[musiclover]

Hello,

9 months ago, I had what was a seemingly innocent fall here at my home. I went to sit down on my couch - acutally it was more like "plopping" on my couch - and hit the back of my head against a shelf that sits slightly above the couch. It hit hard enough that my husband, who was sitting in the room adajacent to the couch, heard the wall reverberate and of course was concerned.

There was no loss of consciousness, but immediately I had pain that started from the top area of my head and went down my neck into my shoulders. I remember later that day wondering if I had actually hit my neck instead of my head, but I had a big goose egg to remind me that it was in fact an intial blow to the head.

The next morning I saw my primary care who basically told me to "take some advil". A week & some horrific pain later, I ended up in the ER getting a CT scan and MRI, both of which were negative, but still no one even mentioned the possibility of a concussion do to the "minor" nature of my injury.

Over the course of the first month my body went into shock...I lost alot of weight, was unable to sleep, became highly anxious, had body tremors, constant ringing of the ears, light & sound sensitivity, vertigo, not to mention a great deal of excruciating head & neck pain. I ended up back in the ER - finally to be told "you probably have a concussion" and "there is nothing else we can do for you".

It was at that point I began my journey with numerous specialists - a nuerologist, endocrinologist, cardiologist, chiropractor, pain management dr, etc. All medical tests were coming out normal, yet everything that was happening to me was far from normal, and my emotions began to take a huge tumble towards a deep depression.

Meanwhile, different drs were prescribing different meds, some that truly made me far worse than I already was, others just simply not helping in anyway. I honestly thought I was in a living hell.

I have been a lifelong sufferer of allergies and have had 2 sinus surgeries, and after my concussion, I ended up with a massive sinus infection that would not go away and ended up being resistant to several very strong antibiotics. The combination of head pain from trauma along with a massive bout of sinusitis was horrific.

All this time, I became emotionally removed from everyone around me, which is far from the norm for me, a usually outgoing person! I know that my children are what kept me going, but I was functioning on auto-pilot, and it really concerned me.

A huge turning point was early this spring when I began seeing a therapist who deals with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It was the first time I felt as though I was taking some control back over what had been a very "out of control" situation.

For the last several months, I have slowly but steadily seen marked improvements in terms of pain, energy, and emotions, but there are those days and weeks when I over do it that it hits me like a ton of bricks and I simply have to pull back and do the bare minimum.

I am learning to accept that there are somethings about PCS for me that may never go away and that I need to continue to work with my body. It has been the most difficult personal situation I have ever encountered.

There truly are some days that I feel "normal" again, then others as though I am back at day one of PCS. I have a particularly hard time when I get sick or stressed, it is almost as though the physiology of my body has permanently changed in some way.

I believe I will always search for answers and/or ways to deal with PCS, but I am trying hard to take each day as it comes and enjoy the good ones when I can. I do appreciate each day and am even learning to find the humor in the bad ones!

Thanks for reading this long introduction

Nolefan