Headaches After Head Injuries — Post-Traumatic Headaches

For all of you with nausea after concussions - I had persistent nausea after a car accident and after 9 months of trying different things, my primary care sent me to a GI specialist who prescribed reglan (for a very short period of time) which stopped the nausea.  Unfortunately, fell and struck my head recently and am having headaches, but try the GI doc if you can.

I am a 51 year old female.  I was assaulted and landed on my head on pavement.  I blacked out briefly.  I suffered a right parietal hematoma and concussion.  I'm one month out from this injury and these post concussion headaches are constant and make me feel nauseated. It's awful.  I'm scared how long this will last.  My head is still sore.  Going to a concussion specialist Thursday.  My left eye twitches throughout the day, my memory of finding certain words, or like putting chips in the fridge, are just part of my memory problems, I'm tired, get worn out quickly, have trouble sleeping, and have found myself getting off balance.  Lights and noise bother me.  The only thing that takes the pain away are Percocet but I try not to take these unless the pain is severe.   I start with 3 Advil which usually does nothing though.  On top of being very angry from being victimized, I feel so robbed for not being able to do my daily activities that have practically ceased to try and get better.  I love biking,  walking, gardening and golfing and I'm unable to do anything.  I'm reading about these headaches lasting for months!  Ugh!  From my CT scan it showed no fractures and no bleeding either.  Something is very wrong with my brain and the pain is awful.  I just have to lay down because I get so nauseated.  I'm going to reiki, having massages and I think I will try acupuncture next.  So frustrated. 

Peace to all, sorry we are all in this mess. My TBI was back in 2012 but still I have a feeling as if there were a band around my head, and a tightening. The pain and sensitivity on top of my head is still there but not as bad anymore now that the swelling slowly went away after steroids. But that tightening feeling is unbearable. Nothing touches it. Anybody else able to do anything about this? 

One thing I noticed is that the more I think, use my brain with troubleshooting at work, the worse I feel. I had a fall on May 5, 2015 and I'm still having problems, especially with headaches. I'm still missing hours at work but I have to go so I won't loose my job.

About 10 years ago i got hit in the back of my head by a snow boot while sledding. I was pretty shaken up. At that moment everything turned black and i felt like i couldn't hear anything. I quickly got up and went back to the car but i felt lost; i didn't remember where i was and was roaming around until i found my car. I never went to see a doctor and ever since that incident i get frequent sharp head pains on the back of my head where i got hurt. I sometimes forget things i was told or had to do. And i don't have recollection of my childhood. I only remember small things. I have gone to the doctor complaining of my symptoms but she said it was probably a neck problem, which doesn't make sense. I'm sensing its a long term post concussion problem but what do i know. The best advice that i could give is: if u have gotten hit on the head go to the doctor.

I am a soccer goalie, and when I was in 7th grade I played for my schools team. One game I was kneed in the head by an opponent as I dove for the ball. I'm not the type of person to show my emotions or to quit, so I kept playing for about 1-2 more minutes. I finally told my coach to take me out of the game once I couldn't see straight anymore and I burst into tears on the bench. It felt like someone was squeezing my head in their fist. After I went to the ER it was determined to be only a mild concussion and after just about a week I was cleared. Then I also played on the same team my 8th grade year and yet again took multiple hits to the head including getting hit in the back of the head when I turned around to get another ball during practice. This caused me to move forward as I went to pick up the other ball and I smashed my head on the goal post. At first I didn't suspect a concussion, but after about a week, I became suspicious when I got a 75 on a vocab test (I usually get between 90-100) I also came home from school almost everyday and took 3-4 hour naps. When I went to the doctor this time I was told to take a week off of school to rest my brain. After I took this week, I began going to a concussion specialist who gave my school a list of accommodations for me. Luckily I had taken a baseline test before the concussion and when I took it again to compare it, my results had dropped by over 60%, my balancing test also came in way below average. This concussion began in mid October and I have seen the concussion specialist every 2 weeks since then and now it is May and I still have barely shown any improvement. Also during January and February I did all of my school work from my house due to my unique situation. FYI I'm a 13(at the time of the concussion)-14(since January) year old girl who plays soccer, basketball, lacrosse, field hockey, and has a black belt in karate. I am also a straight a student (until my second concussion)

I fell early this week, and I know exactly how you feel. This post-traumatic headaches/pains are tough to bear. There must be something the Drs can do to help us.

