Recovering from Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

I have a concussion from a car accident and am suffering from post concussion syndrome, my concussion was not initially diagnosed as I didn’t remember if I hit my head and I had various other soft tissue injuries that where being focused on. I am finding now 6 months in that I am still suffering, I never took time off work as I walked out of the car and thought I was fine...I started feeling things and bc I work at a computer all day I’ve managed to muddle through.......I am wondering though if it would be more beneficial for my recovery to take some time off work?

People anguishing vertigo last for a long time have a problem with the internal ear. The internal ear has a mechanism that is responsible for orientation in space and movement. Amazing work is done by the author. Kudos!!

After reading so many comments, so many people going through some very tough times and situations, and so many feel that no one believes them which I surely get that too. Just thought I would add my own. Those who don't like to read long comment "stories", its ok if you skip this one, I don't blame you :-)

I'm 36, always been very independent, work nearly everyday but Sabbath. Had been working on my house, wanted to get water lines run to it this past spring... but a little over 6 months ago now, a guy I knew was trying to help a neighbor to mount a tractor scraper blade on another piece of equipment. But he didn't know much about steel work, so he asked me if I would go with him to the scrap yard to find what they needed make the mount. So we went, found a large heavy wall tube steel that would work. But it was about 30 feet long, and we only needed a 10 foot piece. So we got a guy from the shop at the scrap yard who was supposed to be a forklift operator. And when I say forklift, it was actually a large off road front loader which they had removed the bucket and mounted a set of forks on it, which they normally used to pick up crushed cars. Anyway, the piece of steel we needed was on a 30 foot long steel rack, with who knows how many tons of steel on that rack. Anyway, instead of just lifting the piece of steel about 6 inches and backing up, the forklift driver picked it up until it hit the shelf above it, then he picked up the entire end of the rack. The other guy I was with said that the piece of steel we were wanting was actually bowing under the weight. We yelled at him and motioned for him to put it down, he opened his window and we told him he had picked up the entire rack and needed to put it down. He closed his window, and that was the last thing I remember... But from what I'm told, instead of just lowering the rack down, he apparently tried to jerk the piece of steel out from under the rack, which was ridiculous to say the least. But because of the amount of pressure it was under from all the weight of the steel on the rack, when it came out it shot out like a spring. I was past the far end of the rack, and far over to the side, but the flat side of the steel hit me on the right side of my head. (*If I had been hit by the open end of the steel beam, I would have been dead, as it would have cut half my head off. I know without any doubt the only reason I'm here is because the Heavenly Father Yahuah didn't allow that to happen) It opened a large gash right above my right eye. Knocked me out cold and I fell back into a 3-4" deep water puddle from a shallow drainage ditch.. Even when I came too, I was not coherent at all. Somehow I apparently got back over to the guys suv that I came there with. As the first thing I really remember was I was sitting in the passenger's seat holding my head with my right hand. I lowered my hand to find I was holding a big wad of white paper towels and they were soaked with blood. This is when I saw the blood on my jeans and then on my jacket. I asked the guy I was with what had happened and why am I covered in blood. He said "don't you remember? you got hit by that steel beam, and we've been trying to stop the blood for 20 minuets." I then started thinking "where am I?" and I looked up and saw the gate to the scrap yard, and remembered we had been there. Then I kept trying to piece together the rest, and remember the forklift guy and him lifting the rack.

