Hi Mark,

Thanks for your suggestions.

I'm not taking any medications at the moment.

The ease with which one lives with certain symptoms probably depends on the person and the severity of their particular symptoms. I'm not worried about not having a full life, I am just wondering about the effects all of these impacts are having on me.

I try to move as deliberately as I can but it's tough when you're working with small children. If one of them is about to get hurt, you tend to move quickly without thinking of yourself first. I really feel like I'm trying, I just get angry when it doesn't seem like it makes a difference.

If you work with other peoples children, maybe you can get some help from the other adults to establish some better decorum. My wife worked with small kids and found that they will rise to the level of behavior that is expected from them. You will be surprised how well that can act when you explain the need to perform to a standard then recognize them for meeting that standard.

I have worked in nursery and toddler classes for years and see the same results. Then, mom or dad shows up and the other behavior returns.

Plus, children are quite resilient. They can take a fall or bump much easier than you can.

When they learn that they are responsible for their own bumps and bruises, they quickly learn. If they learn that they may cause you to be injured, they will likely be even more careful and disciplined.

Mark,

Please do not make this thread about something that it is not. I am here to discuss TBI and PCS, not how I do my job.

That being said, I'd like to talk about my symptoms over the past couple of days. They seem to have varied greatly from Monday and Tuesday to today. I know stress has something to do with it. Monday was a pretty low key day but I felt horrible as I mentioned in a previous post. Yesterday I was super busy and my stress level was high. I ended up having a bad headache and mild nausea for about 11 hours straight. I feel like maybe the weather played a part as well. It was so humid and warm that I wonder if that added to the pain. Today was better though. Less humidity and less stress. I still got a headache about half way through the day and it stayed with me but it was mild in comparison to yesterday and Monday. The only new thing I noticed today was that I've started seeing flashing lights again, every time I blink. That's been coming and going though. Does anyone else have this symptom? I saw flashing lights a lot after the concussion I had in August.

I'd really love to just take a sick day and rest since I haven't been able to do that, but we're understaffed again and it never seems like the right time. Maybe next week.

I am sorry if I offended you. I have worked with kids since 1976 and thought I could share some of my experiences with you. Now, I am a grandfather and need to be just as careful around my grandkids. I am sorry you do not have an opportunity to reduce your risk level at work.

I have had the flashing lights symptoms for so long that I stop paying attention to them long ago. Sneezes can make the flashes very bright. I don't notice them much during the daylight but once the lights get low, the flashes are much more evident. I have been told it likely has something to do with pressure around the optic nerve.

I can't help you any, but I can say that I can relate at least somewhat.
I fell off of a horse in March of my Freshman year at college in 2009 and I have been hitting my head ever since. I have hit my head noticeably about 13 times and as you say each time different symptoms become more prominent or dominate. It was not until my 6th or 9th (I hit my head 4 times in one day ) that the nausea really came on and that was in January of 2011 (I think). But each concussion since that time has had a different effect. With that one in Jan '11 I was nauseated for 5 months and then went back to the just normal headaches. With the last couple that I have had I have been so sick for about a week that I can barely leave my bed and can't swallow any food during that week (good news is that I lose a little weight ). With the last one I got, my ability to follow a coherent story and my ability to focus have been so hurt.
Anyways, need to go to bed.
Just wanted to say, we need to avoid any more head hitting, because it is hitting us too hard (pun intended)
Good Luck!

Wow, I am so sorry this keeps happening to you. I can only imagine how very very frustrating it must be.

I am a teacher, too. I taught high school prior to my concussion but have been unable to be in the classroom since my concussion. Between the painful physical symptoms, the cognitive difficulties I was having being able to multitask and respond in a timely manner, and the emotional lability, the classroom was just a totally inappropriate environment for me after my concussion. I am hopeful that someday I will recover to the level that I will be able to teach again, but at this time it is just not possible.

I "pushed through" my symptoms for the first week after my concussion and ended up making things much worse for myself. So, just make sure in your eagerness to do your job and have people think well of you that you don't end up hurting yourself in a more permanent and damaging way. If you were a PE teacher and kept injuring your leg, you would not keep pushing yourself to run with the students just because the school was short-staffed. Just because your injury is not visible does not make it any less real or valid.

As for the recurrent head bumping, I'm wondering if you have had any vision therapy or a vision efficiency evaluation? After my concussion, my eyes had difficulty working together. I could imagine that something like this might make it difficult to tell exactly where you are in space. Vision therapy or possibly prism lenses might help.

You can find a doctor who does VEE testing at http://www.braininjuries.org or http://www.nora.cc

Good luck, and please do take care of yourself. You're important!!

Hello there im only 18 years old and i've had five minor concussions!! The first i hit my head on a statue in boston but i got up and kept running around. Next was in hockey two months after that one! Then the next year I simply was knocked in the head by a helmet in hockey . I rested for three weeks after that one and started exercising but felt sick all the time!! My fourth one happened in that same month. I was standing in a basketball court talking to my friend when someone missed a shot and it hit me in the head. I played it off cool but i was so sad inside i just wanted to die. I had been feeling better how could this happen to me. It was terrible from there. I had to do school ( someone how i still managed honors) i was so scared to hit my head i distanced myself from everyone. My last one was this spring. I was sleeping at a friends house and it was pitch black. I got up from bed didnt realize there was a very low wall right above my head. Since then i've had the worst symptoms for two months. Visual Snow, flashing lights, headaches, dizzyness, fatigue,and concentration problems ( cant go to college anymore wanted to be a nurse) Im so scared of hitting my head again. I hit it again though on Saturday and have been feelign worse. I bet I have second impact syndrome. God will protect me though.

bobbicat,

I doubt you have Second Impact Syndrome. It is life threatening. It causes the pressure inside the head to increase to deadly levels.

You likely have Multiple Impact Syndrome which is the cumulative effect of all of your concussions and the progressively worse damage caused by each succeeding impact.

A problem I have had to accept is that I have severely reduced spacial memory. This means I will not remember obstacles that were obvious during a previous observation. To apply this to your situation: You likely noticed the overhead obstacle when the lights were on but your spacial memory did not remember this obstacle. Voila, you smack your head.

I say this to encourage you to try to learn to avoid these situations. I know I have a need to not rely on visual/spacial memory. For example, I would often realize that the low ceiling was a bad place to be in the dark. I would make an effort to find a different location.

It is a complex problem to solve but we need to make adjustments in our lives to live with our limitations.

It appears your 5 concussions took place over less than 2 years time. Is this correct?

Hey Bright&Dark. I've been lurking on this site for awhile and just decided to make an account, because so many different descriptions of symptoms resonate with me. I too experience the serious, stress-induced up-and-downs of the headaches, fatigue, and other PCS symptoms. Like Xandar, I worry constantly about bumping my head, even going so far as to always stand up on public transportation (because of the jolts up and down) and constantly be aware of my surroundings and potential risks. Anyways, I would just like to offer my $.02--I truly don't think that any of us hit our heads any more than normal people, we just clue into it so much more. Our threshold for realizing our heads have been bumped becomes so low that EVERYTHING is a sub-concussive impact. I'm not sure how much of this is recovery-induced sensitivity and how much has to do with anxiety, but I've just come to accept that head bumps are a fact of life. I still try to prevent them, but try really hard to take it in stride, even though I just want to scream and destroy things every time it happens.

Not sure if any of that helps, but you're definitely not alone.

Yes they all did. Do you think i will get better though? I've recovered from all the other one's. This one is taking forever. I had so many dreams for myself i guess none of them will come true now.