Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Concussion Syndrome For traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post concussion syndrome (PCS).


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Old 02-15-2018, 11:34 AM #1
jtoronto jtoronto is offline
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Default Aggravation and reinjury

On Monday I was being seen by a doctor for my lower back pain and as I was starting to sit up from the table, he gave me his hand to help me up. Since I had been talking to him about my bad neck issues, I thought that he would help me up slowly but he pulled pretty hard and quickly. I was a ragdoll for a second and my neck went back in a whiplash like motion.

I had a lot of upper back pain immediately and then a bit later there was a significant change in my headaches and a bunch of my other symptoms.

The increase in symptoms sucks, but the hardest part is dealing with the anxiety that this is more than just a temporary aggravation of things. After 3 nights of sleep, I've seen no change. Usually I feel a lot better in the mornings.

At what point does one consider that they've had another concussive type incident or that the event may have caused a longer term increase in symptoms and length of recovery?

Thanks
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Old 02-15-2018, 12:59 PM #2
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I'm no expert but to me it sounds more like a neck issue than reagravating a concussion (don't know if that's important to you but I know that for me it helps my anxiety tremendously if I think it's neck related rather than causing more damage to your brain). Maybe try and relax and treat your neck and I'd say don't stress over this too much.

For me personally I try to take a wider perspective on my symptoms and how I'm feeling so instead of monitoring myself day to day(which fluctuates a lot), I compare myself to how I was doing say 2weeks or a month ago. If I'm at the very least not worse than I was a month ago I know that im probably going in the right direction. I probably have something at least 10 times per day that Im pretty sure wouldn't damage my brain (stepping too hard, bumby metro, stressful event) but causes my symptoms to flare up even just momentarily. If I stopped every time something like this happened I'd never make it through the day.

Don't really know where I'm going here but try not to label what happened and just treat the symptoms and I'm sure you'll get back to normal soon. And if you really wanna label it I'd personally say it was just irratating your neck a bit rather then your brain.
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Old 02-15-2018, 01:41 PM #3
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That's really helpful, thanks. It's the same for me. Interpreting it as something to do with just my neck is so much less anxiety producing than interpreting it as another injury to the brain.

Ya I totally get what you're saying. I have a bunch of little flare ups as well. It's just so difficult when a flareup lasts multiple days like this and has increased the symptoms and especially the debilitation that the symptoms cause.

Thanks for the support
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Old 02-15-2018, 04:13 PM #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtoronto View Post
That's really helpful, thanks. It's the same for me. Interpreting it as something to do with just my neck is so much less anxiety producing than interpreting it as another injury to the brain.

Ya I totally get what you're saying. I have a bunch of little flare ups as well. It's just so difficult when a flareup lasts multiple days like this and has increased the symptoms and especially the debilitation that the symptoms cause.

Thanks for the support
No problem, we're both going through setbacks we need to support each other. Just take it easy, don't worry about the symptoms too much and you'll get better. Are you a student also?
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Old 02-15-2018, 04:19 PM #5
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Ya the mutual support is nice.

I've been out of school for a number of years but still a student in some senses. Studying piano and literature. How about you?
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Old 02-15-2018, 05:03 PM #6
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Ya the mutual support is nice.

I've been out of school for a number of years but still a student in some senses. Studying piano and literature. How about you?
Oh nice, and yah I'm a student in college currently trying to juggle pcs and going to school. How did you injure yourself if you don't mind me asking?
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Old 02-15-2018, 05:59 PM #7
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Sounds like a challenge to juggle stuff with PCS going on. I was doing some soccer warm ups with a friend and was jogging backwards and fell and hit the back of my head on the ground. How did you get yours? I see you're a fellow Canadian. Montreal is a great town.
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Old 02-15-2018, 06:43 PM #8
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Sounds like a challenge to juggle stuff with PCS going on. I was doing some soccer warm ups with a friend and was jogging backwards and fell and hit the back of my head on the ground. How did you get yours? I see you're a fellow Canadian. Montreal is a great town.
Thanks, ditto about Toronto, I have a lot of family there and i always love visiting the city. I'm sorry about your accident, it's unfortunate.

For me, I most likely had a couple of undiagnosed concussions from doing crazy stuff as a kid but if they even were concussions they were minor ones that didn't really affect me (as far as I can tell). In 2016 I had my first diagnosed concussion by taking a hard hit to the head in a hockey try out. The symptoms were really bad and I sat out hockey and basketball for 6weeks or so but I eventually was back to normal pretty much(though still with I few lingering symptoms which I ignored) and went back to full productivity: basketball, hockey, school, student council, running a business, social life. Unfortunately though, over the course of the year into the summer I took a handful of smaller head hits in hockey and basketball which I never reported to anyone and that individually would probably have been no big deal but given my history added up to send me into the hell of pcs and anxiety that I'm currently living in.

