Hi all,

Let me just start about saying I understand what you're going through and I believe what you're feeling. You are not crazy. I really wish someone other than my neurologist would say this to me.

With that said, I had a concussion just about 3 months ago and while I've improved significantly since the beggining, I'm still having some issues. I never had an MRI in the beggining as I have Hyperacusis and I feared the noise would make my ears worse. With that said, I finally did take the MRI recently and there was no structural damage. The only thing it mentioned were white matter hyper intensities, which my neurologist said normal functioning people at 39 have as well.

In the beggining just getting out of bed was difficult. I was very weak and tired. While my mind was working perfectly, my body was not. Fast forward to today and I'm doing a lot better. With that said, I'm still having some issues. While the disconnect between my brain and body has improved, my body still doesn't feel right. It's very hard to describe the feeling. I don't want to say it's anxiety because it isn't really that. If I have stress it definitely makes me feel worse, but even when I don't have stress my body is in a 24/7 state of not being how it used to be.

I'm able to drive, which at first I was not able to do. When I first tried to I had really weird focusing issues, but I don't anymore. I used to get nauseous while driving and that's pretty much stopped as well. While I prefer not to drive, doing so doesn't seem to make me feel worse anymore.

Exerting myself doing anything but walking makes my body feel worse so I just don't do it. I wasn't active to begin with so mentally it isn't an issue. I tried playing video games once and that was a no go for me. I felt really bad almost instantly. Maybe I should try again since it was a month ago, but I'm scared to try.

I'm also having trouble with things in motion. Scrolling on my phone is uncomfortable and I feel like it's getting worse.

To sum it all up my body just doesn't feel right. Exerting myself is a problem and scrolling on my phone is also problem. It's not a big deal, but maybe the phone issue can help explain what's wrong with me. If I posted 2 months ago I'd have a laundry list of issues, but luckily I'm a lot better than I was. I just feel like my improvement has platued. Will I ever feel the same again? My neurologist is not helpful. She's just hoping I get better.

I apologise for the long message. Thank you all in advance for your help.

mets811,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

You did not explain the mechanism of your injury nor your immediate symptoms, early diagnostics, any treatments, etc.

I can't address the physical injury issues without understanding your impact/event.

I do have some other concerns. Do you have a history of depression and/or anxiety of any kind?

Do you have other stresses in your life?

Illnesses, .....?

There are many factors that can contribute to prolonged concussion symptoms beyond just the head impact.

The mention that your body just does not feel right, it makes me wonder if a misalignment happened with your injury..

We often suggest Nucca - upper cervical adjusting..
NUCCA - National Upper Cervical Chiropractic Association
This site has a lot of good info- Up C Spine
There are videos on you tube showing how it is done.

The head impact occurred as a result of mixing tramadol and weed gummies. I was in extreme facial pain at the time from a dental cleaning and was looking for any way to alleviate the pain. She was pushing on my face a lot and the pain was so extreme afterwards. I was in the kitchen and started to feel dizzy as I got up, everything went black, I tripped over the kitchen chair and hit my head on the right side of my forehead and face. My parents got to me right after it happened and said I did not lose consciousness. While I remember the immediate impact and what led up to it, I don't remember walking up the stairs and into the bathroom until I was actually in the bathroom. I don't know if that's because I was so high or because I hit my head. I started coming to and I was sitting on the bathroom floor telling my parents everything was fine, but I knew it wasn't and could not physically get up. I don't know if it was because of the drugs or because I just hit my head. Who knows, maybe it was a combination of both. After about 15 minutes I was okay enough to get up, go to my room and go to sleep. I told my parents everything was fine and that was that for the night.

The next day everything was fine, apart from my head hurting a little where I hit it. Oddly enough, the extreme face pain I was having everyday for a month was gone. It just magically disappeared. Even the neurologist can't understand why. The entire day I was completely 100% fine. I thought I dodged a bullet and was going on with life as usual again and was really happy the face pain went away.

The next day I woke up and that's when it all hit me. I was getting ready to go to work as normal and just felt out of sorts and I could barely move my neck. I remember giving my dad this look before I left and told him I don't feel right something is very wrong. He looked at me weird and I just left. I went to work and I just started to increasingly feel worse as the day went on. I called the neurologist and she said it sounds like a concussion and she said as long as I didn't lose consciousness there shouldn't be much of a concern and if things got worse to let her know. She chalked up my next pain and other issues to inflammation starting to occur and figures things would be okay.

Ultimately over the next couple weeks things got worse. I took off the next week of work simply because I was physically unable to do so. I wrote a list of all my symptoms during that week so I could explain to the doctor. Maybe it will help you since you asked about what immediate symptoms I had.