My Son is 18. He had a head injury at high school 3 years ago. He has what we call 'turns' at least 2 times a day, where in his words 'it feels like someone has hit me in the back of my head with a baseball bat, and my eyes go black, and my legs go weak'. Also, he has short term memory loss, anxiety, depression, and anti social disorder. Also his maturity has reversed to a cheeky 10 yr old. A specialist told us he has post concessional complicated migraines, that there is no cure, and that he will have them for the rest of his life. We were also told that it is these 'turns' that have created the memory loss ( a 10 year window).  Reading this article, it describes my son to a tee. We were told my son is one of the very few unlucky ones that have this for life. What percentage is that? 

I am glad that people have made their comments. If is helping me decide on my next move. A little over a year ago, I had two accidents in a row. I went down a death hill on a slide and ended up with a severe concussion and then the next month I fell on the ice and fractured my spine; taking me out for many months. I was heavily medicated and I am not one to be on medications. Not only that...they actually did not work and caused me to become really depressed. Like I said, it has been over a year and I took myself off all medication except over the counter meds. My vision and hearing sensitivity has heightened as well as my neck, hip, and back pain. It affects life tremendously and I am lost in what I should do since my neurologist has no clue on what to do for me and has basically admitted that. Anyways, I think I may ask for a neck for because they only did an mri of my brain. If anyone has ideas for me please write back.

This is a very good site.  About 12 years ago, I was riding my bike up on a ramp that was about 3 feet high.  The bicycle stop at the very top and it and myself fell about 6 feet to the ground in which I hit the top of my head on the ground and my head did a very quick turn to the left.  I thought I was paralyzed but wasn't.  Since then I have had headaches mainly when I sit longer than 10-15mins.  It usually starts a an ache in the right side of the neck, then spreads to the whole right side of the head.  the left side is ok.  Advill doesn't seem to work much these days.  Muscle Relaxers help but I don't want to get used to those.  The only thing that helps me not to have a headache is when I'm walking.....all the time.  I've learned to lay down at home or if I sit will usually get a headache that starts as an ache deep in the right side of the neck.  Does anyone have this?  I'm thinking I must have pulled some things deep inside my neck on the right side.  I think it was like a wip like injury.  Can email me at jmfancy@eastlink.sc

http://www.americanheadachesociety.org/assets/1/7/Alan_Finkel_-_Concussion_and_PTH.pdf

http://www.nucleuscatalog.com/view-item?vendorID=MON12

This may help with the knowledge base.

I am 30 yr old male.I got hit at t'he side of my head 3 months by a man.i treated t'he wound but now,av started having mild headache,lack of concantration and mild fever.what is the problem?

