Hi, I have had several concussion over the past 3-4 years, mostly from light incidents. At one point I've had all the typical symptoms such as fogginess, pressure etc. which went away fairly quickly.

I started getting significantly better doing chiro and neck exercises but suddenly my face started tingling with prolonged use of electronics and the tingling would be painful if I kept using the electronics.

I started going to physical therapy with very good results, but light incidents such as a car braking too hard would bring my symptoms back. I would make progress for 2-3 weeks where I was getting close to symptom free and then something like a hard brake or a car swerving would bring my symptoms back for a few days to a week. Icing my neck or taking certain medications would lower my symptoms. This is something I never experienced before as unless I directly hit my head quick movements would not give me any problems. I was wondering if any experienced anything similar and had any solutions as I believe I am close to getting over the PCS if I could figure out these symptoms. Thanks for any responses.

4yearson,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

I have sensitivity to similar jerks and such. These are common to the roller coaster of PCS recovery. Sounds like you may want to try to avoid congested traffic situations.

When you say, 'using electronics,' do you mean a cell phone or things held to your head/ear or is this something in your hand ? Sometimes, holding the head rigid can cause neck issues.

Thanks for the response.

I mean like using computers, watching TV etc. Certain things bother me more than others. For example when my head isn't tingling I can use computers and watch tv for the whole day if I wanted. However sometimes tingling can start after 1-2 hours on the computer depending on if it's after my head is jerked or not. It usually gets better after 2-3 days where there is only sporadic tingling, but everytime my head moves quickly eg. in a car it comes back.

I was just wondering since this is something I didn't experience in the first 2-3 years, only recently when I had gotten rid of most of the symptoms.

Tingling can relate to poor blood flow to the head. You may be aggravating your neck causing inflammation that is restricting blood flow.

Too much 'twist the head and pop the neck' chiro can be problematic. Plus, good neck recovery requires disciplined posture, especially when resting or sleeping. Some subtle neck injuries take months to years of good discipline to heal, at least, that was my case.

Yes, that's something I thought could be the cause as the tingling started near the end of the chiro. Most of the chiro was massages rather than pop the neck though that component was there. I only started getting better after physio where I started strengthening my neck. Though the chiro helped me greatly in reducing other symptoms.

When my head gets really bad usually the only thing that helps other than icing is nortriptyline, which usually stops the symptoms within 10-15 minutes, i'm not sure if that helps with increasing blood flow but it pretty much stops the tingling. Thanks for your replies.

I have this, and my PCP said I have some sort of neuralgia from the concussion. Something is pressing on my nerves and causing them to tingle/burn at times. He didn't really know how to treat me for it and said I need to speak with my other doctor about it. I am doing that next week.

I feel like B vitamins did help with the tingling, but it still returns for brief periods. Like you, it becomes worse while texting or using my laptop.

That's interesting, it makes sense after looking up neuralgia. It would explain why the nortriptyline worked, as my doctor had told me it also helps with nerve damage. I will talk with my doctor about it as well, has anything other than B vitamins helped you?

TBI and whiplash often go hand and hand. That can result in Traumatic Myelopathy of the spine - the "pressing" MWS referenced.

I have a lot of tingling in my face. Sometimes my face is so numb that it feels like I'm wearing a mask.

I've experienced nerve pain as well.

Supplementing acetyl-L carnitine, gamma linolic acid, and alpha lipoic acid in addition to fish oil and a strong multivitamin has led to a pretty dramatic improvement over time for me.

Same here. Its usually my right side of my face where it happens. Happens in my hands a lot too. Weird because i hit the back of my head