@applesap

A similar thing happened to me. I was starting to feel better, enough to try to do some exercise since I hadn't done anything for a long time but it turned out to be a bad idea and as soon as I got tired my head started to hurt again and the symptoms all came back. I'm going to take it easy now until I am very sure that I am better.

I was dizzy the first 10 days after I hit my head but then I haven't been dizzy much since, maybe only slightly when I am very tired. I haven't felt vertigo or lightheaded. My main problems are the tiredness (but difficulty falling asleep) and poor concentration. I am very forgetful and it is hard doing things in front of the computer. Do you experience these problems too?

I am into my fourth month since I was whacked in the head. I have been back to work for about 15 hours a week (some less, no more that 20 in the 5 weeks I have been working again)

Fatigue (staying awake for days getting about 3-4 hours of sleep a night)

Waking Hangovers - When I do sleep and wake up I feel like I have a really bad hangover that lasts from an hour to a few hours in the mornings

Vertigo- Mainly in open spaces, driving, and quite noticable when walking

Nausea

Flashes of Temper- which I have termed as Red Rage from very minor incidences

Ear Pain

Vision problems- periphrial seems to be the main problem as I can not always tell where things are and feel lost in space at times

Migraines - funny enough I have had them so consitently, I really only notice when I DONT have one

Balance Problems

Word recall- for some reason this affects me mainly when I am typing. I will type random words and only realize it makes no sense when I go back and reread

Random forgetfullness of what I am doing, or rather what I intended to do lol

Concentration - Most of the time I can focus just fine on things, but I do seem to have a higher tendency to be flighty on bad days

Concussion girl:

If I remember correctly, you sustained your brain injury at a bar, right? If so, and if you don't mind my asking, were you drunk at the time this happened? (may seem like a stupid question, but I don't know if this incident happened at 9pm or 3am).

I ask because my concussion happened when I was drunk (drunk as hell actually, it was my 21st birthday), and since then whenever I go out with my friends I wake up the next morning with these horrible hangovers, despite the fact that I haven't had a drink in years. I thought I was the only person on the face of the earth dealing with this phenomenon of hangovers without alcohol... eesh, now I kind of feel like we're a pair from some sort of noah's ark of horrible brain problems.

Regardless, it took me 2 years to realize this, but this was occurring for me because of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which, depending on which brain scientists you listen to, is the reason that my concussion hasn't completely healed in the first place. Now, your situation seems a little different since it's just happening every time you get sleep, but PTSD therapy (talk therapy, EMDR, whatever you feel inclined to do) might be something worth looking into.

No I wasn't drunk at all, in fact I had only been in the bar 10 minutes before I got hit in the head. I had had one beer a couple hours earlier in the night however. I am only guessing that the meds I am on leave me with that hangover feeling, or possibly because I don't sleep very often maybe it is a reaction from that?

I was never a big bar person before, so these days you could not pay me enough to go. Maybe in time that will change

A friend of mine was knocked unconscious for about 20 minutes when he was drunk at a bar and oddly enough he is perfectly fine. He had a concussion too but hasn't seen any side effects after the first couple of days. I guess this is all part of the mystery of the brain.

not to mention the radically unfair nature of life...

i've been away for couple of weeks, so sorry for my late reaction... Thanx for all youre post, i really is nice to read all your story's!

The last few weeks i felt really good, i though i've got the PCS more under control, there were days that i didn't think about the PCS at all, i had a great time, went to dinner party's, dilivered some good work, met some friends etc...but... last saturday when i was driving all the symptoms were instantly back!

i had this kind of 'downfalls' before, and i really hope this is a small one, life felt really good the last couple of weeks! I'm more positive, and i think being positive is a way to make the PCS more suitable..

Does anyone also has this kind of downfalls?

And to PCS McGee, how are you feeling?

Yes the downfalls come with the uptimes. So enjoy the good and just go
with the flow.

It just takes time.

Donna

I appreciate your asking, applesap...

