Hello, I am new here and reading through posts I cannot find an answer to my question. First let me give you a little background. My 36yr old daughter sustained a level 2 concussion on 12/10/2010. She continued to develop symptoms for two weeks after and had two CATs which show no bleeding or fractures. She is now under the care of a neurologist who has ordered another battery of tests for her. She will see him again in two weeks for the results.

Right now her persistant headache is being treated with Gabapentin and it seems to be helping a bit although she isn't at full dose yet. Gradual increases every three days till at therapudic dose.

Her symptoms include headache, vetigo, dizzyness, cognitive function (cannot read or write without extreme difficulty which ends in severe headache pain) She is noise and light sensitive, mild confusion and easily overwhelmed and fatigued.

She has been wearing sunglasses when not in a darkened room but we are now wondering if this is counter productive to her regaining her ability to be in lighted areas. How can we increase her abilty to tolerate light and should we attempt this at all at this time? Thanks

Welcome to neuroTalk, Sorry to hear of your daughter's struggles.

The sunglasses are fine. She needs to give her brain rest from over-stimulation.

She is still in the very early stage of a concussion. Try to help her be patient and stressfree so her brain can heal.

When her brain reacts to a situation, it is simply saying, That situation was more than I can handle at this time. The brain is not like a muscle. Muscles can heal while under moderate stress or even exercise. Brains need rest and plenty of it.

If the imaging studies are normal, further diagnostics are not likely to help. Only a neuro-psychological assessment will show much. Normal EEG's and such will not be much help. A qEEG reviewed by an experience clinician may show the dysfunction but will not help with treatment.

I am surprised at the stepping up of the dosage of gabapentin. It is usually very easily tolerated at a therapeutic level. I have never heard of it being used for head ache but am not surprised if it helps. I take gabapentin to help my brain relax and then take Tylenol for the headaches.

Her struggles may also be caused by upper neck/cervical injuries. An Upper Cervical Chiropractor may be helpful. NUCCA.org or atlasorthagonality.com has lists of chiros. Many generic chiros will tend to be too aggressive with the upper cervical area.

Regarding light sensitivity, I have been sensitive to bright light for decades. Wearing tinted lenses and brimmed hats helps me focus on the important things. Otherwise, the bright light tends to distract me.

Your daughter is going through a common progression of Post Concussion symptoms. The delayed onset is classic Post Concussion.

I'm curious. What dose of gabapentin is she targeting?

My best you you all.

I'm on month 4 pcs and just stopped a few weeks ago wearing sunglasses. Even the refrigerator light was too much for me.

I'm curious...can your daughter watch tv or computer? I still get wildly dizzy from both after 15 or 20 mins. My head tingles etc.

I only get the ad headaches when overstimulated. ..lots of people or if I try to get back to my normal like..shopping etc.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery...but most women take longer to heal.. Espec over 40

Aireyden, No she cannot watch TV and can only do the computer via her droid phone (smaller screen less light) and only for about ten minutes at a time.

She gets nauseous dizzy and her head aches with activity and too much stimulation. She said yesterday that she hadn't realized how much we had altered her daily environment until she visited her sister's house for Christmas dinner. She also cannot stand u if her eyes are closed she will fall.

I basically only work thru my blackberry. I have a very similar situation to your daughter...but my initial 2 months I couldn't get out of bed..put kids on the bus and layed in my dark room no music or tv. My husband has been extremely supportive ..does all the food shopping and even did all the xmas shopping.

My heart goes out to your daughter...luckily she has you. I was on my own other than hubby. My daughter just started college and boys are 7th and 4th grade.

Do sounds bother your daughter?

How is she sleeping at night? Insomnia is awful!! What about ringing in the ears??

My daughter has some sleep disturbances and she also has a ringing in her ears that she describes as simular to being under water.

Her husband has been doing the grocery shopping and most of the cooking and errands so I am sorry if I portrayed him as totally disconnected. The difficulty is that he will only plan one day at a time and won't set things up for long term even though she has asked him to. He also is in alot of denial and IGNORANCE and doesn't even try to educate himslef on how to be the best partner/advocate he can be.

He is of the notion that she should try to do everything she wants to try (except the driving but even that he thinks she will be able to do very soon) and if she can't then well rest a little while and try again. He isn't getting that rest comes first. He feels that she got enough of that the first week when she was sleeping most of the time.

This isn't the first situation like this he has had to deal with. Each time he takes too long to realize how much help she needs. She almost died with their firstborn due to a severe hemaorage that was ignored by the staff till she lost consciousness briefly. She neded transfusions but she has a medical condition that needed to be concidered in administering them and the staff was being uncooperative. My daughter tried to explain but was confused and weak. He was not advocating well for her so I steped in and he and his family got really upset with me. I forsee a few more of those situations comming up in the weeks to come if he doesn't educate himself on PCS.

BTW where can I get a copy of the TBI guide by r Johnson?

Thank you Mark, I am not sure what dose she is at (3 pills/day) or what she is to go up to (6pills/day). She was told she had to both ramp up and wean off when the time comes. The Neurologist seems really good and so far no concerns with him. He has ordered bloodwork to see if there is any underlying cause that might be contributing to her symptoms. He says it is "out there" but good to check anyway. He is testing harmones and T4 among other things, He has also ordered a closed MRI with and without contrast of both the head and neck. That is scheduled for Thursday. In addition he has ordered an extensive inner ear testing which he says will not be pleasant but feels is necessary.

I have concerns for my daughter because her husband is a bit of a difficult person. He doesn't want me involved other than to help with the children but he is a very poor advocate for her. She told me that when they saw the neuro together he zoned out and she couldn't follow what the doctor was saying and that the doctor had to go through it all a second time. Hubbie even seems mildly put upon that she is not herself. Didn't even take time off from work in the beginning. Yesterday, he had her helping him redo the kids playroom by sorting toys and organizing them.

While I thought sorting was a good activity for her I was concerned about the amount of stress setting up an organized system might cause her. So I asked if she was able to do that and if it was giving her a headache and his response was "she's fine". Further probing determined that she could not do that part of it and that he was taking care of the "organizing". Then later when we were driving to a light display that I was going to take the kids to by myself but he insisted we all go to he swerved rapidly shaking the van quite a bit as a joke. I told him that wasn't a good thing to do that she didn't need her brain shook up any more than it alread has been. He said nothing. I'm hoping that he didn't take it up with her later as my meddling and causing her more stress.

She is trying so hard to be "normal' and has the stubborn athletic attitude of pushing through pain and difficulty. Thankfully I have her to myself for a few hours a day (but not this week because he is on vacation). During that time I try to assess what she can and can't do without difficulty and what her needs are and I encourage her to advocate for herself with neighbors and friends.
I also help with the children's homework so she doesn't have to. I run them to their activities when their father can't. And I pamper her and keep her company till her husband comes home.

Her husband won't read anything outside of work so I am the one doing the research since she can't and she wants the information. Yet he tried to shut me up when I told her about the risks of continued high doses of OTC pain meds and that it was a good thing her doctor was trying to get her off them. I must keep my peace with him so I can help her. It will be a tough road if history dictates how he is going to deal with this situation.