Headaches After Head Injuries — Post-Traumatic Headaches

Our family has also been suffering thru the rigamoro post TBI. We are 8 years out and our 17 yr. old son is finally getting a little relief with oxygen therapy. We have been thru the gambit of drugs, side effects from all the drugs and being sent from doctor to doctor. He is now being seen at a university headache clinic, which is also checking his pituitary gland for deficits in its function, as well as treating him with oxygen therapy. Please don't give up, but utilize all the services and expertise you can find to help make life manageable for yourself or loved-one. We are not out of the water by any stretch of the imagination, but at least we are now able to tread water and hopefully float someday.

I can relate to almost every post I read from other posters. I had a head injury when I was 19; that was 6 years ago already. LONG JOURNEY! let me tell ya. Still going… How does one get healing when all of the doctors are MORONS!? I was apparently jumped & mugged one night. I say apparently because I still to this day have no recollection of any time around than. $40 is what they got from me and left me for dead. Concussion, internal bleeding & bruising, fractured skull. Unfortunately it took 6 hours before I arrived to a hospital. 8 Hours to gain consciousness. Doctors wanted to cut my skull open to relieve pressure, blood ect. My mother got a 2nd opinion from another doctor, who said try not to do it, more long term issues. Same went for drilling a hole in skull. Thankfully they did not do it. I think I was shipped out within 24 hours of arrival. Sent home. Sleep it off I guess… Got some MRI's, CT scans. Doctors all basically say could be both ends of spectrum on recovery & long term issues/disabilities. Why do you get the dam scans if they cant tell anything? Zap us with more radiation & free $ probably??? Doctors after doctors. All say the same thing, "6 months to recover" for post head injury. Chronic headaches till this day. Anxiety, depression, poor concentration, lack of any motivation, and for the past year, "what’s the point of living" thoughts; probably because not able to progress in life, and Social security is hard for many disabled people. Catch 22. My aftermath disabilities: Anxiety, Depression, Dyslexia, Chronic Headaches/Migraines, Lack of Concentration(ADD/HD), Lack of motivation, Speech Impairment, Frustration/Anger Issues with task, Loss of desire to eat, hard to get to sleep-once asleep I sleep for 12-24hrs+, Feelings of unconnectivity to this reality. Sad life. I think it would be easier if I hadnt been on a path for a very bright future in any avenue I chose. Better to have had than to never had is a lie. Stuck in this black hole for too long. I don’t see the way out any longer. //// I love this site. I have learned more in the last 10min than 6 years of doctors. WOW. Basically Have all the symptoms, so it is pretty clear what I have been suffering from & why now. Nice to have an answer to why I am suffering finally. Only resolution I can get from doctors is depr/anxiety pills, counseling... It's like they dont even see the causes, or past history, just a word, and each word has a drug to give patient. I believe my circumstances to the symptoms are different than the general population. None of that shit will every work or heal me or most others. Only mask the problems from my experience. Although I do think my issue is chemical imbalance or possibly damage which results in these symptoms. I could sustain more head damage and still be more intelligent than most of these doctors Ive seen. Most of them smart dumb people, book worms. Robots! Repeat after me…Basically for the past 3 years I sought medical marijuana and have not had chronic headaches, or migraines in 3 years. Besides the occasional stressed out headache. I have no luck with aspirin, vikidin, or migraine pills. Still been seeking better fixors for my other symptoms, but no luck still. I dont see the difference in substance consumption. Everything in this world including food is a drug/substance that our bodies process for benefit(s). I can say medical Mar. is not helping my anxiety or depression any. I am in a catch 22 because without it headaches again, I dont eat, & I cant get to sleep. I really want to resolve the anxiety & depression, & motivation issues. Big dreams, as always, but stuck in that black hole still, alone. When I look at all my issues/disabilities, my head spins. Overwhelming. If we were all puppets, I’d be missing a few strings. I just want to perform like everyone else again. Toss me a few strings please! Maybe I should just be happy I have any strings at all…

my daughter was hit in the head during a soccer game. I was not at the game and nothing was said to me about how hard she was hit by her or my husband. 4 weeks later she was hit in the back of the head with a basketball during a game and seemed fine. She already had headaches prior to that but the headaches got worse. She was sick to her stomach feelinglike she was going to throw up so I took her into the doctor. they said she needed more acid reflux medication and it would go away. She was still palying basketball keeping up a full schedule at school until one day she could not deal with the pain anymore. I told her in again and they said she had a concussion. Stop palying sports for awhile and everything would be fine. It was not fine. She ended up being taken out of school and still not gone back. We took her to a specailist in a city 2 hours away. He gave her a test said she was processing very slow and that she had had at least 2 concussions. We are dealing with this day by day. She had a MRI and they found a bleed deep in her brain that had sealed itself off. This has been 2 months and some days I think she is fianlly on the road to recovery and then the next day she is worse. Noe she is getting the sharp stabbing pains on the right ide of her head, she is so tired all the time. It is heart breaking to watch and others who havve not gone through it just don't understand how hard it is to watch a 15 year old extremely smart and very athletic go through this.