It's been a rough past couple of weeks for me, but I'm holding on to the hope that I'll come barreling out of this bad space like I've done so many times in the past. It's just hard, and my patience is wearing thin (of course, I don't fault myself for this, 4+ years is a long time to be sick). The advent of these social networking sites like myspace and facebook have allowed me to keep tabs on all of the friends that I had before this happened, and it's just exceedingly difficult to see everyone I was going to college with buying nice cars, getting married and/or dating loose women, going out 3 nights a week, and all the rest while I've basically been on house arrest for years now unable to do anything. And you know, a few of these guys I knew had 5, 10, 15 concussions during their lives, some of them serious, and they're all doing just fine now. I only had one minor concussion, and if god's ever going to give me a second chance, he's certainly taking his sweet *** time getting around to it. I just recently saw an old friend of mine who was hit by a drunk driver a little less than a month before I had my concussion, which left him in a coma for 2 months, and he's doing a whole hell of a lot better than I am at this point. I mean... this whole thing, it goes well beyond life being unfair. This condition is just downright cruel. If I don't get out of this I'm going to request to be buried with a baseball bat so I'll have something to hit god in the shins with.

Certainly my tone has soured a bit since I was last writing on here a lot, but at that time I was having a lot of really great changes happening, so I was very excited about the fact that I could feel this whole mess coming to a close. Unfortunately, it seems as though the therapies that had been working for me have plateaued, leaving me far better off than I was before I had those therapies, but still in a place that even the most staunch optimist would deem unacceptable. I'm researching new therapies now, so maybe someday soon I'll find something that will work for me again, but until then I'm probably going to be a few shades short of pure sunshine.

I think my situation is a little bit different than most of the folks on here in the first place, though I wouldn't venture to say whether it's at all better or worse. For all intents and purposes, my brain is functioning an awful lot like it used to before my fall, but I have all of this chronic pain in my head that just drives me absolutely nuts. It's not a common thing with PCS, but I also have PTSD from my fall, which has left a trail of pain through my body that just will not go away. That's why at this point I'm directing most of my therapy-related attention (with the exception of craniosacral work) to my psyche instead of my brain. I'm still holding out hope that if I can get that PTSD resolved, the whole trauma will just slide off like a bathrobe in a poorly produced porno. If that never happens though, I really don't know what I'm going to do. I won't get into the impact the PTSD has had on my life, as this note is depressing enough as is.

So yeah, to succinctly answer your question (though that's kind of a lost cause at this point) I'm basically just where I've always been for the past 6 months or so: I've been a lot worse, but I've been a lot better.

Hi, I'm glad to read that some of you are getting better. It's been three month since my accident and I also have good days and bad days. Today seems a little better and my head doesn't really hurt, but I still feel lightheaded. I still find it hard to drive my car and using the computer or doing other work that requires concentration for any lengths of time. Some of my symtoms are much better, like I don't get nauseated any more and I can taste food again. I was on anti-anxiety medication for a short time and that really helped me get back to a normal sleep pattern.

Like Applesap and Mint, I also got a lot worse after trying to get back to exercise. It happened about a week and a half after my crash and my doctor thought it would be good for my legs to go on an easy bike ride (I had a lot of bruises on my lower legs.) The ride went well, but the next day I started to feel worse and went back to the ER the following day thinking my head was going to explode.

Like Applesap, I'm also from Europe, but have been in the US for over twenty years. I'm wondering if anybody has any suggestions on what to take for the tension headaches. Mine seem to start from the back of my head and I'm still taking Fioricet (Butalbital/Tylenol/Caffeine) every day and sometimes they don't seem to work at all. Is there anything that can help with the lightheadedness? Like some of you, morning are usually the worst and it takes me hours before I can get going, also I don't feel fatigue. I'm going back to my doctor on Monday.

One more question, does anybody have any experience with Elavil (Amytriptyline)? A nurse friend told me it might help with headaches.

Sorry to be asking all these questions, just desperate to get back to normal again.