my regular MD didn't even tell me I had a concussion...she said I had a "little brain bruise" and to rest the weekend. She barely wanted to write me a note to get out of work when I went back 2 weeks later!@

Though many feel we are fortunate here in Canada to have a "free" medical system, it has MANY down sides. We have LONG waiting lists, especially to see neurologists, which often leads to mis-management of head injuries. I feel that if I saw a good doctor within the first week of my concussion I would have had a concussion that resolved uneventfully. Instead, I continued to try and "train" through it and ended up with severe post-concussion syndrome.

Research on things like Lyme Disease IS minimal. Much of treatment consists of "try this drug" instead of looking at lifestyle changes.

OH CANADA. Great Country, poor medical system.

Carmell

Thanks for the good news.

Hearing someone recover from PCS is now one of my great joys.

18 months is a long time, but I hope to be posting a bunch of smile faces as well.

Only really soon- 9 months. Lord willing.

It is unreal to me how little doctors seem to know about concussions. Surely they have been around since human species existed. How is it possible that so little is known?

My family doctor was not even aware that concussions could last more than a week. She was completely confused by my symptoms.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. People internationally hear of the Canadian medical system as "great" and "something to aspire to", such as in the movie Sicko. Although I appreciate the fact that health care is universal, the waste and neglect for the system causes extremely long wait times. Compounding that, the overbearing amount of work pushed onto doctors forces them to speed through everything, misdiagnosing conditions such as concussions.

PCS can be incredibly painful and frustrating. I wish you all best Jeffrey.

There is a simple reason why doctors know so little about concussions.

First: There is very little the Medical Doctors can do to help the PCS patient. There are no drugs approved for the treatment of concussion so the drug companies do not support the care of the PCS patient either.

Second: Since many concussions do not cause lasting symptoms, they think that all concussions should have no lasting symptoms. Also, by the time many of the delayed concussion symptoms show up, they are attributed to psychological causes.

Third: The liability insurance industry has thrown big money behind the denial of concussion as they defend against those injured in auto accidents.

Fourth: The sports doctors have been paid to get players back on the field for the financial gain of the professional sports team or the collegiate sports team.

Fifth: Very few neurologists have any skills at diagnosing any ailment that is not imageable on an X-ray, CT, MRI, EEG, or EMG, etc. If it does not show up on one of these imaging systems, it does not exist. The qEEG has a high reliability (95% and above) at diagnosing concussion but the insurance companies and Neurological Medical Associations have been successful at discrediting this fact.

Sixth: Because of the above, there are many old wives' tales that have been accepted as medical fact, such as any concussion with no Loss of Consciousness (LOC) will recover 100% with no after effects.

Seventh: Now, with most health care systems using a managed care protocol, there are many roadblocks to follow-up care of those who are diagnosed with a concussion.

btw, One of the big problems with the Canadian health care system is free services get overloaded and then many of the best doctors leave Canada to practice in the USA.

Very insightful post Mark. All of those reasons ring true. The overload in the Canadian health care system is a detriment to the quality of the medical profession. I would imagine money is an insentive for doctors to migrate to the US as well.