Hi guys,

I suffered a hockey stick blow to the temple on November 30th, 2009. I did not lose conciousness. Immediately I felt a ringing in my ears and pain in my head for a day, with difficulties catching sleep right away. A few days later my vision went extremely blurry (tunnel vision like). A few days following I got the worst dose of nausesy I ever felt (immobilized for 24 hours straight). Lathargeay hit me and lasted for weeks as well. The unfortunate thing about this time was that my family and I assumed that I had a flu and then a cold, never putting together that I had gotten a concussion till a month later. I continued playing hockey/ball hockey during this time, taking further blows to the head. Over the course of the entire time up until this point, I have experienced a variety of syptoms:

headaches
dizziness (only days after the accident)
impaired balance (only days after the accident)
nausea (only days after the accident)
fatigue or sleepiness (for the first four months)
inability to sleep (up until very recently, i'm trying to wein off my sleeping pills)
decreased libido (recently come back)
sensitivity to noise or light (extreme case in the beginning)
ringing in the ears (only first day after accident)
blurred vision (all throughout, getting better over time, still very noticable)
irritability
anxiety (two weeks ago I had an anxiety attack, it's been off and on since)
restlessness
depression (experienced through the worst of my symptoms and lasted for a month and a half)
lack of emotion (throughout my depression)
emotional lability or mood swings (I became dependent on the girl I was seeing)
lack of ability to tolerate stress or alcohol (stress makes all symptoms heighten)
aggression (a stage of my recovery)
amnesia or difficulty remembering things
confusion or impaired cognition
impaired judgment
slowed cognitive processing
difficulty with abstract thinking
difficulty concentrating
decrease in work performance

Today, March 18th 2010, I am leaps and bounds better than I was. I have very recently been able to start entertaining myself again (computer games, tv). Many of my symptoms still persist however I have recently recognized that they seem to become amplied throughout my workday. Because of my injury, I took a semester off University and have worked full time 9 hours a day, 6 days a week with a job that has a moderate to high level of physical activity. Analyzing this fact now, it seems very irresponsible and damaging to myself. I now believe that I have prolonged my concussion by exhausting myself on a daily basis, not allowing my brain to heal. At the time cutting back work was the last thing I would have wanted because it was the only thing that got me through the day and made me forget about my deep feelings of sadness (depression). My question to you guys now is that i'm seriously considering cutting back the hours I work. I don't need this money to survive and I think i'm doing much more harm than good. What are you thoughts? Suggestions? Comments? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome, although sorry for the circumstances that brought you here.

Others will be able to better address specific treatments, diagnostics, etc.

I will speak to your question about returning to work. My daughter has kept on with school and drumming through her concussion. Similar to you, once we realized this was not a "simple" knock on the head she stopped sports. Her neuro advised that we let her do anything that 1) didn't increase her symptoms or 2) would not result in another blow. We did restrict her social time and screen time A LOT. Lots of sleep, lots of rest, etc.

I can't tell you if we made the right decisions in allowing her to continue life as normal as much as possible. She is getting better all the time but at 7 1/2 months and still has several short "stabber" headaches each week, still more fatigue than usual. Her cognitive skills are coming back rapidly...thank God. I just don't know if she would be further along if we had made her stay home from school for a month or so. I felt, as you do, that she had to give up so much that going to school was giving her some semblence of normal. It was giving her a reason to wake up through the concussion hangovers and face another day. Her worst symptoms have coincided with our harshest restrictions on her time...not sure if there is a cause and effect relationship there or not.

My recommendation (outside of whatever medical stuff you do) is to treat this as you would a badly sprained ankle. You wouldn't walk on it, right? You wouldn't feel embarassed or ashamed if it wasn't fully healed within some arbitrary time frame, right? So don't over-stress yourself. Allow your family to take on some of the burden of your daily routine and just try to take it as easy as possible.

Hi and welcome to NT!

I'm sorry for your injury. Having read your list of symptoms, it appears that you're a full fledged member of our little brain boo boo club.

If you are in a position where you can rest, by all means do that. The more you rest, the better you'll recover.

Sadly, many doctors tend not to be that well-versed in brain injury. As a patient, the best thing you can do is educate yourself about TBI so you can be a strong advocate for treatment. Some excellent sources for further reading include: the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA)www.biausa.org; www.tbiguide.com and our own TBI forum here on NT http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html If that's too much reading, there are a number of excellent Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) videos on You Tube. (Who knew it wasn’t just idiots surfing on cars?)

Cheers

Thanks to both of you for your feedback. Prior to the last week, I was unable to come to terms with the fact that I should be minimizing my brain strain (work). I did not want to admit that I was, in fact, severely injured and did not make the connection that by maintaining my daily routine, I was harming myself. I've spoken to my boss and reduced my hours significantly. I am optimistic about the effects this will have on my daily health, as well as my long term progress.

As mentioned above, the doctors I spoke to could stimulate very little about my injury. They did not give me much useful information. My GP knew virtually nothing, whereas my neurologist harped the fact that "time" was the only healer. I wish he would have harped the importance of "rest" and not just "time". Looking back, I doubt I would have reduced my hours regardless due to my depression.

I'm thrilled i've come across this forum. Prior to stumbling upon it on google, I felt very alone and as if I was the only person that was suffering from a similar injury. I felt that no one could relate. It seems, by my person experience, that only people who have suffered this type of injury can understand. My family (the only one's that live and see my pain on a daily basis) seem to be the only one's that get what i'm going through, even my closest friends and colleagues cannot relate in the least. I'm glad (not literally of course) that I have found similar stories and information on my injury. I'm thankful this information exists, and I will be sure to read up as much as possible. My heart goes out to everyone else who is suffering from PCS. These injuries are, by definition, temporary and we will all recover in time.