I am a 17 year old high school student and have been suffering a constant headache and dullness for 7 months now. I have had around 6 minor concussions in football which have caused this whole thing. My life has been turned completely upside down, I can't even imagine how I used to feel without this terrible headache. My headache is literally 24/7 and I have spent every waking hour for the last 7 months with this terrible thing. My headaches have stayed the same for the last 3 months, some days are better than others. I am losing hope because I can not see an end to these headaches, I just can not take it anymore. PLEASE help me if you have any advise or a similar situation, I am desperate for help.

Thank you so much and best of luck with your own PCS situation

Dan,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear you have been in such pain for so long.

The first question is simple. What have you done during the past 7 months to help with your recovery?

What kind of diagnostics and treatments have been offered/tried? What meds have you tried?

Have you had any diagnostics of your neck, specifically your upper neck?

Have you continued with school studies and an active life?

Do you consume caffeine, energy drinks, alcohol, MSG, artificial sweeteners, recreational substances, etc?

Any more history of your past year and years playing contact sports will help us understand your condition better.

Please help us by using a double line spacing every 5 lines or so. It makes it much easier to follow from line to line.

What is your general health like? Have you had your blood pressure tested during your worst head aches?

There are plenty of people here who understand what you are going through. Stick with us and we will help you understand your condition.

My best to you.

Mark is right. More info is needed. But for what it's worth I have had a similar headache for more than twice as long.

Dan, thanks so much for you time and help,
In these past 7 months I have seen a neurologist who has put me on both Depakote and Maxalt, both of which made my symptoms worse and made me very moody, so I stopped taking both shortly after starting them. I have also seen an Acupuncturist. The acupuncture itself did not do much but he put me on two Chinese herbal supplements to help with PCS. Only one of these helped at all and it was very minor.

I have worked out lightly which seems to help the headache a little post workout, but if I workout too hard it gets worse. I have not had any diagnostics of my neck, could that be a factor?

I missed a week of school when I initially got my last concussion last April, but besides that I have not missed any school. I have kept a very active lifestyle with my friends and family with the exception of playing any sports, though I plan on playing baseball this coming spring.

I do not consume any caffeine or energy drinks, I'm sure I take some artificial sweeteners with my diet but just don't know it, and I did consume alcohol over the summer(around months 3 and 4), but my head would hurt so bad the next day I quickly stopped that all together.

The last concussion I received I believe was on a Friday of spring practice, it was very minor and I chose to ignore it. I continued to practice with it the next week, receiving blows that would daze me and my vision would go completely white for a second. These hits happened about once a day for 4 days, I was having bad headaches everyday that week and finally new something was wrong so I told my coach and took myself out. I know playing that whole week was very foolish and I kick myself all the time for it, but you have to understand I used to live for football. My doctors don't take into account that I received multiple hits while having a concussion but I am convinced that that is why I am still suffering today.

My general health if very good and I have not had my blood pressure tested for my worst headaches.

Mark, I can not thank you enough for your time and help, you have brought me great encouragement. Please keep posting as I struggle through this, you are a true blessing.


Thanks and God Bless

Dan,

The neck issue is just about the only thing you can get any worthwhile diagnostics and treatment for. The C-2, C-1, and occiput joints are often injured. It takes very specialized X-rays or MRI to see the injuries.

Sometimes, a neck brace is prescribed to help stabilize the joint. Upper cervical chiropractors also have been helpful. Generic chiro tends to be too aggressive for these injuries. You can tell if there is an injury usually by the tenderness to touch behind the ears. This is the muscle group to these vertebra. It helps me to ice what I get this same tenderness and the related head aches.

"My doctors don't take into account that I received multiple hits while having a concussion" This proves that your doctors do not understand concussion. Very few do. Even those who work at concussion clinics are usually serious limited in their knowledge.

The concussions you have suffered are just the tip of the iceberg. For each concussion, you probably suffered 30 to 50 sub-concussive impacts. They are worse because the player does not take any time off to recover so the cumulative effect can be devastating.

Your doctors sound completely ignorant of sub-concussive impacts. The average football player suffers 700 to 1100 subconcussive impacts during the fall season. Full contact spring training makes this much worse.

Regarding artificial sweeteners, aspartame, Equal, Nutrasweet, sucralose, and Splenda are the common bad ones. Stevia and Monk Fruit extract are not that bad. But, there is no reason anybody needs to be consuming foods or beverages with artificial sweeteners or no-calorie sweeteners, not even diabetics. There is a rebound effect where the body becomes more hungry when it realizes it got zero calories from a food that tasted like it contained calories.

Read my post about vitamin supplements. It will give your brain a better chance to heal. You also need quiet rest. More on that later. And, btw, I have been here for over 3 years with 3700 plus posts. The only days I do not reply is when I am at my mountain cabin or having a bad day myself. So, keep in touch. There are plenty of knowledgeable people here to help you.

