Thanks for all the advice guys I appreciate it.

I am going to try and limit electronic use and no worries I will not be drinking alcohol until a good 3 months after no symptoms if that ever comes and slowly introduce it and stay away from getting pretty drunk. And mark I had gotten that drunk plenty of times before that with no issues/falls starting at 17, however I know that is stupid.

As for the anxiety, if it doesn't improve I'll consider some medication however I would prefer to stay away from stuff like antidepressants because there are so many bad things I've heard about them.

My b12 was just out above the standard range at 963pg/ml but if 1000 is fine, Ill begin taking it again. Any suggestions on dosing of the vitamins? some seem way too high above the daily value and others not sufficient enough.

As for the fish oil, I believe my doctor wanted me off it because of my liver enzyme being high, as well as Tylenol because that affects the liver too. I've heard that ibuprofen is bad for concussion headaches as it thins the blood. I also think that staying away from pain medicine has helped reduce the severity and amount of headaches I have gotten because of the "rebound effect" which a doctor explained to me about concussion headaches.

I suspected that it was central sleep apnea rather than obstructive as it makes sense to develop it after a concussion. My parents believe it's anxiety but I don't think so as I'm not anxious when going to bed and it will still happen. I sleep with my head elevated on two pillows which may cause the inflammation of my neck, but it seems as though if I don't sleep on two pillows I wake with a feeling of all the blood drained into my head or pressure and I wake up confused.

I also will have sharp pain throughout my body that feels like I hit my funny bones on some days. Is this nerve pain? I tried coq10 before and it really seemed to help my head/cognition however it would increase the nerve pain 10 fold, maybe I'm allergic to that? A b complex I used to take had a similar effect, but not as severe, allergic to a shared ingredient between the b complex and coq10?

Thanks again for your responses and support!

Hey

I'm glad to hear that you're giving up alcohol for the time being! As with any other injury, you need to maximize your health if you're going to heal, and alcohol simply doesn't help that cause.

I understand about not wanting to take anything for anxiety... maybe you could start with more natural supplements? St. John's Wart is supposed to be good for depression; I'm sure if you did a Google search, you'd find suggestions for anxiety as well.

I don't know enough about vitamins to comment on that stuff in terms of appropriate levels... I'm sure Mark and others can respond to that stuff better than I can.

I get what you're saying about pain meds for the headaches, but treating PCS primarily revolves around reducing stress, getting rest, and treating symptoms. I've not heard of the "rebound headaches..." does that mean that the headache comes back worse after the medicine wears off?

Personally, I have to take medicine when I have a headache because I can't miss work, but I can't function at work if the headache gets bad enough, so I don't have much of a choice. Even if you just try laying down in a dark, quiet room with a warm, wet washcloth over your head, definitely don't suffer through those headaches without trying to find some way to alleviate the pain.

As far as the sleep apnea goes, you need to see a sleep specialist about that if you haven't yet (sorry, don't remember what you said about that originally in your post and can't leave this screen to go look lol). If you do have sleep apnea, you need to be treated for it so that the sleep you get becomes better quality sleep. Doing so will also help with the anxiety among other benefits.

For the neck pain due to sleeping with your head elevated, maybe try sleeping on a wedge pillow? They range from about $30-40 on Amazon.

I'm not sure what to say about the nerve pain either, but I hope you get some answers on that.

A few important bits of info.

Tylenol is not good for the brain. Ibuprophen is better. The blood thinning should not be a problem unless there is a bleed. But then you will have other symptoms.

Rebound head aches are head aches that rebound after the body becomes accustomed to the pain meds. Sort of like an addict needing a bigger fix because his body has developed an accommodation for the current dose. Don't worry about rebound head aches. Just try to learn to relax out of head aches and treat those you can not relax out of with some ibuprophen. Learning to relax and lower your Blood Pressure is a fabulous lifelong skill to have.

Courtney is right about a wedge pillow. Flexing the neck like you are doing is the cause of my central apnea. The apnea will happen when I am awake if I am looking down for too long. All of a sudden, I will be out of breath and gasping. A sleep specialist will be a waste of time for Central Sleep Apnea. I have been that route. Just a lot of tests and expense with no solutions. Postural caused CSA needs to be resolved with good sleep posture and sleep hygiene. Put some blocks of wood under the head of your bed frame. About 4 inches to start then slowly reduce the angle until you can sleep with no lift.

I sleep with a pillow that only supports the side of my head so it does not roll too far to the right. I can not let my head roll to the left at all or I will have trouble. I also often sleep in a recliner. I do not go to bed until I am ready to fall right to sleep. Tossing in bed is a good way to sleep with bad posture.

I am in total disagreement about returning to alcohol. You did not answer my question about when you started drinking to get blasted. How old were you when you got blotto drunk the first time ? How often since then ?

I went through high school and partied stone sober. Having a good time sober is just a mind game. It is easy to let go when you know you still have your good judgement to count on. People would ask me if I was drunk as I enjoyed myself. Never. It was fun just getting silly and letting loose. Had a miserable hangover from a single glass of beer and never consumed more than a single glass of Drambuie in an evening.

I'd rather remember the fun I had than worry about the damage and trouble I may cause to myself and others.

The Vitamins and Supplements sticky at the top has basic dosages.

My best to you until you take a drink, then you will have my wrath.

Thanks again for the replies guys. If the headache is unbearable, I will take an ibuprofen.

Thanks for the wedge pillow suggestion Courtney! I ordered one off Amazon and I believe that should work. Mark, thanks for the advice too about the sleep apnea and vitamins, I'm gonna start on that.

Concerning the alcohol, I started drinking over winter break this year, and the first time I tried it was one of the times I was the drunkest I have been, to the point of blotto. It took me a couple times to find my limit over break where I wouldn't get sick. I had gotten blotto drunk about 10 times till my accident and there were plenty of times where I was just drunk and not full blown blotto, so I knew what I could handle or at least I thought until I somehow hit my head which even my friends don't know how. However, I had been that drunk plenty of times before without incident. Besides winter break, I never got sick excluding the two times I hit my head which is most likely because I lost blood and got concussions.

Once I recovered from the first concussion I went back to drinking a decent amount, not blotto, but drunk and I didn't have any bad hangovers and no lingering symptoms. Believe me, I am going to be cautious in returning if I can. At least 3 months of absolutely 0 symptoms and if it turns out I get a hangover from a single beer, then I will give up alcohol for the rest of my life. I do not plan on getting blotto'd or close to it again just because of the risk even if it turns out the alcohol doesn't relapse symptoms at all.

One last question for mark or anyone who thinks they know(it seems mark knows the most about vitamins/supplements), is it possible that those vitamins could cause the severe sharp pains through my limbs? It certainly seems to strongly correlate to when I do take the coq10 and sort of the b complex. Ways around that? Thanks again for the replies guys.

I know it's been a while, but curious how this turned out. I have the same "hyperconcussability" feeling post-concussion (been 4 months since my relatively minor concussion), where minor vibrations / bumps are painful (or rather, I am extremely sensitive to them) and seem to set me back.

I mentioned this symptom to my neurosurgeon (a leading specialist in concussions) and he didn't seem to understand what could be causing such a feeling. I also noticed that no other responders to this thread seem to acknowledge this symptom, nor have I seen anything else about this in my (somewhat obsessive) internet research and definitely nothing in the more mainstream literature.

Thanks

Severe sharp pains in your limbs? B-vitamins are super powerful. Dosage is huge. Too much and you can have some nasty symptoms. My heart was wonky from too much folate in my body.

They're great though in the right amounts. Necessary for me.