Post-concussion related, feeling worse and worse.

[pertiman22]

Originally Posted by worried12378

hello,

sorry to hear about your headaches.

did you have a ct scan or mri of your head done after your injury?

Yeah, I had a CT scan done right when I arrived with the ambulance. Some people have been telling me to have another one done.

[pertiman22]

Hey guys, little update:

Still feeling pretty much the same, headaches have been less worse though but sensitivity to light is MUCH bigger.

I went to watch my hockey team play two days ago and for the first 2 periods I watched the game standing on the team bench. The fact that I was right "there", the ice seemed particularly white (when it never bothered me before), it was very bright for me and the fact I was close to the action and that the players were flying by left and right right in front of me really bothered me. I couldn't really focus on the game and what was happening, I was in another dimension, it was like I couldn't focus on the game, the plays that players were making, what the coach was saying, the reactions of the crowd. Essentially I was just staring.

For the 3rd period, I had to go up in the stands because I couldn't take it no more. I didn't get a headache but it was just plain uncomfortable.

Also, it's these ups and downs that's the worst. Some days I'm like 80%, and other days I'm 15-20%, I'm completely useless, no energy, I'm like a zombie.

It sucks.

[Mark in Idaho]

It sounds like you need to take a bit easier. Going to the game is far too much stimulation for your struggling brain. Don't be surprised if you have a bad day the day after you over do it.

You want to try to string together as many good days as possible. Each time to over do it and have a bad day, you have likely lost a bit of your recovery.

So, take it easier and walk away from any environment that causes those spacy feelings.

My best to you.

[pertiman22]

Yeah I know. The players that are injured are kinda supposed to go watch the games, I'm currently not going to the ones that are away but I go to the home games.

Update:

Went to see another hockey of my team, same stuff, couldn't focus on anything for the entire game. I just stare at it. It's weird.

Even when I was talking to people there, it was bizarre. I could talk normally, have a decent conversation, you know, small talk and all but when at some point I had to explain something to somebody, I had trouble focusing on what I was going to say and it felt like my brain couldn't download everything I wanted to say, I've never felt this way in my life before. It's a bit scary.

Anyway, today (Sunday), I've been feeling like total shyt the entire day. No energy, no motivation, no ability to focus. I've been feeling like a zombie all day long. I've had huge mental fog all day, I'm literally unable to focus. I still went on a 1 hour long walk with my dog, it went ok. I walked quite slowly, I was vey calm.

Since I try to avoid tv, computer, video games and books, newspapers,... I'm trying to keep busy. I can't just sit in a chair all day doing nothing. The fact that I can't workout or play sports is already making me go crazy.

My sensitivity to light is quite high now, higher than in the beginning. Now it's like when I know there's going to be light (sun, lamp, car lights,...) my first reaction, without even thinking about it, is to protect myself against it. I protect my eyes with my hands or turn my head. It's almost as if though I'm scared of the light.

Driving home at night yesterday was quite uncomfortable. The lights seemed brighter than usual (before the concussion)

Also, the fact that I have to study for the GMAT while all this is going on is quite challenging.

Well as you can see, I'm not feeling that great, I hope it gets better.

Thanks again guys for being here, it's so helpful to have a community like this, just the simple fact of exchanging a few words with people in the same situation helps a lot.

Cheers

[claritan]

Originally Posted by pertiman22

Yeah I know. The players that are injured are kinda supposed to go watch the games, I'm currently not going to the ones that are away but I go to the home games.

Update:

Went to see another hockey of my team, same stuff, couldn't focus on anything for the entire game. I just stare at it. It's weird.

Even when I was talking to people there, it was bizarre. I could talk normally, have a decent conversation, you know, small talk and all but when at some point I had to explain something to somebody, I had trouble focusing on what I was going to say and it felt like my brain couldn't download everything I wanted to say, I've never felt this way in my life before. It's a bit scary.

Anyway, today (Sunday), I've been feeling like total shyt the entire day. No energy, no motivation, no ability to focus. I've been feeling like a zombie all day long. I've had huge mental fog all day, I'm literally unable to focus. I still went on a 1 hour long walk with my dog, it went ok. I walked quite slowly, I was vey calm.

Since I try to avoid tv, computer, video games and books, newspapers,... I'm trying to keep busy. I can't just sit in a chair all day doing nothing. The fact that I can't workout or play sports is already making me go crazy.

My sensitivity to light is quite high now, higher than in the beginning. Now it's like when I know there's going to be light (sun, lamp, car lights,...) my first reaction, without even thinking about it, is to protect myself against it. I protect my eyes with my hands or turn my head. It's almost as if though I'm scared of the light.

Driving home at night yesterday was quite uncomfortable. The lights seemed brighter than usual (before the concussion)

Also, the fact that I have to study for the GMAT while all this is going on is quite challenging.

Well as you can see, I'm not feeling that great, I hope it gets better.

Thanks again guys for being here, it's so helpful to have a community like this, just the simple fact of exchanging a few words with people in the same situation helps a lot.

