Not To long ago a few of my doctors said that this is never going to get better without advances in medicine I am a 24 year old that has had PCS for 3 years now going on 4 and I find that there is little research being done for this diagnosis my memory is bad my learning and cognitive skills are worse I am tired all of the time I cant sleep I now have seizures my mood is up and down the pain is overwhelming I have been to hundreds of doctors for every symptom and now they just write me off and say yup we know sorry to think that it is never going to get better is hard and its hard to have any kind of hope and messing with the work comp people dose not help with the stress levels all I want in life is to have a family and be able to work for them and sustain a healthy living environment but I cant do any of those things at the moment and its so frustrating my fiancé, mother and father all help the best they can but I feel like a burden they would kick me in the butt if they knew and I am glad to have their support but its not fair to them I didn’t do this to my self it was a fellow employee his only repercussion was losing his job me a week from advancement ends up messed up for life and to be treated like a liar and a thief by our government and the work comp jerks is not fair not what a good person deserves I don’t understand now the work comp people are trying to force me into settlement and decided that their one guy that said I was "ok" was all they needed to stop paying me my benefits and to stop covering my medical how dose that make sense the lawyer is trying but with all the road blocks its going to take another 3 years and to think that this pain and all of the symptoms of this are never going to get better how do I cope with that I do my best a try to stay positive and just live life day to day but sometimes I just cant and melt down which I guess is what im doing here today its like a volcano I just need to vent sometimes more lately than normal but hey I guess if that’s what I have to do to stay positive most of the time why not

Not To long ago a few of my doctors said that this is never going to get better without advances in medicine I am a 24 year old that has had PCS for 3 years now going on 4 and I find that there is little research being done for this diagnosis my memory is bad my learning and cognitive skills are worse

I am tired all of the time I cant sleep I now have seizures my mood is up and down the pain is overwhelming I have been to hundreds of doctors for every symptom and now they just write me off and say yup we know sorry to think that it is never going to get better is hard and its hard to have any kind of hope and messing with the work comp people dose not help with the stress levels

all I want in life is to have a family and be able to work for them and sustain a healthy living environment but I cant do any of those things at the moment and its so frustrating my fiancé, mother and father all help the best they can but I feel like a burden they would kick me in the butt if they knew and I am glad to have their support but its not fair to them

I didn’t do this to my self it was a fellow employee his only repercussion was losing his job me a week from advancement ends up messed up for life and to be treated like a liar and a thief by our government and the work comp jerks is not fair not what a good person deserves I don’t understand

now the work comp people are trying to force me into settlement and decided that their one guy that said I was "ok" was all they needed to stop paying me my benefits and to stop covering my medical how dose that make sense the lawyer is trying but with all the road blocks its going to take another 3 years and to think that this pain and all of the symptoms of this are never going to get better

how do I cope with that I do my best a try to stay positive and just live life day to day but sometimes I just cant and melt down which I guess is what im doing here today its like a volcano I just need to vent sometimes more lately than normal but hey I guess if that’s what I have to do to stay positive most of the time why not

3lysium,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your struggles. I understand what you are going through. Work Comp is a big problem for people who suffer a concussion at work. Since we become the invisible wounded, the attorneys discount our struggles.

Have you considered applying for Social Security Disability Income benefits? You are likely qualified. It can be a safety net for you.

You are fortunate to have a supportive family and fiance'. You may benefit from increasing your and their knowledge and understanding of Post Concussion Syndrome. The TBI Survival Guide at www.tbiguide.com is great. Download it and print it out. Then, highlight the things that pertain to you. You could ask your fiance' and family to do the same on a separate copy. You might be surprised to see how much they understand about your symptoms.

The YouTube video series by John Byler is also great. It is called "You look great." You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Xso...ature=youtu.be

Have you checked to see if your state has a Brain Injury Trust fund? If so, it may offer you more resources.

If you would post a simplified list of your most problematic symptoms, we can reply with work-arounds and other accommodations to help endure them.

My best to you.

God Bless you. I know how you feel, when things overwhelm you and you feel trapped by life. You will be ok. Just keep telling yourself that. There's an answer to everything. By writing this to you, I'm working on the same thing. Have you tried alternative therapies? Read the book Brainlash by Gail Denton. It has a lot of good advice on how to cope with concussions. In it it speaks of Behavioral Optometry as a source of great healing for her. I'm sending you positive energy. If what you've been doing so far creates anxiety, change the way you look at it to see if the answer isn't hiding around the corner. I'm going to try the same thing and see how it works for my PCS which is 4 months in and full of depression. God bless you and I.

Little flowers- I hope that you are not one of the rare cases like me and a few others from what i can tell on this site. One of the things i wish I had known before I got this far was that counseling really dose help whether it is a psychologist, pastor or equivalent. 4 months seemed like forever to me at the time and the radical changes I had to make in my life were not easy. An example would be that I can't drive because of the seizures and that a lot of what I thought were my close freinds didn't want any thing to do with me like i had the plague. Another would be that I have always worked for and earned what I have no matter what and and if things needed done i was the guy to do it in a day or as fast as I could but now I can hardly manage to remember iv got noodles on the stove. I met a guy while I was going thru some of my U of M visits who was where you are now but at like 5 months his symptoms were like mine and he was really down then two months later he was all better his only advice for me was give it time. I know that is a hard thing to deal with and even accept but he is right for most people's encounters with PCS. One last thing is that everyone's experience is different I see similarities between people but it is for the most part unique to each individual my best advice is to live day today and be glad that things are not worse and that you have a chance to get better.
Thanks for the support and may the lord bless you in your time of need.

