Hello Everybody,

I found this forum searching for information on my concussion symptoms.

Here is my story:

I'm a 32 year old male with no history of major head trauma. I was showering a week ago and slipped. It is one of those showers that doubles as a bath tub so I hit the underside of the back of my skull on the edge of the back of the tub. I hit it pretty hard and knew immediately that it was a concussion but I couldn't afford to miss school so I just finished showering and proceeded with my day. For the rest of the day I was kinda dizzy and lightheaded and also had a slight headache, and I otherwise never get headaches.

I didn't have any other concussion symptoms. My mood never changed, I never had one dilated pupil, and I didn't really even have any balance problems after the first half hour and even those were minor. I never lost consciousness and have not had any memory loss. Haven't had any nausea as of yet either.

I felt like I was gradually improving over the next several days until or 4 days ago when I redeveloped a headache. I toughed it out and the next day the headache was gone but the dizziness was worse. I decided to finally go to the doctor and they set me up for a CT scan, to confirm that there is no bleeding, which I finally had done today, not sure when I'll be getting the results.

Over the past two days I feel like my dizziness have returned to where they were before my relapse, but that itself is no better than I felt the day after injury. The light headedness has somewhat improved but I now have a constant low grade headache.

My questions:
1. I have read that a CT scan is best able to pick up bleeding in the first several days. That doesn't really make sense to me, you are either bleeding or you aren't, don't see what time after injury has to do with anything. In any case, does this mean that my CT scan may miss bleeding considering that it has been taken a full week after by injury?

2. Is there any chance that instead of a standard concussion I may have Labyrinthene concussion? My understanding is that dizziness, my main symptom, indicates some type of damage to the inner ear as opposed to the brain. Should I consult an ear specialist if my symptoms continue to not improve?

That's all for now. Thank you for reading and I appreciate any information you are able to provide.


Adam

Adam,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear you suffered a concussion.

First, Please stop looking for all of the extreme information about brain injuries. You are likely creating a lot of unnecessary worries.

1. A CT Scan is best at about 72 hours because the common asymptomatic bleeds are slow and too small to see before 3 days. After 3 days, they start to be absorbed by the body. The 72 hours number is the result of extensive review of hundreds of CT Scans, maybe even thousands.

If you can pass a standard neurological exam, you are not at risk of a bleed. Docs do CT Scans to protect themselves of the minuscule risk of a missed diagnosis. They also do them to assure the patient that they are not in a life-threatening situation.

2. Many people struggle with dizziness for months after a concussion. Labyrinthine concussions usually have substantial hearing loss as the primary symptom.

At a week post injury, you are extremely early in your recovery. I predict the CT Scan was normal. It is was not, they would have called you immediately. It is extremely rare for a concussion to show anything on a CT Scan. It is very common for any of the many concussion symptoms to show up a week or two later.

You had all the common concussion symptoms. The ones you didn't have are rare. One dilated pupil is not a concussion symptom. It is the symptom of a serious TBI. Even memory loss is extremely rare except for the few seconds after the impact.

"For the rest of the day I was kinda dizzy and lightheaded and also had a slight headache, and I otherwise never get headaches.

I didn't have any other concussion symptoms. My mood never changed, I never had one dilated pupil, and I didn't really even have any balance problems after the first half hour and even those were minor. I never lost consciousness and have not had any memory loss. Haven't had any nausea as of yet either."

"For the rest of the day, I was kinda dizzy"
"I didn't really even have any balance problems after the first half hour "

I'm confused. These two statements are in conflict as I read them.

You should be getting quiet rest. Low sensory stimulation and good sleep. Sleep only during bed time. An occasional short nap during the day is OK.

Taking a quiet break every 2 hours or so at school or work is helpful.

Read the Vitamins sticky at the top. It has lots of good information.

Mark, thank you so much for your reply.

Of course I understand how important it is to not overthink these things. I was pretty calm about everything at first but when my symptoms started to get worse that is when I began to really worry, as my understanding of concussions is that they are supposed to improve day to day, or at worst stagnate, not regress.

I actually had been enrolled in a very intense program that required 11 hours a day of computer programming, 6 days a week. That plus sleep deprivation meant that I had little opportunity for recovery so 3 days ago I reluctantly suspended my participation in the program until I feel better.

I have never experienced a concussion before this, but I do watch a lot of football and I have noticed that despite all the attention on concussions you will never see a player miss more than 2 or 3 weeks with one. Yet it seems from the stories on this site that recovery is more of a process of months or even years. I guess pro football just self selects for superhuman's.

I will look into getting the vitamins recommended tomorrow.

Thanks.

Profootball has a lower standard for return to play. The players have a low cognitive load during the week with activity targeted at recovery.

The hours you work puts an extreme load and likely hit a critical mass that caused your regression.

But, It is actually very common for delayed symptoms. The brain tries to continue to function with damaged nerve fibers. It those fibers do not improve, the surrounding cells send out shut down and die signal.

The people on this site tend to be the ones who did not recover spontaneously in the first 6 weeks or so as 85% do. Some delayed their recovery by pushing too hard right after their concussion. It may take a while for them to reach a point of desperation and slow down so their brain can get the rest it needs.

Constarn,

Football certainly is not my experience with a concussion!

Maybe if you are in incredible physical condition under the 24 hr care of top physicians, dieticians etc, nothing but time dedicated to recovery and guaranteed income it makes a difference.?

Bud

Hey guys, I just wanted to give an update in the case that my experience will end up helping any other people who end up reading this.

When I dropped out of my program, it was my hope that sleeping plus lack of cognitively demanding programming work would be enough to get me to recover. After a couple of days though, I felt like my symptoms were continuing to get worse. I did feel like I had already hit rock bottom and was starting to improve when I decided to go all out and have full cognitive rest for 3 days.

After 3 days I did feel better, but certainly not 100% or even close to it. I stopped the cognitive rest simply because I couldn't stand it anymore.

When I went back to using the computer, something interesting happened: I immediately began to redevelop the dizziness where the screen seemed to kind of move on me, not so bad that i couldn't read but definitely noticable. By this stage though I couldn't take anymore cognitive rest so I just continued using the computer and within half an hour, without me even noticing it at first, the dizziness greatly decreased. I still have some but it is much less than it was 10 or so days ago when the dizziness drove me to go three days computer/tv free.

So today, almost 4 weeks post concussion, I am headache free but still do have significant dizziness. It does seem to be improving albeit very slowly. It is not enough to be debilitating, but enough to be annoying. I think it may have to do with the part of my head that I hit.