Cheers

i know how you feel with driving at night and the lights are brighter. when im behind cars their tail lights seem to shine a red beam at me

and what sucks for me is when i look at lit up signs i see double.

here is some hope for you though. im 9 months in and the first 4-5 months during the day i couldnt stand light but now im pretty decent at standing the light it definitly gets better

[StupidRugger]

Hi Chris,

I'm just posting because we're in similar situations. I'm 21 (f) and got a concussion 37 days ago playing rugby. I'm also a full time student in my last year at a rigorous college, and I should be finishing up classes and writing a thesis right now, but that's not happening.

Have you talked to your professors about taking an incomplete for this semester? I finally did that this week and it took a huge load of stress off of my shoulders. Now I'm mainly focusing on "resting" as opposed to trying to force myself through school work. I'm hoping that I'll be better come January and can get everything done then.

And yeah, this sucks. It -will- get better. After four weeks I was finally able to watch an entire rugby game. Five weeks I can use the computer for about as long as I want without a headache, but I'm still having trouble reading print for long periods of time. Driving at night still sucks.

Not working out sucks, too. I went from being the most fit player on my team to doing NOTHING all day. I suggest you take baby steps. Walking my dogs for a few hours each day seems to help. I'm going to try some light cardio this week. I think I'm going to have to quit rugby and play touch rugby with the local old men's club until I graduate.

It sucks, but at least there's another young person who knows what you're going through!

[worried12378]

hi,

yes. that´s me right there. check out my older posts.

my concussion happened almost 12 weeks ago.

expect it to go up and down.

don´t expect no immediate recovery. be patient.

don´t do sports.

we are all different but i just read an article on Marc Savard, he suffered a hockey related concussion, now has PCS and after 21 months he is still not allowed to return to sports. Don´t want to depress you in any way, but let´s be realistic. Take it easy and avoid any strenuous acitivities.

[pertiman22]

Update:

went to do an MRI like my physio asked me to. Lasted 35-40 minutes. Went in the machine for about 25 minutes, they then pulled me out, put some kind of colorant in my blood, put me back in for about 10 minutes. Gonna call doc on Monday to get results.

Is this colorant supposed to be helpful to detect artery/vein damage in the brain area? Or what's the deal with that.

Went to see the doc before the MRI, first time I had seen him since the accident. He said that the reason it's taking a long time for me to recover is because first of all, it's personal, there's no one size fits all recovery time, and secondly, that I should have stopped at least 4-5 days after the accident before going back to school or even going out of the house. I went back to uni 2 days after the accident. Thing is I can't afford to not go to uni, I have to go to my courses and can't afford to be late with my courses/papers.

On a side note, I'm starting to think that apart from the concussion I got when I was 10-11 (also lost consciousness, have no memory whatsoever, fell from a 8 feet high double bunk bed and hit my head on a concrete-like floor, if nobody had told me the next morning that I had fallen from the bed, I would have never known) and this concussion I got at hockey, I might have got other concussions, multiple small concussions during hockey games, where you get hit in the head or you get checked head first into the boards, you feel dizzy a few seconds, get up and continue the game. You maybe get a slight headache the next day but you don't even think about it that way.

I'm starting to wonder really if this might be my 5th or 6th concussion rather than my 2nd. Mind you, the two I've had so far in my life have been the worst concussions you can get: loss of consciousness for +5 minutes, serious PCS for weeks.

[worried12378]

hi,

did the MRI show anything? Hopefully it was clear.

[pertiman22]

Originally Posted by worried12378

hi,

did the MRI show anything? Hopefully it was clear.

Hey, sorry only saw your response today.

No, thankfully it came back negative but for some reason, they told me they could tell I got one hell of a blow. They told me this while I was in the MRI machine so I'm not quite sure how they got to that conclusion. Any ideas?


Little update:

No real improvement unfortunately. My sensitivity to light seems to have gone away, that's the only positive news. I've still got headaches and concentration problems. About a week ago I had 3-4 days where I felt relatively good, I finally thought I was finished with it all but the headaches came back on the 5th day and now, I feel exactly like before.

It's not easy, my uni exams are coming up, I'm also studying for the GMAT. I can't afford to rest or not do anything.

I had a really uncomfortable experience at the end of last week. I've been studying for the GMAT for 15-20 days. Up until now I've only been reading the theory and doing a few exercises. I've had headaches and concentration problems but it was bearable.
Last week I decided I wanted to test myself with a time constraint, to simulate test day conditions.

So I started the 35 minute simulated test. Unfortunately, after 10-15 minutes, I could feel pain slowly but surely developing in my head, something I've never felt before. At the 20 minute mark, it was bearable but I had a massive headache, it was literally thumping.

At the 30 minute mark I had to stop, the pain was seriously "hurting". Never in my life have I had that type feeling, where I could notice my headache getting bigger and bigger by the minute. Couldn't focus on what I was reading, couldn't concentrate on the text.

I don't really know what happened. Could this have been due to the stress related to the time constraint mixed with the mental focus I had to use?

This is the first time since the accident (now 2 months ago) that I really gave it my best in terms of mental focus/concentration to do a task.
It really sucks. The real GMAT test is in a bit more than 20 days so I hope I won't experience this on test day.
I'll try and take a 3 and a half hour long practise test on Friday (same amount of time than the official test) to see how things go.

I also went to see an osteopath last week. He manipulated my neck region quite a bit. He said that my neck was totally "blocked" that the "streams" weren't flowing efficiently. He said that what he did would help me.