1) just feel not right
2) can't focus while driving. Things look blurry when they shouldn't be. I can't drive. Hard to focus when everything is moving and when you drive everything is moving. I feel better when driving is slower and I don't have to look around as much.
3) pain and tingling in my head
4) headache sometimes
5) neck pain
6) feeling hot a lot...wake up drenched in sweat
7) takes me longer to do things
8) most tasks other than eating and going to the bathroom seem daunting
9) sometimes so tired in the morning
10) I struggle to get started on doing things because they'll take so much effort to do
11) sometimes I'll do things and forget I need to go back to it
12) time is moving so fast
13) my routines are off...I eat and do things at all different times

To put things in perspective, I had to force myself, which could take 30 minutes just to get out of bed to go to the bathroom or eat. At times I only ate because I was hoping it would make me feel better and at times eating did make me feel better.

Things slowly got better over time. I went back to work after taking a week off. I knew I didn't feel ready, but I felt forced to do so. In hindsight,I probably could have used several weeks off. The first day I drove after the week off my eyes were blurry. It didn't feel like blurriness, but more of a trouble focusing. It felt awful, but it only happened that one time. I had my parents drive me home that day. The next day was fine, although driving made me nauseous.

I really should have had an MRI early on, but I have Hyperacusis so I was afraid of the loud noise and just couldn't bring myself to do it. I did have one recently of the brain and everything came back fine. Apart from some white matter hyper intensities and a dental cyst, there wasn't anything else to mention.

Fast forward to now and all of the symptoms on the list are gone. I still think I'd be waking up drenched in sweat, but it's too cold for that now I guess. My understanding is the brain controls body temperature and this is why I have that symptom? My only other symptoms right now is just not feeling right. There is just something wrong with my body. No history of anxiety or depression and if my body felt fine I'd simply just be fine. Work was hard at first, there was like this extreme disconnect with my brain and body the first week back to work. Like my brain was working but my body couldn't keep up to ask the things I wanted to do. This doesn't happen anymore, but u felt it was with mentioning.

So that's pretty much everything in a nutshell. Aside from trigeminal neurolgia, which causes pain in my jaw, and Hyperacusis, which I had prior to hitting my head there's nothing else wrong with me. I can add fibromyalgia in there, but everyone just thinks it's a joke and I've had it my whole adult life. Pain is real to the person who feels it, but whatever I just deal with it.

Thanks for responding Mark.

This is very possible. I had a stiff neck and pain for a few weeks. It's gone now, but maybe something is still wrong. I've had a pinched nerve in my neck for about 5 years now so there's always some level of pain on my left side.

You had TN and fibro before the dental cleaning & concussion?

That complicates things, the cleaning & head hit could have triggered a flare up of both..
But I still think seeking out some expert chiropractic or possibly acupuncture also could be beneficial for all your conditions..

I would focus on getting a quality assessment of your neck. No just an MRI and generic read. An assessment by a physical therapist and/or physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation MD) who understands subtle neck injuries and how they can wreck your life. I bet you slept with poor head and neck posture. This would cause neck inflammation and cause your symptoms to get much worse.

Nothing you are experiencing indicates a concussion as the only cause. It is far more likely your symptoms are upper neck. Inflammation restricts blood to the brain stem. This interferes with temperature modulation, balance, vision, and many other functions.

Being and getting high is very problematic. It hides the true source of symptoms.

Using drugs also indicates a high likelihood of depression and/or anxiety and stress related living. Those pre-existing conditions make the symptoms of any concussion much worse and longer lasting. Many need to properly treat those conditions as part of the concussion and neck injury recovery.

You might be right about the neck issues. I've been trying to cut back on the carbamazepine I take for trigeminal neuralgia per the neurologist. I believe it's contributing negatively to how my body feels. While cutting back my neck has begun to hurt again so the medication must be masking the issue going on with my neck. When I fell I did not brace myself so my head hit the tile pretty hard. Do you think I'd need an MRI of the neck? I suppose that would be of the cervical spine. I've had one of those for a pinched nerve in the past and it didn't find anything too interesting. Maybe it would this time around? In response to the weed...it wasn't from depression, it was to try to help the severe pain I was experiencing in my face at the time. It wasn't a great decision given I didn't know how it it would react with the tramadol. The only thing I've been taking since the fall is the carbamazepine, which I'm holding I can get off.

As I said, imaging of the neck will not likely be helpful. Treat the symptoms, not the imaging. Try sleeping in a recliner with your head and neck straight and supported by a pillow so your head cannot fall to the side.

It sounds like you need to do some research to find that neck specialist who can help you and help you learn how to take care of your neck.

Think of imaging as a 'surgical plan,' not a therapy plan. Gentle traction and mobilizing with serious discipline to sleep in good posture is critical. You should expect to spend 6 months or more being disciplined with your sleep posture.

It took me two years to get my neck stable after a year of not properly treating my injury.

Thanks for the advice Mark. Do you think an anti depressant or anti anxiety medication would help my body feel the way it was before I hit my head? Is it possible medication could impede my recovery, rather than help it? Do a lot of people who have a concussion feel as if there body isn't right? It's really the best way I can describe it. Cognitively things seem normal, but the feeling in my body is not. It's like this shakiness feeling, not actual shaking, but just this weird not right feeling. It's pretty awful.