[Aaronrobertssmith]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the site and just needed some folks to talk to about my recent experiences. I apologize in advance for the length of my post, but I really need to lay things out and get some feedback.

For background, roughly 8 months ago, I had a very serious car accident when I hit black ice; my truck went off the road into a ditch, flipped onto its side and collided with a tree. The truck was totalled, but by some miracle I didn't suffer any major injuries besides a wrist sprain and a mild TBI diagnosed by ER doctors.

The recovery period wasn't great, I was off work for 2-3 weeks and spoke a lot of gibberish in that time; I also spent a good portion of it sleeping and had the usual concussion symptoms. Doctors weren't helpful in this process, they just told me things would get better over time and handed me a sheet of paper with information on concussions.

Things did get better in the way that I was more functional, but I just haven't felt like myself since. It has been and up/down battle of headaches, extreme fatigue, neck pain, what I think is sensitivity to light/noise (literally drive in silence and turn down the dash lighting because it seems bright), and a very noticeable change in mood etc. I just tried to ignore everything going on and put the accident behind me. But things kept getting progressively worse, and I started sleeping in my car at lunch breaks/taking pain pills to alleviate symptoms when they got bad. Recently things deteriorated even more after I took my daughter to the local fair. I went on some rides with her and started feeling very unwell; we went home and I proceed to sleep for 2 days and miss time from work.

I spoke with my doctor about the symptoms ive been having, and they said I have something called post concussion syndrome; I have been referred to a neurologist and physiotherapy as a result. I feel hopeful that things are going to get on track, but I don't understand why I fell off the wagon so hard. After the fair I was slurring my words, was incredibly tired, had difficulty with balance/noise/light, and I just couldn't function. It was almost like I was sent back to the initial collision, only symptoms were less severe.

My question for the forum is whether or not anyone else can relate? Is it possible to have something like a fair aggravate symptoms this much? I did have a branch hit my head while pruning a month or so ago, but I never lost consciousness and don't think I felt weird after. I also have been driving longer distances lately, but I'm not sure if that would contribute?

I don't understand why I have been feeling this way, it almost makes me feel crazy. I have tried to Google more on pcs but I'm a bit skeptical and can't quite find all the info I'm looking for. I also feel very weak for still not overcoming this thing all these months later.

Additional details (seem relevant after reading):
-Diagnoses of adhd/learning disability
-History of head trauma (especially when younger; hit in head with baseball bat, cracked head open on fireplace etc.).
-Experienced memory loss after incident.
-Likely lost consciousness but can't say for certain.