My best to you.

I am so sorry! I have a slight idea of what you are going through. My first of at least 4 concussions and at least 12 "bumps" was when I was 19 when I fell off of a horse, but the real kicker (no pun intended) was two weeks later when I was kicked in the head with a ball from about 20-40 feet away by a very good soccer player. I have had a headache ever since then, almost 4 years now. All the other stuff like nausea, dizziness, light and sound sensitivity, concentration and memory issues, those all come and go but the headache is always there. It does get better. But there will always be those bad days. For me, I had to back out of a lot of the really crazy activities with friends, I stopped doing any more exercise than walking, but I did not give it all up. My passion is dancing, so despite all this I continued to teach dancing, though I refused to dance for fun except once in a great while. I got my first concussion in my second semester of my freshman year of college and I still graduated with above a 3.0, but just barely. I haven't found anything that really helps. I would say I felt most in control when I was in college because if I needed to I could go to classes, and otherwise stay in my very dark and cool room just studying or sleeping and only leaving on the weekends to get out a little. Now that I have graduated, I am living back at home and it is so hard because I can't just hole up in my room for days at a time. My parents would freak out. I have to be a part of the family and hang out in the main part of the house.
I have a few things that I think are important, and if they don't work for you, then that is fine.
First DO NOT GET ANY MORE CONCUSSIONS!!!!!!
Second find one person who has headaches as much as you from whatever cause, this person will help you stay dedicated to protecting yourself and will also keep you from thinking that you are going insane.
Third, don't stop living life. You may have to change the way life is lived, but don't stop living it.
Fourth, invest in black curtains or really dark shutters.
Fifth, share every detail with your parents. The longer you wait to share with them the harder it gets for them to understand where you are in regards to healing and how they should treat you or deal with this hurt.
Sixth, Maybe take a year off in between highschool and college. Get a part time job and sleep. You will learn a lot while giving yourself the time to heal that you need.
Seventh, Don't play any sport with a ball, once you get a concussion your head becomes a magnet for anything that can cause you to get another concussion. Believe me, I have had 2 concussions just from watching other people play sports with balls.
Eighth, Even though this seems like a horrible thing, there is always so much good that we can learn from even the most horrible things. I know that I became a more compassionate and understanding person of other people in pain, and I was able to lead several outdoor excursions for people who were less than physically able to summit peaks or hike 50 miles in a weekend. (I went to a college in Wyoming where outdoor excursions were a required part of the curriculum).
Anyways, Good Luck! You will be in my thoughts and prayers!
Live Long and Prosper!
Margarite

Dan,

Mark is right. You should get your neck evaluated. It took me way too long to realize I had really bad soft tissue damage in my neck. I have trigger points everywhere and they all radiate to my head. Unfortunately, I have not gotten any relief from medications or trigger point release (or massage). Structural damage in the area Mark suggested also is a possibility, as the occipital nerves and other nerves exit the spine at C2.

I haven't found any relief for my headaches accept quiet rest and ice applied to my head/neck. This does not remove the headache but can help when they get particularly bad. Tylonel and aspirin seem to help take the edge off as well.

Get your neck checked out by a specialist and get some imaging done. Reduce your activities or you will never recover.

Good luck.

thanks guys,
do you think I should still get my neck checked out even though it seems perfectly fine and never hurts?

Wakey, you say I need to reduce my activity or I will never recover, what types of activity are you referring to? Is a little physical activity beneficial?

Thanks for sharing Margarite, sorry about your situation, I can't even imagine 4 years of this. I will pray for your healing!

Do you have migraine-type headaches? Or tension-type headaches?

I had daily migraines for about six months after my concussion. Then I was put on a migraine preventive (Elavil) which helped some, but I still got them a couple times a week. Also, the Elavil made me very groggy and dizzy.

Then I transitioned to Topamax. That worked better. Finally, I also switched to a vegan whole foods diet and used other natural treatments such as hydrotherapy and algal DHA/EPA to reduce inflammation in my body. After that, my migraines went away.

I do still take the Topamax. I tried to wean off it, but the headaches started coming back.

The other thing that really helped my headaches was vision therapy. Have you had a vision efficiency evaluation (different from a medical eye exam)? They will test how well your eyes work together. You can find a doctor who does this type of evaluation at http://www.braininjuries.org or http://www.nora.cc

Hope you're able to find some relief soon.

Dan,

I know about the terrible headache. This article helped me understand which types of headaches I was getting:

http://www.brainline.org/content/200...an-zasler.html

Only some meds work for different types. Even though I have low blood pressure, I still get severe headaches. I also agree with getting your neck checked.

Don't worry, you will get better, hang in there!