Not One person working at the scrapyard bothered to even call an ambulance. The only thing they did was apparently give me the paper towels... and the guy I was with was also not smart enough to drive me to a hospital nor call an ambulance... I finally was able to tell him "just get me home". My Dad, Mom, and I live on the same property out in the country. I have a little house, and try to take care of whatever needs done around the farm, as my Dad is 78 years old, has had a bad heart most of his life, had a heart valve replaced about 12 years ago. And he had to have both knees replaced about 7 or 8 years ago, as he got busted up in a couple times in different jumps in the paratroopers when his parachute malfunctioned while he was in the military.
In any case, I knew if he got me home, my Dad and Mom would know what I needed to do, as it was just hard to think at this point. In fact after we started heading home, I tried to get the guy to stop somewhere so I could pick up supper... as I was supposed to bring home dinner that night for everyone.... obviously I was not thinking straight. I don't remember much of the trip home, other than he wanted me to call my Mom and tell her I got cut but was ok, so she wouldn't freak out as bad. I didn't want to call, but he finally convinced me, but after she answered, I couldn't find the words. I finally handed him the phone in frustration. Anyway, got home approx an hour from the time of impact. As soon as they saw me they knew I had to get to the hospital. I thought I went from his suv to our car, but was told later that I had (for some reason) walked into the house and sat down in a chair for about 10 minutes. I don't remember that at all. Dad and the other guy took me to the hospital, as my Mom had the animals and other things to deal with at the house. Don't remember much of the trip, which was only about 8 miles from the house.
I do remember after getting there, the reception lady kept asking me questions that I didn't have the words to answer. She wouldn't listen to the guy telling her that I had been hit in the head by a steel beam and etc, she just kept saying that " I " had to answer her.... I finally got out my drivers license and gave it to her and sat down. It was probably 20 minuets or so before they took me back, this was probably and hour and half to two hours from the time of impact at this point. They did a CT scan, but only of my skull (at this point, I thought they did my whole head, but was wrong), which they were looking for bleeding on the brain or if the brain was swelling, which if it had of been, once again I would have probably been dead by this time. In any case, they basically told me i had a mild concussion, stitched me up, made me a pain med prescription, said I was fine and released me after being there about 5 hours or so. Even though they noted that i was in an "altered state of consciousness, and kept repeating myself" **(IS this "normal" to be released so quickly??)** I don't remember much of what the doctors said, or even their faces for that matter. Or much of anything else that night. Just remember being so tired, and I crashed when I went to bed over at my Dad and Moms house, as they didn't want me to be by myself that night.

After 4 days, I had to go back to the ER, due to severe pain on the left side of my head and jaw. I thought my jaw was fractured and they missed it on the CT scan. Thats when I found out that they didn't even bother to scan my face at all the first time. So they did a 2nd CT scan, and found I had multiple facial fractures, but not my jaw. Again, they gave me some pain meds, muscle relaxers, and released me.

I did not feel like... "myself" for over a week. I can't really describe it, but some days I just thought "what the heck is wrong with me". I wasn't supposed to do any work or much of anything at all for at least 2 months, wasn't even supposed to be on the computer much.

A week or so after the head injury, I started having neck pain that would radiate up the back of my head and all the way right behind my eyes. Just such a severe headache that when at its worse, I just couldn't function. I'd go lay in a dark room, but couldn't sleep. Nothing helped to relive it, excedrin migraine helped take the edge off sometimes, but not always. And even then it only lasted an hour or so before it come back full force. Many days these migraines have lasted 24 hours, and even sometimes 48 hours.

A few weeks after the head injury, I started having what I called "music spells" where I would hear something that sounded like a radio playing, but there was no radio and I couldn't make out what was being said. Sometimes, its just a mixture of sounds and "voices".
One night, when I was by myself, I woke up to my dog whining and hovering around my head. I was laying face down on the concrete floor. I pulled myself up into my chair, finally turned on the light on my desk. Eventually got up, holding onto the door and etc made it across the hall to the bathroom. Saw blood running down my beard, rinsed my face with some cold water. Felt my tongue hurting, I had bitten it pretty bad. I had had a seizure.

