I have a son who will be 16 tomorrow. In May 2005 he had a serious motocross accident when he was 13 that rendered him unconscious and seizing for approximatly 5 minutes. Other than an unrelated brain tumor found in his left cerebellum, the scan revealed no injury from the crash.

Sometime after his accident, he has changed. He is very defiant, agrumentative, violant towards his brothers, blames other for his actions, distructive, and not seeing dangers in things (ie spraying accelorants on a flame and not seeing the problem!). His grades are dropping in school and he says when he studies he forgets the information learned by the time he tests. He also says that he notices after getting his tests back, that he makes alot of mistakes from "stupid errors" as he calls it. He says he thinks one thing, but writes down another. He graduated middle school with a 4.0 so he has never had issues in school before.

But since he is a teenager, how do I know if the issues I have with him are just him being a typical teenager suffering from a mood disorder or is there a possiblity he has PCS as well?

The psychologist I take him to told me he feels strongly that his behavior is a result of brain damage from his accident. He also feels he has a mood disorder and has put him on Abilify.

Where do we go from here? Is there a way to confirm the psychologists suspecions? He told me usually scans from concussions that do not show injury can still result in PCS so the diagnoses is left to a clinical diagnoses.

Please help lead me in the right direction.

Hi MominFl, I'm so sorry to read about your son's accident and what you are going through. I would suggest looking back at his medical records to see what his symtoms where in the first few month after his accident. Did he suffer from headaches, dizziness, nausea, problems concentrating and so on? Also, is he on any anti-seizure medications that could cause memory loss? It is probably not unusual for him to be angry about what happened to him. I hope you will find help for him.

Mom.....Find out if a hospital in your area, usually a larger teaching hospital, has a neuropsych program.

Does your son have a neurologist he sees now? Maybe that Doctor can get you started in the right direction. I definitly think you need to persue this further.

Good luck

I would not trust the psychiatrist. Get a few opinions before making any conclusions and determining what to do. I saw alot of docs(neurologists, neuropsychologists, brain surgeon, nureophsychiatrist, special awarding winning rehab centers, etc)...some of them knew what they were doing and some were just plain old wrong. The problem is that the wrong ones still prescribe and think they know what they are doing. They make matters worse.

I would consider contacting someone that has experience with teenage concussions. I had a signficant concussion in my later 20's. If I was young and undeveloped, I honestly don't know where I would be today. I honestly think my experience has helped me. I still haven't lost my ability to ask myself what I am doing and why I am doing it. I still know myself well enough to help myself realize how to learn. Your son hasn't had a chance to develop this way before suffering from this trauma. He probably can't figure out what he is doing wrong until it is too late. He needs to become more aware of himself to cope. This will probably take a while and require constant support from you and the rest of the family.

Check out this website...http://www.thehiddenepidemic.com/. Also I think the doctor in the movie could actually help you. I think he is accessable, but I am not sure.

I wish you and your family well. Just hang in there. I know I put my family through a lot because of my concussion. Sometimes I think it is as hard on the parents as it is on the PCS victim. Take care.

I - I am so sorry to hear about your son! PCS victim's ideas sound really good. Psychiatrists tend to like drugs. All they tend to do is hide symptons or make things worse. MRI and CTs often don't show anything. It would be good if you could talk to Nancy who's son had PCS at a similar age. Try reading her posts on this site. Keep us uptodate, Lucy

Okay you have more than one issue in this.

I can relate to.

First the fact that he had seizures for more than 5 minutes. Could have helped with the brain damage. Its also according to what kind of seizures he had. And has he ever had a EEG now? If not please have them do one.

Make sure that the EEG isn't abnormal. If it is this could show at least part of the reason for the school problems.


Next the fact that he had a brain tumor that was caught if I'm reading this
right. After the wreck and removed. This too could be part of it.

Its according to what part of the brain the tumor was in. But it could easily
have been in the part that controls memory, or his behaviour.

So you need to maybe go back and do some research on this too.


I would also say that the psychologist could be very right it could easily be that he has some brain damage. And that even the problems with his
behaviour could be frustration. Because he can't do as well as he used too.

This is very much possible. I would definately want to have a Educational
psychological evaluation. Done either by the school or a outside source
too see what can be done to help him at school.

This is something that he really needs.

Donna

Dear MominFl,
I am so sorry for your two year struggles!! I am a MominMass who has a son who suffered PCS symptoms for a long time 6 or 7 months at 16. You are so right on thinking his issues are related to his head trauma. It does not matter whether damage is scene in scans. A neurosychologist who works with PCS patients will be the most helpful to you and your son they can be a third party who may be able to put the pieces together for your son and help him understand his difficulty with school and emotionally. He is not just a rebellious teenager. Trust your gut feelings at all times. The ripple effect from these type of head injuries can be so so sad! Recently my son's wrestling coach, the school trainer, myself, my husband and my son had a meeting where everyone told him how uncomfortable they were with his efforts to try to wrestle again this year and he tried so hard not to just sit there in tears. He was devastated!! I am hoping he will not have alot of emotional fall out from that. His injury was from a wrestling accident. My point here is his emotional issues are probably from both physical trauma and emotional trauma from watching his life fall apart. You can help the situation by being supportive and slowly the two of you can start picking up the pieces of his life through alot of love and support. This is my plan and allow others to help you.
Nancy

Good post Nancy

HOping your son is doing well.

Donna

Our son has had these issues before his first seizure (that we knew about as he has had his in the night while sleeping), and none of the meds he was put on helped him. He seems to have gotten worse in some areas above since the car wreck in October 2009. He will be 10 next month and has always loved school, so far his grades haven't sufferred too much Good luck!

I'm so sorry to hear about your and your son's struggles. Brain injuries truly take a toll on the whole family, and you've been dealing with this for a long time. Hang in there ma'ma!

Does your son have an individual education plan at school? If not, that is definately something to consider. He may do better with a little more time on tests, options for re-takes, etc.

Our daughter went to a psychologist about 3 months in to her injury. She was one of the best doctors we saw. She was referred to us through a university sports team as someone experienced in athletics, adolescents, and brain injury. We only saw her once, intially for screening for irrational anger and depression, but it was honestly one of our best doctor visits. She had such a great way of explaining how brain injury impacts learning, coping skills, suggestions for dealing with teachers, etc.

Since he is a teenager, it is nearly impossible to tell if he is just acting as he would have anyway, or if this injury has caused behavioral issues. This experience has made him, and you, a different person. To be on the safe side I would ask for in depth testing of his adrenal, thyroid, and pituitary systems. Search this site to find out the best testing methods (saliva, blood, etc.), but make sure you see an endochronologist not just a GP...seems to make a difference.

One last thing...I seem to be the board cheerleader for vision therapy...so here it goes. My daughter was having very similar issues in school, was starting to change her habits to avoid crowds, cranky, etc., as her injury wore on. She just completed a 12-week course of vision therapy and the difference has been amazing. I can't tell you that was the total reason for her improvements, or if it was just time to heal, but she is amazingly better. Google "post traumatic vision syndrome". Your typical opthomologist or optomotrist won't do the tests required to diagnose this without some back up so print out some info before your son's next vision appointment.

All the best to you!