My name is Lisa. My 14 year old son was just diagnosed with PCS this past Monday. He has lost his short term memory, cognition and focus. Suffers from severe headaches, ringing in ears, left arm trembles and has lost his sense of taste. He has played football on a try-out team for 7 years (since he was 7). I was told football caused his PCS. Neuro doctor thinks he suffered a bad concussion last October. My son never told me. All I remember is he came off the field one night after practice grabbing his head and crying and vomitting. I asked him if he needed to got the hospital and he said no, he just had the flu. He told his Neuro doc that he did get seveal helmet to helmet hits that night and had a headache, was dizzy and vomitted for 5 days. He never told me any of this when it was happening and continued to practice and play his football games. Does anyone else know of a kid this young with PCS and how do I help him through it? He is normally a straight A student but is currently failing all his classes. He gets everything wrong and can't remember anything he reads. He is now on home hospital and has a teacher come to our house to teach him. The doctor said he should quit football but he doesn't want to. How do I convince him it isn't a good idea. He is a little freaked out that Junior Seau died as a result of PCS 2 days after my son was diagnosed.

I am so upset about all of this. He also has other issues to but not related to PCS that we are trying to figure out. He walks with a limp and all his joints hurt.

Thanks for your help.

lccoon,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I am so sorry to hear of your son's injury and struggles.

Before I discuss your son, I suggest you contact his coach, school, or other organization sponsoring his football team. It is long past the time when any football team can get away with not properly advising players, parents, and other concerned parties about the risks. signs, and symptoms of concussion.

In my view, his team was outrageously negligent. He should have never been allowed back onto the field nor to play or practice until he was symptom free for two weeks if not the rest of the season.

At 14, PCS is not uncommon. In fact, it is actually more common because the adolescent brain is far more susceptible to injury and long term damage. If somebody told you that youth creates a more tolerant brain, they were dead wrong.

The October incident was likely a moderate to severe concussion. The vomiting alone was cause for an urgent visit to the doctor, usually the ER.

The fact that he has been playing football since 7 years old suggests that he has had many previous concussions. He attitude to play through the symptoms also suggests that he is experienced with concussions. What this history means is quite simple. he has a history of both concussions and many sub-concussive impacts.

Most of the NFL players who have ended their own lives, usually in their mid 40's. did not have extensive concussion histories. They were more likely to have an extensive history of sub-concussive impacts. Concussions often cause the player to take time away from the impacts of contact play.

Sub-concussive impacts get over-looked and toughed through causing a cumulative effect from a game or practice where up to 40 sub-concussive impacts per week are experienced. The research data shows the average football p[layer experiences 600 to 1200 sub-concussive impacts PER SEASON. These are the killer impacts.

My neurologist who treated me for PCS from soccer ball heading when I was 15 years old (1970) banned me from contact sports permanently. I have obeyed that ban but have still suffered 12 more concussions in the 30 years since even though I took precautions with my normal day to day activities.

Your son needs to be home from school until he is symptom free, including being able to read text books.

He will benefit from a number of changes to his day. He needs to avoid caffeine, alcohol, MSG, artificial sweeteners, high sugar content foods, and any overly processed foods. he needs to get good quiet sleep. He should be taking nutritional supplements to help his brain detoxify. This includes B-12 (500 to 100 mcgs daily), a B-50 complex, D3, Omega oils, all of the anti-oxidants (no vitamin C on an empty stomach), magnesium, calcium and some others I am forgetting. Meat proteins is helpful, especially pork.

It would be worthwhile to have his hormone levels checked by a specialist. Not a PCP or endocrinologist. Their standards are too loose. Check https://www.womensinternational.com/..._referral.html for a good referral. Doctors who have a special emphasis on like-extension or anti-aging sometimes have good knowledge in this area.

He needs blood work for Thyroid (4 tests), sex hormones, adrenal hormones, D3, folate, B-12 all tested.

While he recovers, it will help if he has some manual activities to do to keep busy. No video games, AT ALL. Building models (with safe glue), drawing, or anything that focuses on using his hands. Other than video games, manual tasks will not over-whelm his brain. Planting a garden would be a good task just no swinging a pick to loosen the soil.

He can try light reading but should stay away from fiction, especially the literature common to his school age. Fiction requires to much mental effort to keep track of characters, time, and all of the descriptive details. I find I do best reading about mechanical issues. Biographies may be OK.

The point is to avoid any need to multi-task. Multi-tasking is detrimental to even an uninjured and healthy brain. Speak with him in simple sentences as if he is a 3 year old with a good vocabulary. Complex sentences will likely get him annoyed or frustrated. They require too much memory function and complex thought.

He should stay away from any meds except for Tylenol, aspirin, or ibuprophen unless prescribed by his doctor.

I would not be surprised if his neuro is not much help. Most doctors are clueless about PCS.

There is no way anybody can predict a timeline for his recovery. If they try, they are ignorant or just using broad statistical averages.

His best efforts should be used to learn coping skills. There are plenty depending on what symptoms are his biggest struggles.

There are two online aids for you to check out. The TBI Survival Guide at www.tbiguide.com is 84 pages that you can download and print out. The YouTube video series "You Look Great" by John Byler is 6 episodes long and takes about an hour to view all 6. The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Xso...ature=youtu.be

You should also get his neck checked out. C-1 and C-2 often get messed up during a concussion. An upper cervical chiropractor can be helpful with this (NUCCA.org). Some PT's have skills at light traction with manipulations that can help. Avoid any "twist the head and pop" chiropractors. That is too aggressive. You may find a physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation) that can help.

There is lots of good help and support here so don't be afraid to ask.

My best to you both.