When I was 9 I had a concussion at school. I was in the classroom and was swinging between two chairs. My feet went out from under me and I fell to the floor, striking the back of my head. I must have blacked out, I don't remember how long I was lying there. When I opened my eyes, I couldn't see. It was like a lightbulb was right in my eyes. Right when I tried to get back up, I felt horrid pains like my skin was being continually unzipped and rezipped from the top of my skull to my toes every 2 seconds. These shooting, burning nerve shocks continued for what must have been 15 minutes. It felt like my bones were going to crack and my eyes were going to rocket out of my skull, the pain was so bad. It was as if my body was being sewn to the floor, with millions of little pin pricks occurring with every electric shock. My teacher did not know that this happened. She was a polio victim and could not have gotten up to help me without crutches. I lay on the floor, with classmates walking past and looking at me strangely but not asking if I was ok. No one helped me. I stayed on the floor, not able to move or speak for about an hour. I closed my eyes because the light hurt so bad. Finally, I rolled onto my side because I remembered my mother telling me that you should do that if you find someone unconscious, and I nearly vomited from the pain. I was the last one in the classroom. I sat up and put my bookbag on, and I felt dizzy. I stumbled out the door, my head pounding. I think that I almost missed the school bus home. I fell asleep on the bus and the driver had to yell at me to get me to respond so that I didn't miss my stop. When I got inside the house, I wanted to go take a nap. I fell asleep and missed the bus the next morning. I failed my math test that same day and could not tell my teacher the capitals of different countries, even though I had won the geography bee the previous year. From that day on, I have not been able to comprehend math problems without intensive tutoring and I have suffered severe attention deficit disorder and dyslexia along with migraines, arrhythmias, and nerve pain. However, I overcame these issues to some degree, obtaining two high school diplomas and retaining a 4.0 my first year of college. I suffered three additional concussions in high school and college from high velocity equipment impact and falling on my head during acrobatic partner work in dance. Now that I am studying athletic and orthopedic medicine, I realize that I suffered both coup and contrecoup injuries on different occasions. I suffered impacts to the occiput, parietal and temporal bones, C1, and C2. I also suffered some temporary anterograde amnesia. With the third concussion, I suffered retrograde amnesia just before exams. The ATC at my high school conducted IMPACT testing with me. I scored very poorly and I had to be given extra tutoring in order to get me up to speed so that I could pass my exams. I have severe sleep cycle disturbances.I'm considered a "night owl". In high school, I would not sleep for 5 or 6 days, then want to sleep for the entire weekend. But I could not, because I had to travel for competitions. I fell asleep in class, in the middle of lunch, at rehearsals, in the car, everywhere. I was not narcoleptic, just unable to sleep at a normal time. I had to put myself on a sleep regimen to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every day. I had to take melatonin and muscle relaxers, and I still have trouble getting to sleep and waking up in the morning. Sometimes I fall asleep at 4am and wake up continually during the night. In high school, I had to do annotations for 27 books over the course of 2 years, and it was very hard to focus without getting a headache. Where my colleagues finished theirs in one week, it would take me two or 3 months to complete half the book. I nearly failed English my Senior year because of this. It is very bad to focus so hard under so much pressure after a concussion, as this delays healing. I also realize that the neurological degradation that occurs with a concussion is not easily repaired by the body. Where I used to have a photographic memory, I have terrible short term memory and cannot remember people's names day to day. I worry about my continuing education and my future career. I sometimes get giddy and irritable for no reason at all even after a full night's sleep. I wish that more care had been taken to diagnose my injuries before it was too late. So now I manage the 2 migraines I get every month like clockwork through use of acetaminophen, paracetamol, and ibuprofen along with a dark room and no noise. And lots of sleep. It is hard to manage life after 4 concussions. I feel like a less responsible adult. I did not get my drivers license until age 20 because it was so difficult to learn how to drive, although I started when I was 15, before my 2nd concussion. And you can see how I have written a rambling, disorganized piece here. All of this is evidence of post-concussion syndrome.

My sons and i have all had head injuries in UK. I read that in New Zealand they monitor head injuries for 12 years. This is not happening in UK. You can get acquired dyslexia after a head injury. Find a tutor trained at Helen Arkell Centre near Farnham, Surrey, where they are trained in the medical facts too, and for helping adults. CBIT also helpful, for children. My headaches get diabolical ~ I even thought of going into a quiet monastery. You've got to have a place of sanctuary to go to.

Four years to the day that I was accidentally hit in the back of my head with a tray of food. It took six months of seeing doctors to get a diagnosis for occipital nerve damage and a mild traumatic brain injury. I have experienced unrelenting pain in my head and the rest of my body which increases with daily activity. I have no quality of life. The doctors have been bought out by insurance companies and big pharma.  As Plato says " The cure of many diseases is unknown to physicians because they are ignorant of the whole. For the part can never be well unless the whole is well." These doctors are not trained to cure anything. Being specialized dumbed them down because they only know their part, not how it relates to the rest of your body. The medical system is not designed to validate your illnesses, this would cost the Social Security System too much money in payouts. Insurance companies would have to cover these injuries and their goal is to deny responsibility for them, what better way to do this than to make it difficult to prove their existence. There is no wonder the US ranks first in medical cost but thirty something in medical quality. I will pray to God for healing and the knowledge to eat the right foods and herbs to recover my health.