Mark in Idaho- thanks for making that a little more decipherable I kinda just went on a rant. As for the state fund I am unaware of any in Michigan i have tried to look but can't seem to find anything yet. I have applied for SSD and was approved but within less than two months they decided they over paid me by like $15,000 which is insane because I didn't even get $3,000 for the back pay they sent me. My lawyer is taking care of it but it is going to take longer than what my bills have patience for. As for a list pretty much everything is an issue at the moment with out the W.C. covering my medical I have no meds to help with my symptoms. My biggest fear at the moment is having a seizure and just not waking up. So a simplified list would be seizures, constant migraines,fluctuating pain levels, fatigue, insomnia, memory loss, shakes, mood swings, ability loss, energy loss, cognitive losses, and sensitivities to light, sound, and a combination there of. I could name off a few more but I don't think it is necessary.
Thanks for the support and understanding

Wow...you sound a lot like me.

I'm 25 years old and I'm going on my 4th year of PCS with some PTSD and blackout seizures to boot. I too have been told by multiple doctors that I should learn how to cope, because these problems are here for the long haul.
I cannot drive because of my anxiety to it and seizures. I feel like a burden to my loved ones as well. I think that's a very normal feeling though. They constantly tell me that I'm not, but it's hard to believe that when you have to be so dependent on them. It's difficult to not feel bad when you cannot help more, and take care of things on your own. I was SO independent before all of this happened, the rock for everyone else, and now I need help for the littlest things.

The legal stuff is a mess. My accident actually happened in Michigan. When it comes to something like PCS that seems like it's invisible to the public, I feel that we will never get what we need. People in general do not understand, and often think that we make this stuff up. It's frustrating but true. It really sucks and is disappointing that one doctor's diagnosis can ruin things for you. I'm still dealing with the legal stuff from my accident and it only adds to the stress of everything. I know that it weighs a lot on the future, but I have found that for me, not thinking about it unless I have to is better. I pick my days when I want to focus on future stuff, because otherwise it all gets overwhelming very fast.

I don't know about everyone else here, but feel free to vent. Venting is necessary, and venting to someone who understands what you're going through helps a lot. It's terrible when you vent to someone who doesn't get it for an hour or so, and their response is something like, "Oh yeah, I forget things all the time. Just the other day I went from the living room to the kitchen and forgot what I went to the kitchen for." It's not the same as what we're going through but they don't get that.

From my time with this I've discovered that I've always held onto doctors promises. "In 3 months you'll be good as new." I waited eagerly for that date to come only to see no improvement. Then they would give a new date or prediction. When I finally had a doctor say that I was stuck with all of this I was kind of relieved. It was oddly nice, like it was finally okay. Now it's just about coping with it all and finding me again.

haha Isn't it great how people say that like it's SO easy to do? I don't know about you but I've lost my composure, and I miss it. I work daily on getting it back. The perception of who I am is not accurate. It makes me very sad. It’s easy to tell someone that their improved performance is a great thing, but to someone who used to be able to do it with no problem, it sure as heck doesn’t feel that way. I feel like I've lost parts of myself that I have long relied on. Trying to figure out new ways to do everything is exhausting and a monumental challenge.

In order to get back in the game, we have to figure out different ways of doing things that really work, instead of the old ways that were dependent on the old wiring. I don't really have much advice on how to do that yet. I've found phrases that I can say to my husband to notify him easily that I'm over-stressed, or cannot handle what's currently going on.

I'm really sorry that this happened to you too. I wish that I could say that it gets easier, but I have my bad days and I have my good. My dad called me the other day and we talked for awhile on web-cam. He made a point to make note of the little improvements I have made with coping. I didn't see them, but it was nice to see that they did in fact exist.

Just keep trying and make note of the little improvements. Make lists, and a list of what in particular you want to learn to cope with at this point in time and work on it. For me it's my mood swings and inability to tolerate stressful situations. It bothers the heck out of me.

I'm sorry if I typed too much, and I hope that some of it helps. For me it helps a little just knowing that I'm not alone in all of this.

You are not alone.

It is weird to think that in all of the people i have to help me that some of the best comfort is knowing that its not just me and others understand compleatly and i have never even met them. i just wanted to thank you guys for just that. Also i have a question about sleeping. latley i cant sleep at all and when i do get some in it is short and on/off. any suggestions that might help would be greatly appreciated. i used to have meds for times like this but till i get this WC stuff figured out i have to find some alternitive.

3lysium - Let me just say, I can relate to a lot of what your going through. My memory and my cognitive abilities are diminished. Sometimes I think they are getting worse or just not getting better at all. I had to cancel my enrollment to medical school because of this...and working is not an option.

My mom, fiance, and the 2 real friends I have help me as much as they can...and like you, I feel like a burden. It kills me when my mom asks for help with something and I can't help her because of my condition. I'm currently renting a room from her with my fiance and kids. I want so much more for myself, my fiance and more importantly...my kids...and I can't do anything about it right now. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be able to anything about it.

My limitations and the thought of not being able to provide a comfortable life for my fiance and my kids kills me. It's causing me horrible anxiety and depression. I don't want to be some loser dad that can't even buy his kid a Christmas gift or take him to Disney Land.

Your not alone, dude. I'm right there with you.