Hi WittsEnd
I have put a copy of this post in its own thread on this forum so other members can respond to you there rather than on this thread
Here is the link
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=212519

Great Forum!

1) Get the right medical professionals (may take a while) and get into a rehab treatment program Stat.

2) Be Patient with yourself. Don't push through symptoms and don't harp on yourself for sudden lack of ease of doing remedial tasks.

3) Be honest with your family, work, friends, and Dr.'s.
- also write all weird symptoms down so you can tell your Dr's about them in case you forget (don't rely on your memory).

4) No Brain Poison! You will at some point think that you are going crazy. You are not going crazy... it is the nature of a bump on the head to jostle things around. Get bad negative thoughts out, clear your mental house and focus on what you do have, can do, and are doing to get better.

5) Don't put a time limit on your healing. It is not a broken arm, 6 weeks in a cast will not cure this. Patience and rest are your biggest assets.

6) Brain Breaks! Every 2 hours take a 20-1 hr brain break. Overstimulation is the antithesis of healing and can slow your healing down. Brain breaks! Use noise cancellation headphones, eye mask, etc. to tune out and rest.

7) Meditate. Yup. It helps slow those fast brain clutter thoughts down and brings you back to you. iRest Yoga Nidra has been my favorite, also Deepak Chopra has excellent guided meditations on his site.

8) Routine. Get up at the same time. Go to bed at the same time. Eat at the same time. Get your body into a habit so it doesn't have to think as hard.

9) NO! Alcohol, caffeine, refined sugar, gluten ('Nourish your Noggin' noticed these act as neurotoxins on your brain and slows healing). Literally feed your brain fruits, veggies, lean meats, good grains to rebuild those neuron networks.

10) Listen to your body. If you are tired, rest. If you are getting irritable, take 10. If you are overstimulated, stop.

If I had done these simple things early on, I believe my healing would have occurred more quickly.

I’m new to this forum, 6 months PCS and counting.

Things I wish I’d known, besides the obvious (rest rest rest!), would include:

*First and foremost, do not bump your head again. You may think a concussion is a one-off and you are actually a careful person, but you are probably wrong. As Mark and others have explained, even routine head-bumps become an issue with concussion. I advise rethinking everything you do, through the lens of what could happen to your head. When I bend down, I think about what is above me and stand up slowly. I anticipate other people’s movements, to make sure I’m far away from stray elbows and such. I’ve accidentally bopped myself once or twice in half-sleep, so I’ve ordered myself to think about all half-conscious hand movements; and I wear gloves in my sleep to reduce any such issues.

*Further to the point above: I installed an accelerometer app (“accelerometer monitor”) on my phone, to better understand impacts. It makes clear, for example, that when the head shakes, it does not really compare to a head-hit.

*I’ve had problems getting to sleep (and continue to do so), but classical music often helps me drift off.

*Audiobooks can be great for boredom.

*Re exercise: I do lots of walking. One doctor told me to make sure I got in some hills, to get my heart-rate up and oxygen pumping into my brain, which made sense.

*Swimming is helpful. I just started. It’s very relaxing, especially for those like me who may have anxiety issues, and I generally feel quite normal in a pool. You cannot be anxious while swimming, because you’ve got to focus on what you're doing. Of course I do not dive into the water.

*Do not despair. Concussion recovery is not necessarily linear. About two and a half months in, I suddenly started recovering my capacity for reading. In just a few weeks, I went from maxing out at 10 pages a day to spending an entire day at the library. I was astonished. Of course, I have bumped my head a bit since then (in ways the doctors ignorantly tell me not to worry about) but it hasn’t really diminished my reading capacity — mostly increased head pressure and, sometimes, head pains.

*Read Mark in Idaho’s posts! They are so wise…

Good luck everybody!

About a month ago I was getting something out of the back of my Subaru Outback with the hatchback up. All of a sudden I felt like I had the feeling of a concussion, with 'out of body' feeling. To my knowledge, nothing hit me in the head, and I didn't have any bumps or sore spots from having hit my head on anything, and I don't recall hitting my head on anything. Immediately after I had to coach a youth soccer game and was out of it, disoriented, etc., just couldn't get my thoughts. Since then I've been fairly anxious. Prior to that I had been having headaches, left temporal, for several years, and after the incident doctor put me on 25 mg of Atenenol for headaches, then doc upped it to 50 mg, and that made me more anxious. I stopped Atenenol about 4 days ago, and have been trying natural supplements.