Thank you very much for this information. I'm 71. Had my fourth concussion in Sept 2012. Have also had familial hemiplegic migraines since I was about 13 so I can't safely take Sumatriptan. I'm reading a book which relates some of the same info about why recovery takes time: Brain Lash: Maximize Your Recovery from Mild Brain Injury. It's hard having patience sometimes.

I have a child who was injured at home by a fall. It has been a 3 1/2 year nightmare. Ranging from the hospital thinking it was a basic concussion and not doing much and releasing her. Told it could take up to a year for a concussion to hear. Kept taking her back to the ER because of debilitating daily level 10 headaches we were still told it could take up to a year to resolve. I took her to a neurologist 10 months into it and found she had a TBI. Thought we were on the right road now. Had a neuropsychology appt and they said that they didn't feel she had a TBI due to a negative MRI. So her care was barely existent because they were to base her care on this evaluation. I took her to another doctor out of state who spent nearly 5 hours with her and found the multitude of symptoms and problems that we had been feeling she had. He told us that she has a TBI, a skull fracture and whiplash which kept her with all of the symptoms we had been seeing. The out of state doctor got us connected with a team back in our state. They then proceeded to drop the ball yet again on her. It even included dropping the ball on a neuroendrocrine evaluation which hadabnormall results and them calling to tell us all was normal and fine and to come back in a year. It has been a total uphill battle and I think a LOT of things need to change. I think it needs to start right at the beginning at the hospital in respect to TBI. Better education and protocols need to be in place to help TBI survivors and family members. More education for the hospitals, doctorspsychologiststs etc. Also more communication needs to happemonistst their own teams. I can't even believe for a second that two physicians on the same team can differ so widely and stall a patients care. Our story is a LOT longer than this and more compliacted with a lot of problems and obstacles, tried to keep it short. Make sure you keep searching for answers, if it doesn't feel write go to another doctor, dig deep anywhere and everywhere for answers, do your own homework and arm yourself with knowledge. We have come a long way and she has made a lot of progress. This has been from researching and advocating for ourselves, exploring options, seeking out doctors with really good credentials and who specialize in the things we feel we need to address. We're still researching a lot of the symptoms but feel we are getting a lot closer to real answers on some of the issues that involve level 10 daily headaches, sleep problems, tachychardia and much more. I wish you all good luck and God speed with your healing and recoveries. Keep searching and NEVER EVER give up!

My husband has been diagnosed with Post Concussion Syndrome stemming from a head injury in June. We have been working closely with neurologists, speach therapist, and physical therapist. It has now been almost 5 months and we see his symptoms worsening. His headaches are intensifying, along with the nausea, light sensitivity, and sound. He is experiencing a lightning bolt shock several times a day now in the area of the injury with intense headaches and pressure. The current answers seem to be increase the dosage, and start a pain management regimen. I'm concerned that something else is going on. If anyone could provide suggestions of things to look into we would greatly appreciate it.

My son was in an automobile accident in 2008. He has a brain stem bleed and a slight stroke. He has a headache almost everday. The most severe are at the base of the neck. Nothing seems to help. Any suggestions?

Thank you for sharing your story,my daughter suffered a sport related concussion while at school. The school of course tried to cover up the accident by lying, we eventually discovered the truth but it doesn\\\\\\\'t change the fact my daughter recieved a concussion, spent 5 days in the hospital in misery, as a result was diagnosed with a TBI and now 5 months later is still sufferring from post concussion syndrome. I felt crazy at times because it is hard to pinpoint all facts especially if you never experienced a TBI or known anyone who has gone through it. Its very frustrating for everyone involved. Its been a life changing event for not only my 10 year old daughter but our entire family. My daughter is currently seeing a speech pathologist, TBI specialist, Neurologist, neuro- spychologist, physical therapist, and we are trying to get her in to some therapeutic stuff as well. It wasn\\\\\\\'t without a battle though. I dont think people can\\\\\\\"t really understand and want to tell you how its \\\\\\\"supose\\\\\\\" to happen but nothing they told us has been accurate. She will recovery in 3-6 months...not true its been 5 and finally everyone realizes its worse than \\\\\\\"usual\\\\\\\". I have tried to be my daughters advocate but its difficult when you have no idea yourself how to handle the sittuation. I felt like I had to convince people too.. I finally told the dr.\\\\\\\'s you may have hundreds of patients but this is my one and only daughter and I know her better than anyone NOW listen to us!!!. Dont underestimate your point of view, fight for yourself!!

This information was very helpful and it definately educated me more on this condition, which my daughter is suffering from at age 15. Thanks