Hello guys,

I'd like to give an account of my experience with PCS and am open to any suggestions/opinions.

I'm 25 years old and sustained a nasty concussion in Mid-Jan this year playing football. I took a blow to the back of the head from another player's kick as I attempted to head the ball away. Nearly 3 months on, I am learning the hard way that this is not similar to any injury I have sustained before.. it's not a matter of a strain/sprain that you would willingly rest for weeks on end to get back to full fitness, this is your brain which is constantly working whether you like it or not!

On impact, my vision went blurry and I suffered tinnitus for about 10 seconds, but never lost consciousness. Went to hospital the same day and was advised to take a couple of days off. Returned to work on Wednesday, but come the weekend I had crashed and burned with numerous symptoms and had two weeks off as per doctor's advice.

I'm now one week shy of three months since the incident and I honestly can't say I feel much better. This 'syndrome' manifests in different ways which is why I am struggling so much with it. I had a bout of migraines/pressure headaches in March, which I can deal with as I have prescribed medication. Nausea/dizziness/fatigue are also frequent, but again I can manage these to a degree when they arise.

Where I am really, really struggling is cognitively. I am prone to jumbling up words in my head around 50 times a day. When I say jumbling I don't mean getting the word wrong, I mean the construction of sentences i.e 'how are you?' would come out as 'how you are?'. This is pretty demoralising for me because I may seem okay when I am talking to someone, but I am literally facing a battle constructing sentences in my head. It's not much fun being in my head at the moment. It is running at 100mph but because I'm not all there cognitively, I'm constantly getting things wrong in my head which is leaving me feeling pretty despondent. This is interfering with my line of work and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The referral system in the UK for a TBI clinic takes a while and my first appointment is in June. I am just wondering if in the interim there are any measures that I should be taking to speed up the recovery process? I appreciate that this is a very vague question but the guidance I have received so far of rest/sleep/limit almost everything haven't really helped me so far. I am also taking Omega 3 Oil/Brahmi Supplements/Vitamin D&Mushroom Complex Supplements.

I know this is a lengthy post but I would be grateful if anyone has any input.

Thank you!

JamesR,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Your experience with UK medical care for mTBI/concussion is not uncommon. Have you checked with Headway?

My first concern is your upper neck. Inflammation can mess up blood flow to your brain and mess up sleep and more. C-1 and C-2 are usually injured with a concussion. The method of your impact suggests an upper neck trauma.

You don't say what your job is. Over stressing your brain can be an issue. Work load and environment can be problematic.

Read the vitamin sticky above. I think page 46 has the updated information. But, my brain forgets. You should add B vitamins to your regimen, especially B-12.

forgive me, I was working out a multi paragraph comprehensive response to this, then I was tending to something else and the computer died... but I'll try and hit the main points of what I was in the midst of saying hehe

-good and bad news: 3 months is widely considered to be fairly early on, despite what a lot of 'mainstream' concussion knowledge would indicate

-My experience: like yours, mostly phased by the feeling of impaired cognitive function. My injury happened on my 23rd birthday, back in Nov 2018. If I'm gonna be honest, the first year was very much a struggle, and I even got pretty lucky: as far as pain-related symptoms go, I was largely spared. (This being said, most people on here that have headaches like yours tend to see relief with time).

-I have often felt what you are feeling: communicating/conversing changing from being a smooth extension of my inner dialogue into this weird, strained challenge. There were many points throughout the first year where it just felt as if I'd never be able to process information the way I used to. In some facets, this is true, but the flip side is that the brain is always, to some capacity, in a state of reorganization.

I hope I can offer some encouraging words in that, in my perception and overall quality of life, I've felt more improvement over months 12-15 then I did over the first entire year. Make no mistake, mental health was likely a big component in this. There seems to be a feedback loop, as tends to be the case, between mental well being and brain function. I suspect that in the past few months, minor but impactful improvements in both these areas have cascaded each other into healing.

I work as a math tutor, which I for some time really enjoyed but as I was struggling with lack of attention/focus, it turned into pretty grating work because I felt inadequate and like i no longer had an intuitive feel for the content i was teaching. However, that has looped back around, and i find myself enjoying teaching once again, it actually kind of feels natural!

Let me know if you have questions. My advice would be to stick with supplements, avoid further incidents within reason but don't be spooked by minor everyday type of bumps that sometimes occur, and don't be discouraged if you don't notice much difference month by month, I was a little spooked when months 4, 5, 6, etc... went by without substantial change, but after a roller coaster year or so, I actually am pretty happy with where things are and seem to be headed!

Hi Mark,

Thank you for the quick response, really appreciate it.

Now that you've mentioned it, I think that you're right. I think that my neck is contributing to this feeling, if not the main contributor. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. The hospital never checked my neck and knowing this now just makes me angry! I will discuss this with Headway tomorrow - again, great shout.

I'm also going to head up to the local health shop to grab some B-Complex tablets tomorrow. Tbanks for the suggestion.

The common upper neck injuries are what some call subtle neck injuries. They have minimal symptom to the uninformed. Not neck pain but more likely headaches and behind the ear pain and tension. Gentle upper neck mobilization without pursuing range of motion is helpful. Most important is your discipline to sleep with good head and neck posture. Strengthening can take months. C-1 and C-2 can be injured with just 4-5 Gs. A concussion takes 60 Gs or more.