I have a question about my situation. Ive had PCS for about a year now. I had 3 concussions in about 3 months which has caused me to be where im at now. After the second one is where I the PCS started. I noticed head sensitivity, anxiety, headaches, and just not being able to think clearly. It was bad but manageable. I went to college and could still do most things id normally do.

I got a third concussion after that however and things got really bad. I felt so bad all day. Extremely out of it. My head was very sensitive and anxiety was terrible. I really felt nowhere close to myself.

My question is am I missing something? Is there more to this than PCS? What makes me think its more than PCS is the fact that my head is so sensitive, and the nature of the headaches I get. If I simply stumble down a step and jar my body I will get a headache.

These headaches give me very bad brain fog and a feeling of pressure throughout my head. Overall I feel alot more high strung and bad and just not able to think clearly at all with them. And when the headaches go away there is a loud pop in my ear, or a super loud ringing, and all the sudden I feel better. It happens every time. Also when the headaches are bad I will wake up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.

My life has been very hard since the third one. Washing my hair normally (roughly), driving, lots of things are too much for me and I just cant feel myself or good, or ever able to think clearly.

Could this be something more than PCS? Should I be taking certain tests? What I keep coming back to is that I have Increased Intracranial Pressure. Is this likely or do I just have bad PCS? If surgery is what will get me back to normal, or help anything id do it.

Hi tbeam,

I don't experience the popping or tinnitus you describe. However, everything else you detail sounds a lot like PCS. I've experienced pretty much all of the things you describe, and continue to in some cases. At 22 months post-concussion, head pressure remains a problem, particularly during exercise or over-stimulation, but it's much better than it was during the 1st year.

PCS involves a wide variety of symptoms affecting our physical, physiological, and mental functioning. Things that were never an issue pre-concussion(s) suddenly become significant daily challenges, such as depression, activity intolerance, social interaction, cognitive processing, etc. That is, all the things you could do before now have a tremendously negative impact on you.

Getting appropriate medical care really important during the first year; the earlier the better. Learning how to live with your new self for the short-term is key, so that you give yourself the opportunity to heal and avoid stressful life. Of course, that's easy to say, hard to do.

In the end, know that you're not alone... many of the this community have or are going through similar situations. For me, this community has been highly helpful and educational, and put me in a better position to play an active role in my recovery.

MM,

What do you consider to be appropriate medical care ?

Other than pain management, there has not been much I have seen doctors do successfully. They may confirm a PCS diagnosis and prescribe meds for anxiety but what else ?

The non-medical care is more important.
Vision behavioral optometrist
Vestibular assessment if dizziness is an issue
chiro and/or PT for neck issues
Anxiety CBT, etc.

It's simple Mark, I consider it all important and what is "appropriate" changes depending on the various sequelae/comorbidities that present for a given individual. However, considering chronic headache pain is typically at the top of the issue list for people with PCS, pain mitigation through pharmacological intervention/interventions is important, as are interventions geared at alleviating anxiety, depression, mood disorder, sleep disturbance, etc. In particular, if pain is not effectively controlled it reduces one's ability and willingness to seek help for many of the other significant issues we face. And considering that effective headache control is, for me at least, very difficult to achieve, it may take several MD/alternate specialists to do this.

I would say the above issues are at least of equal importance to vision, balance, tinnitus, etc. that so commonly plague the PCS'd. Of course, this might not always be the case.

In the end, it takes a lot of experts to get the care we need. In my region, doctor's, chiro's, psychiatrists, etc. are considered to be part of your "health team"... so, getting a good "health team" in your first year is important.

You are fortunate to have a health plan that allows such broad care. I find most of it to be a challenge to find and even harder to justify.

I can't read your post because the lines are so close together. The bold print doesn't help either. If you write around three sentences and then double space it more people will be able to read it and help you. Thanks!

Yes, public health care certainly has its advantages. However, the problem of finding someone who actually understands PCS has been an all too frustrating experience for me...