Hi

Name's JayB and I'm fairly new to this forum. Been lurking here for about two weeks and decided to join up.

Little background story:

I had a thaiboxing fight in Thailand the 23rd of December without training. I train sometimes, but not at pro level and usually don't do this, but I was pretty drunk and decided to take a fight against a local guy. Both of us had headgear on and heavy gloves, but I still got my butt whooped and after the fight I felt terrible right away. I didn't lose consciousness but afterwards I was dizzy, nauseous had foggy vision, a blank stare and a massive headache which lasted for 3 weeks. Went to the doctor right away and after doing the whole follow-the-finger thing, she said I had not infact gotten a concussion, claiming that getting a concussion means going unconscious, not being able to control vomiting and being hard to wake up.

Anyway my symptoms started to fade away during the day, and since I was on vacation and thought I hadn't gotten a concussion, I started drinking heavily about 5-6 times afterwards, which I regret to this day. On the morning of the 31st, I really start to feel the symptoms, having glassy eyes, dizzy, having nausea. I go back to sleep and wake up feeling good again. The next day I take a plane ride back home where I just feel awful the whole ride. Coming home, beside the headache I feel good and it continues like this for a week, then finally the concussion symptoms start to kick in, I'm having headaches, dizziness, feeling tired, having a hard time concentrating, trouble with memory, sensitivity to noise and light, feeling of being in a fog.

Fastforward almost 4 months and here I am, I have gotten much better since the first days, but I'm still having symptoms such as hard time concentrating, it feels like I haven't sleept for 2 days when I look at people. Depersonalisation, anxiety, foggy vision sometimes, still sensitive to strong lights and loud noises.

During this time I've really noticed that besides maybe your family, nobody really cares about you and it's a really lonely long road to recovery. This is my first concussion ever, but I still wonder if I'll ever become 100% again.

If you have been thaikickboxing for any length of time, I guaranty you have had previous concussions. You just never had a concussion that caused lasting symptoms. Many concussions have symptoms that only last a few minutes or an hour or two. Plus, you likely have suffered many sub-concussive impacts. A single bout with a dozen sub-concussive impacts is like a concussion but one does not take a break.

So, that being the case, it is not unusual for you to be having a difficult recovery.

What have you been doing to help with recovery ?

What is you average day like ? Work, study, sports, exercise, consuming caffeine, alcohol, other intoxicants, sleep, computer screen time, music, etc.

I've actually very rarely sparred due to being relatively new to the sport. But during the bout I took alot of shots to the temple, as my opponent was much more experienced than me and he used a more boxing-oriented approach which focus alot on the head.

But I played alot of soccer when I was younger, maybe that can be something?

To try to help to recovery, besides taking the vitamins I wrote in the sticky thread, I have taken a break from school and work, and currently just sit at home, but seeing as I have literally nothing to do, sadly I spend alot of time infront of the computer. Around 8 hours a day. I used to go to the gym but now I've stopped, but I think I really should start going.

Also forgot to mention, my upper neck has been hurting like hell, so I've been visiting this chiropractor once a week, who gives me an acupuncture treatment.

I don't drink caffeine anymore, barely any sugar aswell. My doctor prescribed me with hydroxzine for my anxiety because every night for a week I've been getting palpitations and shortness of breath which I feel is stress related.

What do you do on the computer ? Any gaming ? Any smart phone texting, gaming ?

fyi, Hydroxzine is known to cause head aches.

Yes, soccer was likely a contributing factor to your current situation. Some low impact exercise like a bike ride would be useful to stimulate blood flow.

It sounds odd to me that a chiro is just doing acupuncture. Some gentle neck traction and mobilization of C-1 and C-2 would be helpful. No 'twist the head and pop the neck' adjustments. They are too aggressive to many people.

Hi JayB and welcome.

Have you seen a neurologist since returning home? My concussion specialist talked with me about trying to be conscious of my symptoms and adjusting my activities until the symptoms improve. For example, even after an initial period of brain rest is over (did you have that?), if you are still having severe headaches on 8 hours of screen time a day, I would think that you'd want to cut that way, way down. I have to admit I'm a gamer and it's so hard for me not to play; every so often I try for 20 minutes but I notice very quickly (gaming has an even stronger effect than screen time in general) that screen time causes some of my worst symptoms.

