Hey guys. It's me again. Just been trying to cope with PCS and checking the boards.

Sometimes trying to live a a relatively normal life with PCS can be a pain, sometimes it feels like there's going to be a long road ahead of me. Sometimes it feels like I have a lot on my plate and I can't comprehend the bigger picture.

But life is never too bad! Just celebrated Valentine's Day with my girlfriend, and I realize that there are people who still love me, and I'm lucky for that. Sometimes I think "Well, I lost my mind, but I found my heart."

Hmm, kinda pointless so far. Well, I got a question for you guys:

A lot of you have been dealing with PCS for a long time, I want to know that has there been times where you've woken up to realize you've gotten a little bit better?

Have there been times where you've done something, remembered something, that you wouldn't of if it was months or years ago?

Have you accomplished something great thanks to therapy?

Have you conquered any particular symptoms that plagued you?

Hey, Eddy! Just yesterday my 15 yr old daughter (6 1/2 months PCS) was working on some homework and said, "Oh...I get this now...duh" So I think that's a great improvement. And I'm seeing her quick wit and sarcasm coming back. She cares enough to be sarcastic, which I suppose is good. We aren't that far into it in comparison to lots of people, and she still has some headaches and concentration/memory issues, but I do see some improvements.

I love that you mentioned realizing that Valentine's Day with your gf was a great thing. I've seen new and beautiful friendships blossom for my daughter. Her old "friends" were mostly related to sports. They have sort of fallen away, but she's had a couple of new people, who I think will be life-long friends, step in. She and I are finding a few new, fun dimensions to our relationship. I would say she has also "lost her mind but found her heart" in some respects. Her own sense of compassion has grown immeasurably.

Mark mentioned to me some time ago to try to appreciate more simple things with her. At the time I was frustrated and it wasn't easy to take his advice. Now I'm seeing how right he was. If she wants to spend the afternoon building a ramp for her slinky, there's nothing wrong with it. In fact I've realized that kind of thing is allowing her brain to think in new and different ways than her pre-injury lifestyle would have allowed. She finds great fun in playing with our dog now, who she virtually ignored before.

So...short answer...no dramatic "I'm healed" moments. Just very, very slow and gradual improvements in all of her symptoms. We are insanely, giddily, over the top thankful for each and every one of those improvements. Right now my husband and I tell each other, almost daily, if she never gets any better than this she will still be able to live a full life. What else could we possibly ask for?

Many of the 'improvements' are due to us finally finding a new way to do something. When we have finally let go of the old self, we get an opportunity to experience the capabilities of the new self.

I have had many improvements in my condition. Most I believe are due to finding these new ways to do things. When I try to do things the old way, the symptoms/struggles pop up in an instant without an prior warning.

It is this 'change of ways' that enables the improvement to manifest.

Dr Schutz explains these brain injury moment fixes quite well. He suggests that they are part of a lifelong willingness to work with out struggles, not against them.

His book (available online for a free download at www.givebackorlando.comis a valuable resource.

I have just begun to start feeling a bit more normal over the last month. (This is over two years after a concussion.) I am really feeling pretty good about it at the moment. It is a real relief to have got this far.

It isn't that I got up in the morning and felt better than the day before. I don't notice anything different on that time scale, but if I go back to this time last year then there has been a huge improvement. A diary can help you to notice the changes. It is natural the focus on what is still wrong and wish that remaining symptoms would go away, but if I look back then I can see that there are a lot of things that have definitely improved a lot.

To mention one symptom in particular, I don't feel dizzy anymore! At least hardly at all. There was definitely something wrong in that department. I had a tendency to veer off to one side when I was trying to walk in a straight line, and I felt dizzy. It improved steadily for about 6 months but then I seemed to plateau. I didn't think that there was any improvement at all for more than a year. But now, I definitely notice that I don't notice it any more. That is the nearest thing that I have to waking up one morning and being better. I suppose I was concentrating on other symptoms and thinking that the dizziness wasn't changing at all. But it must have been because now I realize that the dizziness has almost gone.

All my other symptoms have gradually improved as well.

Mark -

I've been reading the book you suggested, and it seems it is more geared towards memory losses. i.e. how to train your brain to find alternate ways to remember things, writing things down etc. However, he does not touch on the emotional and visual problems associated with TBI. You can't simply train your brain to ignore piercing migranes or extreme fatigue. Can the brain repair these things on it's own? What did I miss in this manuscript?

Baseball,

Therapies like neurofeedback, vision therapy, vestibular therapy, etc. aim to improve functioning in the areas you listed, plus they restore cognitive functioning as well. There has even been research that demonstrated a 60-70% reduction in symptoms after undergoing these therapies. So, it seems that with the help of various therapies, the brain is able to repair these things on its own.

About how long after the injury should pass before considering these options? Should it be started immediately, or wait and if the symptoms don't heal on their own, then look into treatment?

The answer to this is debatable. Some doctors say wait 6 months to let the brain naturally heal itself within this time period. Others say right away to augment any healing that will take place. In my opinion, I would start right away.

There are two distinctly different kinds of symptoms that need addressing.

There are psychological symptoms and physiological symptoms.

Trying to mix the two can get confusing.

Vestibular and vision therapies are designed to treat the physiological issues that relate to the vestibular and visual systems. They are definitely worth checking out. A good therapist should be able to diagnose whether there are vestibular or vision symptoms that will respond to therapy. A neuro-ophthalmologist can be a good start for the visual symptoms. A hearing and balance center and/or ENT can be a good start for the vestibular symptoms.

