Hello, I am so glad that I found this site. I feel like I am all alone in helping my daughter deal with her PCS. She is a college student in the Boston area. A 25lb weight fell onto her head 4 months ago, it was a grade 2 concussion, she immediately stopped all of her physical activity (she is on the crew team), and she had to drop one of her classes. While she was home for the holidays, she was able to completely rest for one month. She went for a second opinion out here, this doctor told her to continue to rest and also put her on 50mg of Elavil. She has been on the medication for 5 wks. Now she is back at school for the spring semester and she still gets daily headaches from concentrating, loud noises, bright lights and is often very tired – just not herself. She saw a new neurologist a few days ago who seems sympathetic with her suffering and has referred her for an MRI and also wants her to go to see a specialist at the Faulkner Hospital/John R. Graham Headache Center in Boston. Does anyone have any comments to make about the medication, the headache center, getting an MRI, how to help my daughter get back to her old self? From what I am reading, MRIs do not really show anything... Thank you.

WestCoastMom,

Sorry to hear about your daughter's injury and struggles. You are right that an MRI will not show anything that related to her concussion. The Elavil dosage sounds a bit high. The common dosage for PCS is about 10 mgs.

Dr Robert Cantu at Brigham and Womens Hospital is a renowned specialist in concussion. Here is a link about him: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/553955_4
It says he has a private practice in Concord.

It will take time for your daughter to recover. The stresses of school need to be minimized. It is believed that the stress can cause a regression. The re is a need to moderate the environment to get longer periods without overload and brain crashes for the brain to heal. She should check with the school's disability services department. They should be able to help her minimize the stress load.

She should get some foam ear plugs and use them regularly. Sunglasses can help. Sitting at the front of the class helps. Wearing the most comfortable clothes also can help.

PCS makes college a tough task. Been there, done that.

btw, It will help many of us if you use lots of paragraph spacing. Many of us struggle to track from the end of one line of text to the start of the next. Smaller paragraphs of 5 or 6 lines helps lots.

I would tell her to cancel the MRI and get an appointment with Dr Cantu.

My best to you and your daughter.

I live in Mass and saw Dr. Cantu back in 1973 after a head injury from a car accident. I remember him successfully treating me with medications for my main symptoms of dizziness which he said was due to inner ear trauma from the head injury and soon after I suffered from intense pressure in the area of my head where I went through the side window which made me tilt to the left which he said was trauma to a specific nerve in my head.

All I know is he knew right away what my issues were thankfully because I was miserable and treated me with medications that worked immediatley. He's a odd duck so if you go to him don't expect much bedside manner but he certainly helped me.