Hi Lisa,

I am a mother of an 8 year old boy with PCS so I can relate to you. First of all, Mark always has very helpful suggestions and is very knowledgable. All his points are great ones. I am thankful to him and many other members offering support. You have come to the right place!

As a mother it is tough to see your child suffer. It's important to stay strong for him and support him through this difficult time. I found myself breaking down at night worrying about my son but would wake up in the morning and just give him lots of love and support and stay positive for the future. It takes a lot of patience and its a long tough road. The hardest part is not knowing when they will get better but in time they do.

In addition to this place, I found support from my husband and friends. Its important to let your son's friends know about what he is going through. Most people don't really understand PCS if they haven't gone through it. PCS can be isolating because it limits you with your usual activities. My son is lucky to have great friends that come over for short visits to see him and hang out.

Communicating with his school is also important. Our school has been so supportive and he only does the really necessary work. I do realize though that it's a lot tougher with the wrk load of a high school student. But this will take some stress off your son.

Our lifestyle has changed and we've had to cancel vacations and not attend certain parties/functions because the noise and overstimulation was just too much for my son to handle. Once i understood this is a long term thing, i just accepted it and adjusted our lifestyle. My son's recovery is our family's number one priority. We have Two other young kids and i make sure they feel special too-its what us mother's do! I'm just glad i can be here for my son to help him.

These past three months have been filled with pain and disappointments for my son as he was taken out of hockey, lacrosse, baseball and soccer. But on the positive side, as he has been improving at the three month mark, he got back into golfing which he really loves. For a sports kid, it's a great sport for him to play that is non contact sport.

Just one question, has your son been struggling through school since October and going full time? When did the tutor start? My son has been out of school too with a tutor at home but he is going to start going back for two hours a day, mainly just to listen and be around the other kids. We'll see how he does but still continue with the tutor

Sometimes it's nice to know you are not alone. Keep us posted on your son.

Kristy

Try to drop the worry (and possibly guilt) you have from your son not telling you about his symptoms and the helmet to helmet hits. He probably wasn't aware enough of what was going on in order to realize what was going on until it was all over and it randomly occurred to him. It's pretty typical from all concussion victims to "keep going" through it. It's also just a part of the way we're socialized right now - although I'm hopeful that society is changing when it comes to concussions, unfortunately due in part, to the sacrifice of players like Junior Seau.

Also, you're not a coach who should be trained to recognize the signs of concussion. So, I tend to agree with Mark that your son should have been pulled from the game.

It sounds like your son needs cognitive rest. Which means he should not be asking his brain to do stuff it's having trouble doing, like homework and schoolwork. If the TV overwhelms him and causes him to have symptoms like dizziness, headaches or a decline in cognitive functioning then it should be avoided. Typically, people recovering from concussion can be easily over stimulated and it's best to avoid the sources of the stimulation that will overwhelm their brains in an effort to allow them to rest so they can heal. Healing brains have a lot of trouble filtering noise and other stimulus that a normal brain doesn't even consciously recognize that it's filtering out. So, restaurants and other noisy or active places might just be too much for him to handle - and one of the problems with it is that he might not even recognize what he's having trouble with. A recovering brain has trouble analyzing itself. It's having trouble doing a lot of things it could do before the injury! So try to be as patient as possible. It might be difficult for your son to analyze and/or communicate what's going on with him as a result of it too.

First of all, I am so sorry your family is experiencing this. I know it is incredibly difficult for all of you. I'm so glad you found us here. There is a lot of good information and support here.

I can relate a lot to your son. I was also a person who was used to "pushing through," who wanted to push through, and who made things A LOT WORSE by pushing through. From that experience, I can say that your son is probably not in a good place to be making his own decisions about what he should and shouldn't be doing at this point. In the first place, his brain is damaged and he's not able to think clearly. In the second place, there is a lot of grief and emotion and denial about giving up normal life and the things that we love to do.

Because of this, I think that one of the best gifts you can give your son right now is to be firm but loving about taking charge of what he is and is not allowed to do, even if he is angry about it and protests (which I am sure he will).

And based on my experience, what he probably needs is PHYSICAL REST and BRAIN REST until he gets to a point where he is largely symptom free. This certainly means that he should not be playing football (or basketball or baseball or lacrosse or pretty much any other sport) at this time. It might also mean that he should be taking a complete rest from school for a while if it is causing him any symptoms at all. He also should almost certainly be avoiding television, movies, video games, texting, crowded places (stores, malls, restaurants), radio, texting, computer time, etc. Substances to avoid include caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol (the latter two of course should be a given at his age).

What would be good for him:
- excellent nutrition - Mark has some good pointers above though I differ with him on the animal proteins - I would suggest a plant-based whole foods diet high in omega-3, tryptophan, folate, calcium, and iron in addition to the B vitamins,
- very gentle exercise that does not induce symptoms (such as slow walking or chair yoga)
- water - he needs to stay well hydrated and should drink half his body weight in ounces daily (i.e. if he weighs 100 lbs he should drink 50 oz.). There is also some hydrotherapy you can do to increase blood flow to the brain -- PM me if you want more details about this.
- sunlight - sitting or walking outside in the sun during the day is excellent for the brain. He needs to get sunlight through the skin for vitamin D and through the eyes for melatonin production.
- fresh air - again, walking or sitting outdoors and breathing deeply is excellent. Sleep with the windows open at night if possible.
- rest - At least 8 hours of sleep per night (more if he needs it) and naps during the day if his body and brain demand it during the recovery phase.
- spiritual practice - connecting with whatever faith tradition you practice can be very important in keeping a positive outlook through prayer, meditation, etc. If you don't have an active faith connection, a small step is to practice gratitude by making a list of 3-5 things he is thankful for or appreciated that day.

Again, this is such a hard journey. Keep us posted with how you do. It won't all get better at once, but it does get better over time.