The memory problems are difficult to treat. There are fixes that help with new ways of remembering things. These are described in Dr Schutz book.

Anger and emotional outburst issues are mostly physiological but are treated by learning avoidance techniques. This requires some psychological support.

The head ache issue is a combination problem.

There are head ache stress issues that need to be addressed from a psychological perspective. Learning relaxation techniques is a common therapy. The ROSHI and pROSHI device is oriented toward these relaxation needs. There is a religious/philosophical component of ROSHI that some may find objectionable. Discussing this aspect of ROSHI is precluded from this forum by the guidelines so I will not go any further. If you are interested, you can do the research.

The head aches that are not stress related need to be treated with medications if possible. Fortunately, mine respond to Tylenol. I know many who get only partial relief from very strong drugs. The data on nutrition and hormone therapy for migraines and other head aches is not conclusive. I think it is worth checking out anyway.

The many overlaps between the psychological and physiological symptoms makes it important to get professional therapy or directed self therapy to reduce the psychological symptoms. Many of the cognitive/memory symptoms will improve when the stress/psychological symptoms are reduced. If the brain is spinning due to stress, it can have a difficult time doing the cognitive task.

A simple example is this: Try to think about a complex subject while there is visual or auditory chaos going on. The healthy brain may be able to overcome the chaos. The injured mind will struggle to filter out the chaos. This is the most common symptom of PCS.

To the PCS brain, there is environmental chaos (sound and visual) and emotional chaos (anxiety, frustration, anger) that get in the way of good cognitive functions. We need to understand how to separate the two types of chaos and work to overcome them or avoid them.

For me, I have learned how to settle my emotional/stress responses by either making thought choices or avoiding the stressful situations. I am definitely not perfect at this, but I am doing much better, especially with my wife's support. This is very hard to do on your own. You need those around you to help out.

The environmental chaos is harder to fix. I totally avoid some environments, like the Mall at Christmas. I use foam ear plugs. I wear sunglasses and wide brimmed hats to avoid bright lights.

Some have benefited from a desensitization therapy of being subjected to loud noises or bright lights in a supportive environment. This tends to work best with sound issues that are tied to anxiety issues.

Many PCS subjects will be professionally diagnosed as depressed. The professionals will support this idea with the concept that treating the depression reduces the severity of the cognitive/memory symptoms. This is a valid point in some cases.

There are assessment tools that will overlap between depression and Mild Cognitive Impairment. MCI may be caused by PCS or other causes like toxins, hypoxia, etc.

A positive result of this assessment can mean four things:
(1)The subject is depressed.
(2)The subject is depressed causing MCI.
(3)The subject has MCI.
(4)The subject has MCI with depression.

In the second, treating the depression might reduce or eliminate the MCI.
In the fourth, treating the depression might only reduce the part of the MCI related to the depression. The remainder of the MCI is of physiological causation.

A way to try to discern between psychological and physiological symptoms is:
If the symptoms come and goes with changes in mood etc., It is likely psychological. If it is constant with only minor fluctuations in severity, it is likely physiological.

My MCI problems exist all the time but are made much worse in environmental chaos situations.

I have experienced both causes of MCI. Twenty-six years ago, I was defrauded out of a very large sum of money. This left me and my young family in severe turmoil. I lost many cognitive functions. A ortho-molecular psychiatrist treated me for eight weeks with nutritional and hypo-allergenic therapy.

I recovered very well in those eight weeks. I learned how to avoid a repeat by maintaining my nutritional regimen and avoiding the allergens that effected my body's function. I was likely overly sensitive to this stressful situation due to my concussion history.

There is some interesting commentary on the overlap of psychological and physiological problems with MCI on the web site of attorney Gordon S Johnson at www.gordonjohnson.com

Concussed scientist,

I know what you mean by the dizzy or leaning to the right symptom. I experience it when I am sleep deprived. This can be because I did not sleep well or have not been able to get to sleep. My wife can predict some of these times because I will be very agitated as I try to sleep. My agitated sleep tends to go in waves. I have been struggling for the past few weeks after doing real well during November, December and the first half of January.

If I remember correctly, Dr Schutz discusses the emotional issues in the latter part of his book. He mostly mentions avoidance techniques.

Do you have any specific issues you are struggling with? Maybe someone here has found a way to reduce those issues.

My daughter is also 15 and her injury occured 4 months ago. I've got to two stories to share that show small improvements.

The other night, she was very engrossed in a book - which in it's self was an improvement. Knowing that she would stay up all night reading, I asked her to give the book to me to remove the tempation. She was being difficult about it, so I gave her 5 minutes to put the book in my room otherwise I would take it away for a very long time. She complied and then went to bed. A few days later, she was complaining that she had nothing to read. I told her she could finish the book she gave me. She broke out with a smile on her face and told me she had already finished. She inisted that she didn't sneak in my room and steal the book but didn't remember when or how she finished it. I asked her questions about the ending and it seemed she had read it. I was really preplexed for days how she managed to finish without me knowing it. Eventually, I pulled out the book - opened it up to her book mark and realized I had pulled a fast on. She had swapped the dust jackets with another book and gave me a different book! Her cognitive skills have to be improving, if she could come up with a creative way to trick me. Most parents would have been upset by this - I was thrilled!

Tonight, she took the time to actually do her normal teeth brushing routine (brush, floss, swish, clean the retainers) for the first time since her injury. She just hasn't cared very much about the personal care things (shower, teeth, hair, etc). Some day, it was tough just to get her to shower, comb her hair and brush her teeth.