Hello! I am new here. My dad died in mid January; he had Parkinson's and I had been taking care of him. It was a devastating loss. I was starting to feel a little better and less like I was in free fall when I was in a car accident. A woman came from the shoulder of the road and tried to pass me on the inside of a right-hand turn, and since she was accelerating, she really slammed my car around. I never saw her until mid-collision.

I have really been through it since then. Since I work in the schools I had been waiting until summer to really start on doing the job of combining my dad's stuff and mine into one condo, cleaning mine up and moving back into my own condo. It would have been a daunting job under the best of circumstances, but with a headache it was brutal. I had to pay people to do a lot of things I should have been able to do myself, to some extent even to think about how to pull it all off.

Now I am back to work, but part time and at a different school. I have had OT and Speech tx, and a lot of chiropractic. My doctor has been only minimally involved, but I'm starting to think that's not good. It seems I'm supposed to figure all this out myself and I'm not doing very well at it. In a lot of ways I am better, but have had a headache, light and noise sensitivity, and a pressured feeling in my head almost every day for three months. My balance and speech problems are better and the OT and SLP discharged me last week. How does anybody figure all this out and what to do?

I wonder if anyone can tell me if pressure in my head is something particular to do with TBI/PCS? When I was much younger I used to have headaches and sometimes migraines, but none for 7 years - until this car accident with intense twisting whiplash. Many of my symptoms have cleared up but I am left with a headache - every day for three months. It is triggered by light, noise, stress, and who knows what else. The headache seems very connected to the place in my neck that the chiropractor is treating, but this headache seems different than the ones I used to have in that I have this feeling of pressure from inside my head.

I had X-Rays in the ER right after the accident, but it was on a reservation (kinda like a third world country). Immediately after the accident I had the feeling that my eyes weren't working together and there was a split from high left to low right that didn't match up. All they could do at that ER was to have me stand 20 feet back from an eye chart and read it.

My doctor was getting ready to go on vacation and when I called him to tell him about this, he told me I was fine and I should just go home. I saw the nurse practitioner who was covering for him while he was gone and she had me do MRI's of my head and neck. Nothing on the scans.

My doctor is taking it more seriously since he came back, but is of the opinion that the concussion will just go away by itself. I was seeing a speech path and an OT; they have now both discharged me. The OT was trying to get me to see a neurologist or a neuropsychologist and my doctor thought I didn't really need to do either, but wrote the referrals. Even though he wrote the referrals, I can't get an appointment because they are so booked they are seeing people four months or so from now. And it's not like I have already been on a list for the three months since the accident because no one can figure out who I should see...

I am working with an attorney because it was so squirrelly from the get go. The tribal police told me that I had no right to know who hit me, who her insurance company was, or to have a copy of the police report. I eventually did get all that, of course. The other driver was cited and I wasn't.

But now I am getting a little worried because I am still having problems. I feel like I am turning into a hermit because my headache returns or gets worse when I go outside into the light, and I am too tired to go out at night. I used to work full time and play the cello in three different groups and now I hardly go to rehearsals because of the noise. I really need a full time income, but hardly have what it takes to pound the pavement and find more work.

My attorney seemed very good, but was called off on a special assignment for six weeks and the guy who was covering for him has only talked to me twice. I really don't know what I am supposed to do. Is it reasonable to just figure I'll have a headache forever and accept that I may never be able to work full time again and therefore be forced to sell my house at a huge loss and have no idea how I will ever survive because of headaches?

Sorry for the long post. I am starting to feel desperate...

Hi and welcome to NeuroTalk
I have merged your 2 threads to make it easier for you and other members to respond.

Adenium,

It sounds like your head and neck have experienced quite a trauma. The twist and jarring can create a complex injury. The upper neck can often contribute to many symptoms, especially head aches. Most chiros use the 'twist the head and pop the neck' treatment. This can be far too aggressive for the types of neck injuries that cause these symptoms. An upper cervical chiro may be worthwhile.

A physical therapist who has good upper neck skills can often help with gentle traction with some gentle manual mobilization of the upper neck. Range of motion exercise can be premature.

Clear x-rays, CT Scans and MRI's of the neck do not mean you do not have a subtle upper neck injury.

It is important to use good posture discipline while the neck heals. Good sleeping and resting posture is very important.

There is some good information about these injuries and attorneys at Brain Injuries Help: Crashing of the Mind After Traumatic Brain Injury and Subtle Brain Injury Permanency from Concussion

A physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation MD) may be better than seeing a neurologist. It is worth scheduling the neuro psych because if you are still struggling in 4 months, a neuro psych assessment will be very useful.

Please don't lose heart. Many have gone through similar injuries and slow recoveries. It often takes time and finding the right therapy combinations to see improvements.

My best to you.

I had a very difficult summer, working almost every day-sometimes long days-on my dad's estate, consolidating his and my stuff together into my condo. I am far from done going through all of his stuff, but at least I did manage to get moved into my own condo, fixed up a few things, and got rid tons of stuff. Most of the work I was doing is gone; the guy I was working for lost the contract. I do have a short term contract of my own and am trying to focus on doing a good job of that.

In a way I am kind of relieved; I don't think I am really in any shape to work full time or to drive 2-1/2 hours (each way) to work on a reservation, even two days a week, like I did for four years before the accident. I used to have so much energy it made people tired just to hear what I did in a given period of time. Now I have headaches, light and noise sensitivity, and I get very tired, even after a short day. I sometimes feel like I could just go to bed at 5:30 or 6:00 in the evening because I am so tired, but I am not actually sleeping all that well. It's hard to imagine how I could be working full time at this point. But I need to work.

From what I've read recently, I wonder if I was really doing too much this summer. Maybe I should have been resting and not trying desperately to get this move accomplished this summer, in ten weeks. But now it is back to school time, I should be working full time, but I am working part time and don't think I could be doing any more. It's hard to even think about what I would have to do to get more work.

I had dinner with a friend and her family; they are in town for the week. I was talking to my friend's partner about how I think I have too much fatigue and headache to work full time. My friend's dad jumped in and more or less told me that I was malingering because it had been three months and I must not want to work because I was making too many excuses. He pointed out that my dad always worked hard and I should follow his example. I pointed out that my dad was to tired to do much of anything after he had Parkinson's, and my friend's dad told me that was different because he was retired before he was so tired. He was basically telling me that there was no good reason to be tired three months after a concussion - like I must have suddenly developed severe laziness.

That friend's dad was completely wrong. Many struggle with PCS for months, some even a year or 2. It just depends on their specific injury and what they can and can't do during their recovery.

It is important for you to get good sleep on a normal schedule. Getting up at the same time each day helps the body's sleep clock so you can get to sleep. Do not sleep in/late even if you feel tired. Get up. Then, at night, slow or reduce your activity level so you recognize when you feel sleepy. Have your bedroom and any tasks done so when you feel sleepy, you can just get in bed and sleep. Stopping to do hygiene, turn off lights throughout your condo, get sleep clothes on, etc. can disrupt the sleepiness. For some, we need to have everything ready a half hour to an hour before we go to bed.

Just remember, the most important part of getting to sleep and sleeping well is getting up at the same time each morning. Sleeping in, even if it is just on weekends, disrupts this sleepiness cycle.

Proper sleep means one gets all of the stages of sleep. REM sleep and slow wave sleep are imperative to recovery.

I slept lousy last night and know it will make my day lousy. My wife was up too late watching the Olympics and it interrupted my routine.