Also. Try to stay in the present and not worry about "if/when you'll ever be 100% again". We all think about that. But this is where you are now. It is a long road, but there are people who care. Seek out support groups in your area. I'm not sure where you are, but if you're in the US check out biausa.org which lists local groups.

Be well.
Julie

Mark:

I game alot, read alot, I use my smartphone very often aswell.

Yeah I'm trying not to use the hydroxzine too often as I feel I'm too slow during after I wake up.

Yeah I don't know, I just go to the chiro where he does the whole 'twist the head and pop the neck' thing, I wonder if it's actually better to go see a physical therapist instead?

AndromedaJulie:

Hi Julie, thanks for having me

No I have not, I came home and a week after landing I went straight to the doctor's office where she examined me with the finger thing, putting my finger left on the nose, then the right one, walking a straight line with my eyes closed and arms straight and I did just fine, therefore she said that I was fine and sent me straight home. I had a few drinks two weeks afterwards and was still the same. A month after the visit, I drank heavily where I started feeling like crap and haven't had a drink since.

I'm not sure what you mean by brain rest, so probably not.

Yes, I've come to that conclusion aswell, I was feeling worse the day I wrote the first post but I'm trying to see the positive side of it, seeing as the stress of looking too much into the future makes recovery much harder.

I'm actually living in Sweden, so I'm afraid that website doesn't help me much. But I'll give my doctor a call on Monday so he can send me to a neurologist. This is by the way another doctor than the one who first examined me after my trip.

JayB--your post raises an interesting point, the idea of how we define concussion and there isn't one accepted definition but one widely used definition requires a loss of conciousness. That said, I came across some scientific literature recently that said that you don't actually need to suffer a "concussion" to experience PCS.

My friend, I hate to say it but you are **only** 4 months in. The symptoms have to have persisted for 3 months just to be considered PCS so maybe you technically think of it as 1 month in to official PCS, if that helps.

I don't have that much time on you. I am going on 7 months and am just NOW finally getting into a brain injury program.

There isn't much I can say that you probably haven't already experienced. I know the loneliness all too well. But one thing I have decided to do lately is look at it as an adventure! I am a new person and I am discovering the new me with my new abilities.

I allow myself to mourn over the loss of the old me. I try to control the fear of the future and I encourage myself to get excited about exploring new job opportunities.

One other thing my psychologist suggested-- when the brain fog really gets bad, and I mean bad like sitting staring at the wall and you feel disembodied, then just pretend you are high. Tell your mind it is a voluntary condition, even one you wanted. Then don't fight it; embrace it. It really helps me!

Lawyer1732-

Wow fascinating, I actually didn't know that. Maybe that's why the two different doctors examined me and said that I didn't have a concussion.

What I don't understand though is why I felt good for a week, and then the symptoms kicked in 5-6 days after I arrived back in Sweden. If it would have been like this the same day it happened, I would have stopped drinking that night.

Only thing I did differently was that I started using the computer for gaming. Perhaps that finally triggered it?

Thanks for the advice, the blank stare happens to me every day, I've also been experiencing this weird thing with my eyes where they go left and right really fast for a second, it usually happens when I overuse the computer.

JayB, read through this forum, there's a ton of good info, and many answers to the questions you're asking.

I had a similar experience with my concussion where I felt mostly fine right after and it all went to hell only a couple weeks later. Recently I talked to a doc who specializes in concussions and even according to her questionnaire I was not supposed to have any long term problems, since I only had a headache for a few hours right after the concussion.

Although I was at some point diagnosed with a concussion by my regular doctor, I was told that since I didn't lose consciousness I have nothing to worry about... And here I am 2.5 years later still messed up.

My advice to you is to limit your computer/smartphone/TV/physical exercise/mental strain/etc as much as possible at this point and let your brain/body rest.

Russiarulez-

Interesting to read that our experience in this matter are very similar, guess I'm not as alone as I thought.

Yes, I've reduced my computer use by alot and I'm feeling better, however regarding exercise, my doctor told me it's okay to do light workout, I tried not working out for 2 weeks and all it led to was depression and anxiety which worsened my symptoms.

Thanks for your input