I am a 21 year old suffering fro PCS and am looking for advice

I hit my head about 3 months ago now and the recover process seems to be a roller coaster ride.

At first, I didn't know I was injured so I continued with my life and pushed myself far too hard. After I relized something was wrong, I was finally able to take a step back and rest. Now I have been resting for about a month avoiding working out or anything to strenuous. However, I have been using the TV and computer a fair amount to keep me occupied.

I know youre suppose to avoid these things in the first 2 weeks, but since my recovery process was delayed should I attempt to step bak and cut those out to help me heal? Or try and progress? I am able to do light workouts here and there but try to rest as much as possible.

I guess since I had a late start to the recovery process I don't know if I should start over the healing process or continue to progress. My symptoms are not triggered when I work out or use technology, but they do come back on randomly and strong and I feel as if I am starting back from square one.

I would appreciate any advice on how to handle the recovery process

Here is a detailed on-going account of what has worked for me. I am sharing it in the hopes that it may be helpful for some: *edit*

I am using Siri to dictate as typing is a challenge. September 2014 I was crossing the street at a controlled intersection after I confirmed it was safe. I see the walk sign, I am almost halfway across the street and then I feel this incredible pain. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that transit bus just hit me. I was lucky,The police said if I was 3 feet prior it would've been a different story because it would around me over. It was turning left and connected with my body, through me 10 feet and I landed on my head on the roadway. I could not Get up and when I managed to feel the back of my head I had was covered in blood. I received nine staples. I have been made to feel stupid because people don't understand how I could get hit by such a large object and not see it. I believe the comfort of crossing out a controlled intersection and checking both ways made me feel secure that it was safe to cross though I did see the bus 30 to 40 feet down the road which gave me time to cross and most importantly I had the right away.

I have not received one sent to help with the treatments I have been able to attend from the insurance company for the bus. My doctor told me that the referrals he made have been questioned by the insurance company and to date no specialist have been seen . The insurance company says I should be better because it's two weeks to heal. My doctor try to send me to PCS specialist and told me that insurance has stopped the referral. How can that be? He also referred me to speech therapy because I stutter really bad and he referred me to a psychologist. Not one of these appointments have been okayed by the insurance company for the bus.

I have received over 50 pages of paperwork to fill out in the past two months which was a real challenge when all I could do was sleep because my head hurts so much. Light hurts noise hurts and if I go out I get really anxious around buses and now I cross the streets anywhere but at a satellites because then you're more alert and aware that you can get hit.

Is it normal for the call to hurt my head so much now that it's winter. Is it normal to be so angry and have fits of rage that are uncontrollable and instant. Then there are fits of crying it seems for no reason but I realize I'm so frustrated because it takes me so long to get anything done because my short-term memory is nonexistent. I have a book that I write everything down when I eat when I sleep because I can't remember and I have no hunger pangs.

Is this normal? I am so frustrated and yesterday I just thought why do I bother living like this with no treatments. I know I had an MRI scheduled to weeks after the injury and the insurance company canceled it! How can insurance companies go against a doctor that's been seeing you for years and knows you and knows you don't stutter and have anger issues and feel frustrated and anxious and now depressed?

I am no longer dealing with the insurance company as I told them all you have given me is a lot of work which I had to get people to help me with in the little bit of time that I'm awake when I need to focus on taking care of me and eating. I was totally broke in September and I'm not doing that again.

I need to know how to get better on my own because my doctor can't seem to push to get me to the specialist that I need to see and I can't handle it anymore I just want to live.

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