Hope it's okay to make a new thread. Had a concussion almost 2 months ago. Had headaches for a few days, followed by a "heavy" feeling right arm. Later it was my right arm and leg, and they would have intermittent tingling.

Now the tingling has gone away, and my headaches are constant but extremely mild and usually just in one spot on the head (thought it travels around). Now for the past week or so I wake up with my triceps burning. The pain is not crazy, but it's certainly very unpleasant. This usually goes away after I get up and moving around. Also, the weird heavy feeling moves around to my other limbs. Yesterday I had a weird pain in the base of my penis for the whole day. But now, most disturbingly, the burning pain is in my left tricep only--this started today-and my left pinky, middle, and ring fingers are involuntarily closing up toward my palm when I face my palms up.

This is all so strange and I'm wondering if this concussion has caused some sort of neuropathy, fibromyalgia, or something. I know these are very uneducated guesses, but if anyone can give me some places to look for info I would appreciate it.

I also went to a neuro a couple days ago, and since I didn't have any cognitive or balance symptoms, he dismissed my weak/heavy limbs and prescribed me gabapentin, which I take before bed and has no effect.

Thanks for listening.

I still have hope that this will all blow over soon.

How did you get your TBI?

I have a lot of the same symptoms: shock like pain, numbness, tingling and weak limbs. I can only hold my arms out from my body for a few seconds at a time and have very poor dexterity in my hands. These difficulties have been attributed not to my TBI, but to nerve damage in my neck from severe whiplash.

It's hard to get a TBI, without your neck also taking a jolt. MVA whiplash is obvious, but heads also get snapped back if we get punched, fall or walk into an object.

Has your neck been properly examined? Did your doctor do any sort of neuro exam? At the very least, he/she should have asked you to hold out your arms, watched how fast you can wiggle your fingers, measured your grip strength, accessed your response to pain and tested your reflexes. Hyper flexation is a pretty definitive sign of nerve damage.

I had burning pain in my palms, wrists, and forearms for months. I could not use my arms/hands at all (could not even brush my teeth or shower)for few months. Now, things are better, but I still have some pain. The doctors have no idea why this is happening.

Will, you were in an MVA. Have your doctors not considered the impact of whiplash on your symptoms?

No one has checked my neck. My head was stationary when I was hit. The Dr. did a check of my reflexes, grip, vision, etc. and that was all fine. He said that since the weakness had spread to the other side of my body, that this was very unusual, and that it would probably go away soon. He seemed to think it was all in my head, thought it certainly is not. My fingers started doing this a couple days after our visit, and I can't return for 2.5 months.
My fingers are better today, thank god--I can tell that they are wanting to curl, but their natural pose is normal. It seems like the symptoms are changing day to day and throughout the day.

My fingers will spontaneously curl in or, sometimes, my hand will just fly open. The hand will then be stuck in that position for a few seconds to a few minutes. It is very painful and nobody thinks I'm imagining it.

Do you have any swelling in either of your hands? That's another tell tale sign of nerve damage.

This isn't a Workers' Comp doctor, is it? Get your neck checked by someone who knows what they are doing.

The standard neuro test of reflexes, etc. is meaningless. It will not detect the subtle neck injuries common to concussions.

What do you do during the day ? Do you sit, lie, move about, etc. ? Neck inflammation and upper back inflammation can come and go causing symptoms to change.

Yes, agreed. I was bad enough that I flunked all the reflex/pain/ hot and cold tests, but it wasn't until they did an MRI (finally) that my neuro realized how significant my neck injury was. He sent my PT to my house to slap a stiff collar on me.

A thorough examination of the neck should be standard protocol after TBI. So much of the misery people relate on this site is coming from neck issues, not brain damage.

I move around all day--sitting/standing/walking, being very active teaching kids.

So I have woken up with leg spasms the past 3 days. This is new. I immediately get up and do jumping jacks and they go away. It's only been happening when I wake up. Maybe I should get a new doctor or something? It's so hard to get an appointment that's not weeks and weeks away.

Thought I should mention that my head has leaned to my left since I was a kid. I think it's because I have a slight wandering eye that causes double vision when I look in certain directions. Not even my wife or longtime friends are aware of it unless I point it out to them, because I usually just turn my head instead of using both eyes to look to the right. I've read that a lazy eye can cause a head tilt as it helps the eyes to focus.

When I was younger, and up until maybe 5 years ago, I would push my head to the side to pop my neck loudly. Eventually this started to seem like a really bad idea so I've stopped. Again, my neck doesn't hurt and I was stationary when I was hit, but perhaps this could be a clue.

Also, in lieu of another thread, I wanted to ask if it's safe to mix valerian or melatonin or something like that with the gabapentin I've been prescribed. I've only been taking gabapentin for five days, so I'm not sure if it's done anything. I'm really looking for something so I can have 8 - 10 hour rests, instead of 5 - 7 like I've been having.