The anxiousness is affecting my work, and I'm generally feeling out of it in social situations, not able to contribute/concentrate, and I worry over small matters that I didn't worry about before, and my sleep has been real off.

Does anyone have any knowledge of situations where one can have a concussion-like event without hitting your head on anything?, I feel like this anxious feeling is a result of what happened, as I didn't have it prior to that.

marco, I copied your post to a thread of your own for discussion there, here is the link to it -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=213485

New member here. Just reading up on this. 3 months back the doctor diagnosed me with a closed head injury. He stated he diagnosed this way instead of a mild concussion so it would be easier for me to get cleared for work. I've had 3 previous concussions that I know of.

The situation is unique kind of. I was training with my M4, doing a standard rifle drill. Wearing full body armor...but no helmet. Anyways the round ricocheted off the back stop in hit me in the head. Felt like i got hit by a baseball. There was blood. Our medic cleaned it up and I kept training. Anyways as the day progressed I started feeling worse and worse. Finally at the end of the training day I went to the ER. So here I am 3 months later. Head pressure, sharp stabbing pains in my head, slight dizziness and some nausea now and then. Obviously i can't do my regular job so I'm sitting a desk. More significantly the Doctor is concerned even if I recover in the long term that I may not be able to go back to my regular duties. Suffice it to say I can't control my work enviornment and it's when and not if I take another good hit to the head given my occupation. So that's where I am. Just trying to learn as much as I can to educate myself and see what happens next.

jafo0799 - copied your post to the main area for hellos & discussion --link for it -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...d.php?t=213758

This is a "sticky thread" it's generally reserved for tips and Things you wish you'd known when you first got post-concussion syndrome. .

The main posting area for hellos & ongoing discussions is linked below
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html

and

Here is the link to make a new thread of your own-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/ne...newthread&f=92

Thank you....

Things I wished I new before,

- Don't trust everything a doctor says. Even most neurologists had no idea how to improve the healin.

- Look into this forum to get reasonable information. There are people, who have gone through all of this.

- Start with vitamin supplements as early as possible. I wasted two months.

It's very tough to be a PCS patient, because of the lack of quality information in the medical world. It can be frustrating at times and cause us to lose hope. The best way to be positive about your new situation is to lean on certain people:

1) People who stay current on the latest in Concussion scientific journals/studies - these people may just be science buffs, medical professionals, anyone who is intrigued by the phenomena of concussions and more so the fact that the scientific world knows so little about them. They can help you understand what exactly is taking place in your brain and reassure you that you are not in fact going crazy.

2) Family members, friends - people who care about you and can provide unconditional love and support. This can be a tough one because sometimes we seem OK on the outside but in reality we are going through hell and it's hard for "normal" people to understand. People close to you are going through a painful time having to watch you go through this. Always remember that they are dealing with the concussion almost as much as you are. They might try to avoid it or ignore it. It's hard to have to repeat yourself over and over again and explain that "I am not OK" Just be careful who you choose to surround yourself with.

3) Doctors - this group you have to be really careful about. There are some horrible physicians out there that will give you the worst advice and drugs with nasty side effects. But, you will find that there is the rare doctor, may it be a neurologist, General practitioner, whatever, that actually is compassionate enough to try to understand what you are going through and use their medical expertise to help.

4) Former/Current PCS patients (AKA this forum ) This group of people is probably the most valuable. You can learn from them what works and what doesn't. What to expect. Ways to cope with stressors.

Obviously, there can be some overlapping here.

In the end, every concussion is different and it will come down to you learning to control your expectations and anxiety. Always be mindful that recovery does not take place over night and like it or not, you are in for a long ride. Look at your condition in the scope of weeks or months and not days. You will have good days and bad days. When you notice a trend over the course of a few weeks, this is a more accurate description of where you stand.

That's my two cents. I hope some of you find this helpful or at least agree with it.

-Danny