[KieraS]

Hi-

New to the site, and am searching for possible vitamins, or meds for my 16 year old daughter.

She was first injured over a year ago with first concussion at school during colorguard. Suffered the entire year with headaches, nausea, and "visions"... trouble with patterns vibrating, walls "shaking", dots, colors bleeding onto other colors, text dripping, etc. She was unable to read until 3-4 months later. She was out of school from November - April due to these (and more) symptoms. She finally was able to completely rest her brain over the summer with no tutoring, etc. She was still having what the neurologist calls "positive visual phenomenon", and my daughter called TV static pretty much non-stop. BUT-- she was able to function with it. She is a high honor roll student and pushes herself academically. She dropped everything that wasn't necessary and was lucky to be in accelerated classes so she had already completed that years work.

Almost one year to the date of the last accident, my daughter accidentally walked into a spiral staircase, and has been pretty much put back to square one. She tries every day to attend school, but the never ending headaches, nausea and "visions" make her unable to do much besides watch tv, talk on the phone, most things but not brain taxing things. When she tried to do work, the headaches get worse of course. After last year we are familiar with how it works...

She takes Ambien for sleep only during the week when she has to sleep and try to wake for school. She also takes Fioricet for pain, but the headaches normally don't completely go away. She has tried other meds that worsen the "visions" so we stopped them.

Does anyone use a vitamin like Phosphatidylserine for brain health? I am willing to try anything now that we are going into her 2nd consecutive year with this. She has tried other medications, we go to the Concussion clinic at University Hospital in Syracuse, NY. She has seen neuro docs as well as eye docs. Basically time is what everyone says... it's easy to say- but when the pressure of doing school work, is always present, it's pretty hard to.

My daughter missed her whole sophomore year, and was sooo looking forward to her junior year of high school. She loves school and learning-- wants to do something in the Genetics field and is worried about being out another whole year-- and what that will do when colleges look?

Any meds or vitamins, someone mentioned acupuncture?

Thanks so much!!! Stressed mom beyond...

[Chris4329]

Sorry to hear about your daughter. The vision problems that you describe doesn't sound like anything that I've read about on this forum.

I'm no expert around these parts and I'm not doing so well at following the advice from those who are. But I'm sure someone will drop in here with some helpful advice. Mark will likely reiterate that, most importantly, lots of quiet rest is important. She should not be pushing herself academically. I was told that if you're pushing yourself too hard it's possible that the brain is not healing and it will just remain in it's current state until you give it the proper time and setting to start healing.

I have been doing Massage, Chiro(for neck), IMS(for neck), Acupuncture, NUCCA, and now Craniosacral for the first time. It's hard for me to determine which ones are working long-term since I'm doing many things. But massage and acupuncture definitely give me short term relief.

[Mark in Idaho]

KieraS,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your daughter's struggles. The docs are right. It will take time. But time alone is not enough. She needs quiet rest time. She needs to reduce her cognitive work load. The brain heals during quiet rest. Pushing through only leaves a compromised brain polluted with the stress chemicals and such.

There is a thread called Vitamin Supplements. It has my regimen. The supplement you mentioned may be OK but it is not a stand alone cure. She needs good nutrition plus supplements plus quiet rest. I lost my sophomore year in HS to low grades due to PCS. I recovered my grades for junior year but crashed again my second semester of college due to the work load.

She needs to figure out what work load her brain can handle. She will likely need to moderate her school and other work-load for many years. Figuring out this now will save her opportunity to achieve in college. She can even write an college entrance essay about what she has learned about her own needs and capability to overcome 2 head injuries. It will put the voids in her academic record in good context.

With proper discipline, she should be able to go forward, just at maybe a slower pace.

Keep in touch.

My best to you both.

[KieraS]

Thanks Mark and Chris--

You are right in the Time thing... After last year, I know that it's the time that will be the best, but-- she really does no work right now. Occasionally she will try to read because she loves it, but sees lines that go down the page in different colors when reading paragraphs. Really weird..

Other than that, she truly does rest. Just overall feeling not right, and wanting to just lay down. I stay home with her 1 day a week from work, just so she is not sooo alone. It breaks up the weeks a little bit.

I am terrified to think that these symptoms could truly go on through her life? , I feel terrible for you and what you both have been through for years-- it's amazing.

I will check out the vitamin section and see what's there-- thanks!

[Mark in Idaho]

Kiera,

Tell her to use a blank sheet of paper to cover the text below the lines she is reading. She could experiment with white or solid colors. It should help. Also, she may benefit from an exam by a neuro-ophthalmologist.

I get overloaded trying to read fiction. Too many characters and such to track. Factual information is often easier to read since most of the information fits together like a jigsaw puzzle. The brain likes it when pieces fit together nicely.

And, Mom, relax and let her figure this out. You both may benefit from 2 good online resources. The YouTube video series "You Look Great" is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Xso...ature=youtu.be . It is 6 segments that take about an hour to watch.

The TBI Survival Guide is at www.tbiguide.com The 84 pages can be printed out. Send a small donation to support Dr Glen Johnson's web site if you can.

Another good site is http://www.brainline.org/content/201...u-to-know.html


My best to you both.