I was honestly just really uneducated about concussions and how dangerous they were. If I knew what a know now I would have taken these events much more seriously and probably would have quit hockey a lot earlier. I frequently get mad at myself for not taking my recovery seriously enough and treating my brain like **** all these years. I often get depressed and feel like I've permanently messed my life up. I used to be so active and have such a fulfilling life and now I've had to strip that down to the bare minimum I can handle and like I said in my first post, it hurts to even do stuff like walking some days.
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Old 02-15-2018, 09:49 PM #9
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Sorry to hear about how your injury happened as well.

First of all, I think it's really important not to beat yourself up about it. Because it's not your fault.

Everyone who doesn't work with concussions or hasn't had a concussion or a loved one with a concussion has no idea about them. I've heard soooo many people say to me, "Wow, I didn't know it could take so long to recover from a concussion. I thought they weren't a big deal."

Another huge thing is to realize that you have not permanently ****ed up your life. I don't say this to belittle your anxiety at all. I have huge amounts of anxiety as well, but I'm constantly challenging those thoughts and trying to look at things rationally. Getting the anxiety under control is probably the most important thing you can do. That's easy to say and hard to do, but it's possible to have much less anxiety than you have now.

Most people recover fully from concussions. Some people take longer than others. You are going to have a whole life of happiness ahead of you. It's just dealing with the crazy difficulty of this chapter. It's so hard. But we can be strong.

Here are some things that have helped me with anxiety:

-I mentioned the thing about giving meaning to the injury and to the setbacks.
I'm going to be such a happy person when I recovery. This injury will have been such a good thing because of what it's going to do for my life. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but there will be huge positives from it. Imagine what it's going to be like to walk in a park on a warm sunny day when you're feeling great.

-Try to come up with the image of that perfect hero. For me it's the wise and gentle warrior. I imagine that I am that hero and that I'm going through a huge battle. I'm strong enough to fight no matter how difficult it is. And I'm not just fighting for myself, I'm fighting for my girlfriend, family and friends who are affected by my injury.

-Things like meditation and progressive relaxation can be helpful. They aren't a quick fix but they are worth learning to do if you can find the time.

-Make plans to look forward to. I've been planning a trip to Eastern Europe, which I've never been to before, with my girlfriend, brother and friends when I get better.
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Old 02-15-2018, 10:49 PM #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtoronto View Post
Sorry to hear about how your injury happened as well.

First of all, I think it's really important not to beat yourself up about it. Because it's not your fault.

Everyone who doesn't work with concussions or hasn't had a concussion or a loved one with a concussion has no idea about them. I've heard soooo many people say to me, "Wow, I didn't know it could take so long to recover from a concussion. I thought they weren't a big deal."

Another huge thing is to realize that you have not permanently ****ed up your life. I don't say this to belittle your anxiety at all. I have huge amounts of anxiety as well, but I'm constantly challenging those thoughts and trying to look at things rationally. Getting the anxiety under control is probably the most important thing you can do. That's easy to say and hard to do, but it's possible to have much less anxiety than you have now.

Most people recover fully from concussions. Some people take longer than others. You are going to have a whole life of happiness ahead of you. It's just dealing with the crazy difficulty of this chapter. It's so hard. But we can be strong.

Here are some things that have helped me with anxiety:

-I mentioned the thing about giving meaning to the injury and to the setbacks.
I'm going to be such a happy person when I recovery. This injury will have been such a good thing because of what it's going to do for my life. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but there will be huge positives from it. Imagine what it's going to be like to walk in a park on a warm sunny day when you're feeling great.

-Try to come up with the image of that perfect hero. For me it's the wise and gentle warrior. I imagine that I am that hero and that I'm going through a huge battle. I'm strong enough to fight no matter how difficult it is. And I'm not just fighting for myself, I'm fighting for my girlfriend, family and friends who are affected by my injury.

-Things like meditation and progressive relaxation can be helpful. They aren't a quick fix but they are worth learning to do if you can find the time.

-Make plans to look forward to. I've been planning a trip to Eastern Europe, which I've never been to before, with my girlfriend, brother and friends when I get better.
Wow thank you so much for those words it means a lot. I completely agree with you about people not understanding how much concussions can affect you. My parents, girlfriend, friends, they're all supportive but I can tell they think I'm exaggerating everything and they're starting to get frustrated with how slowly I'm progressing.
Thank you for all the advice it really is very helpful, Im very inspired by your positive outlook on things, it's definitely something I will try and emulate.
Cheers!
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