[Dancer3173]

On January 11th 2014 I banged the front right hand side of my head with a metal pole. It landed on my head sideways as opposed to end on. I didn't loose conciousness however I immediately felt sick, dizzy, light headed and a loss of balance. About an hour and a half later my right eye swelled up to the point where I couldn't see out of it unless I physically held my eyelid open. I didn't go to A&E as I had a dance competition the next day so I rested and felt fine the next day.

On the tuesday I was at college and took a turn for a worse. I couldn't see properly everything was blurry and double vision, everything was moving (spinning, wavy effect, moving closer/further away) and I couldn't understand what people we're saying to me or what I was reading I knew they'd spoken to me and I knew I had just read something but it wasn't registering in my brain what it was about. I went to my GP who said it sounded like a concussion and it'd go within 2 weeks.

I continued to get headaches, tinnitus, blurry vision, difficulty understanding people, difficulty getting words out as they seemed trapped in my head, I get words in the wrong place, dizziness, nausea, long and short term memory problems, extreme fatigue, sensitivity to light and noise, disturbed sleep, easily aggravated, difficulty learning new things and a concentration span of less than 30 minutes. I used to rely heavily on a picture memory to remember things for example revision notes, sequences, phone/pin numbers etc but I no longer have this skill.

One of my dance team members dad is a neurosurgeon and said he'd check everything was physically ok ie no bleeding or fragments of bone floating around and this took place in the week commencing 17th Feb and thankfully everything was fine. However since then I have had no further treatment, no assessments and no support offered yet both my GP and the brain clinic I attended claim I am in the system. One woman came out and took notes on my situation in the first week of May and said she'd get back to me with appointments to see clinical psychologists and speech therapist so I can get an understanding of how badly damaged my head still is and how long it will take to get better. This has not happened.

I still suffer with all the symptoms I listed above, I am more frustrated than I was in the first few months mainly because it has been more than 6 months and i'm still no closer to treatment. I had to drop out of college and not sit my final exams as I couldn't remember the information. I can't go get a job as my memory problems stop me from remembering sequences (e.g. working a till, giving directions to a customer to a certain part of a store) and my inability to get words out/understand what people are asking me would stop me from being able to help customers. Therefore I have no money as even if I applied for support from the government i'd be turned down as I have nothing to back my claim up in the form of medical reports.

Any advice on what to do from here and where to go?