I had a head injury were i was knocked out since then i keep getting severe neck pain that shoots straight up the back of my head and feels like pressure in my crown of my head it lasts for days and sometimes when i move my neck i get what feels like an electric shock through my skull, on top of all this i now get vocal cord dysfunction which scares the life out of me , my head trauma was April it's now October 2014 and symptoms are worse nobody understands that when i get these feelings it's as though i'm not in control and i get an almost death like feeling it's horrendous but Walton Centre In Liverpool UK did MRI & CT scans and say apart from slight compression of vertebra and possible nerve entrapment that there is nothing they can see wrong i'm at the point of giving up as the pain and symptoms are unbearable and i'm getting no help.

Billy King, Crosby, Liverpool UK williamwindsor@ymail.com

I have been suffering from PCS for eight months now.  I have been unable to work for any consistent time period and mostly everything I did prior to the accident causes my symptoms to flare again.   I had good results from a week at the Carrick Brain Center in Atlanta.  I cannot say it was an immediate fix but many of my symptoms have subsided; confusion, nausea, brain zaps and concentration has improved some.  My life has become very quiet now to avoid symptoms but I'm starting back to work part time next week and am concerned about it.  The headaches seem to be the most significant lingering symptom at this point and can be triggered by almost any "normal" activity.  Massage, Acupuncture has helped some but does anyone suggest an over the counter med that is helpful?  Motrin seems to help more than Tylenol and I wondered if others had similar experience.  Also have any of you been prescribed Relplax for the killer migraine-like headaches?

Hi, had my first head injury when i was 2 years old, cracking my head on a door frame. Had 10 stitches and sent home. My second was traffic accident on a motor bike, which after returning from hospital 3 months later, i began to suffer with headaches. Doctors gave me tablets but never worked. I found that pain relief worked better if i took 3 tablets at a time, and most days i would take 3200mg of pain relief a day. Third accident i was a passenger and i was alseep on the back seat when the car was side impacted and my head and neck took the full force. I was knocked out again. Patched up and sent on my way without any MRI done. The final accident was a racing accident where i was thrown into the air and landed upside down on my head, i felt fine and got up and drove home. Over the pass 30 years i have suffered with headaches everyday and doctors advise over the phone is take a pill. Since my accidents life has gone down hill, i tend to stay in doors, cant stand bright light or noise, emotions are up and down, pins and needles in both arms, poor sight with blurry vision and now told i have dyslexia. Doctors will not give me the answers i want or the MRI scans i need. I am now off medication due to the size of dose i need because doctors have warned my liver will fail, so can any one give me an answer, because this has lowered my self esteem and well to live.

Hi last year in 2013 i suffer a head injury at work it was nothing serious. I was bending down and came up and bumped my head. Ever since that i cant go to the gym or do anything active, because i get a mild headache and some times even nauseous. My doctor put me on stages of pills but they seem like they are not working. Please is anyone have any advise let me know. I want to have a normal week with out headaches!! Thank you Suriel04@gmail.com

The article was very helpful, but after reading it, I can't help but feel a little discouraged. In April of 2014 I was involved in a high speed, head on collision with a truck. Multiple skull fractures, (including a serious basilar skull fracture.) Since the accident, my headaches seem to be getting worse, as the months pass. I thought they would get better. Apparently not. I've been to a host of specialists, and like many people here, they throw medication at me, (including serious pain medication).  Long term though, the medication is not an answer. 

