing for the headaches I have every day. I don't take anything, because the effectiveness would wear if I took something every day.

I end up with a migraine 1-2 times a week now, from limiting my activities. When I first started on this road, it was almost every day.

Good luck!

[gershonb]

Dear MarkinIdaho

Well, I would be concerned about the ritalin preventing "healing" if I was just coming out of the hospital too. My concussions (all 6 of them that I remember) were before age 16. Back then, even if you were hospitalized with a subdural hematoma after getting hit by a car (which I was), they discharge you as "fine" if you don't fall over.

The Ritalin thing happened because at one time I was zoning out all day, and the sleep doc in Fargo said that multiple concussions lead to these episodes and that provigil (prescribed for narcolepsy) helps, as well as helping with late-onset sleep disorder. It kind of helped. Took it on and off.

Then, a couple of years ago, during my Survival stint in a deadening job in a store, my brain started gumming up, and then I just slumped over asleep a couple of times in front of the computer. This was not amusing to the crazy young Goth thing who was my "supervisor" and I was sent to the doctor. I asked for provigil, and he said it wasn't in the formulary, and that Ritalin does the same thing. So I took some, and had this experience of "wow, this must be how normal people get things done." I mean, I've been fighting this crap all my life, basically, after fracturing my skull at 11 months old.

Ritalin is a bumpy ride, but if I have to function, I take it. I'm supporting a disabled wife, so right now I'm playing life without a net underneath.

When I talk to doctors, I make a point of not quoting the Internet, but instead refer to my years as a clinician. Other than grabbing one of his cojones and having him promise not to mess with me, I'm not sure what else to do. I try to find someone that is actually interested in doing science--which is rare.

You said that your whole life changed when you stepped of a curb while carrying a load and ended up on your back and hitting your head! Geez, amazing how little it takes...

missing the North Country

gershonb

[gershonb]

Hi ConcussionKate

They were appalled that you always had a headache... did they try to address this? My internist said that more than 1 migraine a month was too much and put me on some kind of preventive migraine stuff that costs as much per unit of weight as gold. I take so many pills already, and they didn't work.

The one thing that does interrupt the migraines, when they start coming hard and every day, is a trip to the chiropractor. Being hit by the car also messed up my back and neck, and a *good* chiropractor will do wonders. A bad one will try to sell snake oil and tell you that everything on earth is related to what he is being paid to "fix." Also, an MD many years ago prescribed a home traction device that helps with tension and some migraine stuff. When my son was 2 (he's now 30) he saw me using it and called it "the beard holder."

Having someone rub Therapeutic Mineral Ice (the blue stuff that my family called "smurf boogers"--we had a lot to cope with and did it through humor) also helps. Usually there are spasms in the trapezius muscle on either side that respond to this.

I'm looking for someone to discover, like they did in some old movies, that if you get hit in the head *again* the problems and pain will go away....

thanks for caring

gershonb

[Hockey]

Hey gershonb, I'm sorry your neurologist is such a jerk. Unfortunately, that seems to be a pre-condition for entering the speciality.

The headaches, the headaches... Mine are 24/7. They never go away - but they sure as heck can get worse. If I didn't have a small child, I would have smothered myself in honey, gone into the woods and waited for the bears.

My injury came in a car accident, too. So I have headache from neck damage and headache from the TBI. The neck headache occurs at the back and top/front of my head. My PT can tone it down with accupuncture, ice, etc... The TBI headache comes at the sides of my head. Nothing my dear PT does seems to make any difference.

My jack%#s neurologist says there is nothing that can help the TBI headache, so that's what he does for me - nothing. He figures it can't be that bad because I'm on my feet! He thinks I'm some whiner. My God, I breezed through natural childbirth: I can handle pain.

That SOB has no idea what a mother will endure for her child. I have to keep going, even though I'm in such agony that I vomit every day. When nobody's around, I curl up in a ball with my head in my hands wishing I could die.

By the way guys, don't tell a doctor you're having menstratral pain. That will only give them an excuse to blame all your symptoms on menopause.

[Mark in Idaho]

gershonb quoted
<You said that your whole life changed when you stepped of a curb while carrying a load and ended up on your back and hitting your head! Geez, amazing how little it takes...>

I did not fall. I just landed with my knee straight and locked and jarred my body from my left hip/pelvis to my head. An amazingly minor impact. Maybe about 65 G's at most by my calculations.

After my severe concussion in 4th grade. I spent a lot of time in elementary school zoning out. Teacher thought I was daydreaming. Maybe, I was extremely bored. But now, after having experienced more zone outs, I believe they were absence seizures.

Now, I have two kinds of absence seizures. In one, I find myself reading or looking at the same thing, over and over. In the other, I realize that a block of time has passed and I have no idea what went on. If I get stuck staring, my wife says I have a very stern look on my face.

In high school, I was put on Dilantin (phenytoin) and later phenobarbital. My brain settled down but the seizures came back in college. I had an especially hard time with memory freeze. In any stressful situation, I would lock up and lose my ability to recall information.

Now, the brain freeze up is a routine event. I can get stuck trying to recall the simplest thing, a good friends name, a simple word, etc. I can picture what I am trying to recall but the word to fit it does not make it to my mouth. Very frustrating.

All from a bad step off the curb.

[gershonb]

Hi markinidaho

Those curbs....I'm convinced that several states have had their gravity turned up....:-)