So, I'm not crazy - as I've been made to feel. No one "gets"my pain and the accompanying symptoms like memory loss, cognitive processing, anxiety, exhaustion, or the plain fact that chronic pain is DEPRESSING. Nutshell - worker's comp. is like any insurance company that will deny claims or continued treatment. My best interest is NOT their concern. You have to battle - which is not so easy when you are exhausted from constant pain. I was assaulted by a student in Feb. 2014 - punched in face by a troubled kid - I was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. I've had a constant headache since then that never fully goes away and fluctuates without warning from mild to moderate, severe, and migraine. The occupational doctors office used by my school district gave me pain meds and sent me home. I called my chiropractor the same day who took much more detailed x-rays that showed a tendon stretched to the point that I could barely hold my head up. The tendon also had a small tear. My injury was "whiplash" equivent to being hit by a car going 40mph. I was out of work the rest of the semester until the last 2 weeks of school - during which I went home early one day in pain and was absent another day due to severity of pain. I wore a TENS unit to barely survive the other days. We finally got an MRI approved which showed bulging discs. I now have approval to see a neurologist because of headaches, memory, and cognitive functioning problems. It has been a constant battle with workman's compensation. They decided if I"wasn't better by now then I probably wasn't going to get better." I have had appealed this decision several times and each time was approved for continued coverage of treatment. However, each appeal process took 3 to 6 weeks to be approved. In the meantime I was not receiving ANY kind of treatment. I offered to doctors to pay for my treatment with my regular insurance but was told that would result in a battle of denial to pay between worker's comp. and health insurance. My entire existence has been affected by this injury. I am so frustrated trying to find care/treatment that will return me to my normal life.

In December 2013 I had a bad fall at work.  I slipped on snow and broke a rib, put out my neck and hit my head on the ground.  After the diagnosis of concussion almost a month later, our wonderful workers compensation here in Canada denied my injuries.  

It has now been over 7 months, I have received acknowledgement for the concussion but not the headaches.  I have yet to see a specialist as the waiting time here is super long, 1-2 years long.

I cannot believe how disabling MTBI is.  I can't think or read properly; I can't solve problems or figure things out.  I cannot drive anymore because of the headaches and sometimes I stumble because I cannot get my balance.

I do hope everyone here can imagine how nice it must be to have a day without headaches, stumbling, irritability, and actually being able to understand what's going on in a conversation.

I do hope we all can get the individualized treatments we need and the coping skills to deal with what we cannot recover from.  I know this sounds stupid only 7 months after my accident, but without any actual treatment regiments so far, I'm not very optimistic I will recover.

One could translate your opening paragraphs like this: People with headaches after concussion are difficult to understand and treat. Doctors and insurance companies have set limits on the amounts of time, energy, commitment, and resources, they are willing to share with those of us who have such a problem after a "mild" head injury. "Mild" being the term they use when they do not see a bleed on the CT Scan or MRI. "Mild concussion" being that condition they send you home from the ER without treating in any way, shape or form, also recommending that you not return to hospital if you get large swellings the night/day after. "Why don't you call your primary care doctor" the ER nurse told me, and in my morphine state, with head pounding and pounding so that I felt as if I was being tortured: mild concussion is what I not have, and THAT doesn't qualify for much of anything. What we are left with is horrible ongoing pain, loss of some abilities, and in my case speech problems.

Readers would be much better served here if you would report on the latest treatments offered that do work, and just stop endlessly talking about a problem that is only "identified" as such because of the poor quality of US ERs.

My wife had an accident in Dec 2013 in which her left side of the brain was hit by the car roof. We had done MRI (brain) and MRI ( curvical spine )but the reports were normal. She is having severe headache in left side of the brain and sometimes it increases to the whole brain from dec 2013 only. The pain is not permanent in nature. Doctors have referred this as post  traumatic effect. Please advice if you have any better option to cure it at the below mentioned email id. I would really be grateful to you.

Regards,

Harsh Sinha

E mail - harsh_sinha20@yahoo.com

Four months ago I was with my son who was babysitting a one hundred and fourth lb two year old very gentle boxer mix. We were on a walk and my son decided to run into the store. While I held onto the pups leash he saw my son through the store's window. I was sitting on the window ledge and suddenly I was twisted and tangled into his leash. He ran to the store door to greet my son as he exited and I was still holding the leash. He pulled me so hard and I was still tangled that I fell straight down on my face. I cut over my eye and my knewws. I had a very large lump on my eyelid, with a lot of bruising. Its four months later and I feel sick everyday, with nausea, dizzyness and when I go outside my other eye sees like a white glare. I did have a CAT Scan, which CME back normal. But I know everythingy isn't normal what do I do?