Since then, the "music spells" (which were "lighter" seizures) have continued, as well as other "feelings" that are hard to describe, often happen anywhere from hours to days before I have one. I've had at least 4 tonic clonic seizures, that I know of at least. Two of which my Dad and Mom witnessed.
The neck pain and migraine headaches have also continued. As well as numbness in my left arm especially, but also sometimes in my left leg, and once in a while in my right arm.
I get angry sometimes over little things, or even nothing at all. Sometimes irritated really easily. I have to stop myself and try to calm down.
Loss of appetite (nothing really sounds appetizing anymore), as well as nausea, especially when ever I ride in a vehicle. I hate going anywhere anymore, especially the long trips to the doctors office thats in another city about 125 miles away.
A lot of days I'm really fatigued, just don't feel like standing, let alone working.

Then on top of all this, a few weeks after it happened, I started noticing I was forgetting things a lot. Like I would walk into a room, forget why I went in there. Be talking and forget what I was talking about. Forget things that I needed to do and etc. I started using an old smart phone just to use the notepad app to write things down, as if I waited until I got a piece of paper and pen, I would have already forgotten what I needed to write down.

Anyway, because of my memory lapses, back just over 3 weeks ago, almost 6 months to the day from my head injury, my Dad wanted to take down a deer stand that was in our woods which was actually my cousins stand that he had left there for over the last 2 years, because he doesn't clean up anything including all his trash.... Anyway. recently people moved in on the property next to ours, and they are nothing but big mouth alcoholic liers, and think they can bully the neighborhood... which they are finding out different after we got restraining orders against them. Anyway, my Dad was afraid they would come over our fence in the woods and steal the stand. Well I didn't really feel like messing with it that day, but I certainly didn't want my Dad on it. So I went with him in our old military farm truck, we could only get within about 50 feet of the stand because everything had grown up so much. I got a few hand tools out of the truck, and was thinking to myself "I got to take the top strap off first, then get the bottom"... well, by the time I turned around walked over to the stand, I completely forgot that. So I instead took off the strap I as looking at, which was the bottom one. Then I climbed up, took off the top one, but of course there was some stupid rope woven through the stand for some reason. I pulled it out, and about that time the stand started to move. I yelled at my Dad to move out of the way, and I rode it to the ground. Dislocated my ankle, broke both bones in my right leg at the ankle joint and just above it, and fractured the heel bone as well. (didn't know the details until later, pretty bad break according to the surgeons) My Dad started to try to help me up, but I didn't want him pulling on me. Told him to get the truck as close as he could to me. He did, after backing into a tree and messing up the open tailgate, because he was worried about me and not watching. He got it close, I got turned over on my knees and crawled over to, pulled myself up on the steel brush guard on the front. Got up on my left leg, and was able to make it around to the door, and sat on the edge of the seat enough to turn and pull my leg up inside. After we got back to the house, I nearly blacked out when trying to get from our truck to our car. Sunk about half way to the ground before I regained enough to stop myself and started pulling myself back up. Made it in the car, went the local hospital, they took x rays and told me I needed surgery and they couldn't do it. But they did try to "realign" the bones by pulling on my foot..... (later the surgeon was obviously irritated about this, as they hadn't done any good to say the least) Got transferred to another larger hospital via ambulance about 125 miles away (the one I go to now), MUCH better hospital to say the least. Ended up being in there for 6 days, had to have two surgeries, but they initially thought I would be in there for weeks and have to have at least 3 surgeries. In any case, that was about 4 weeks ago and I still can't put any weight on my right leg for at least another 5 weeks. Stuck in bed or a recliner for the most part... But it could have been worse. Just glad it was me and not my Dad on that stand...

Anyway, while I was in the hospital, several of the doctors also asked me about my head injury and etc. I told them about it, and that I had tried to get into their neurology department there, but had been told that it would be 6 months before I could get an appointment, so i had seen a "private" neurologist who I felt like didn't believe me (or didn't really care) and that he was only worried about how many appointments he get through per hour... He had also given me a prescription for "topomax", which after 5 days I couldn't deal with anymore due to the mental side effects, mostly a "flood" of "negative thoughts".... So I stopped taking them and I think that made him mad, there was some other issues to... He did order an MRI and EEG, both of which came back with "no abnormalities".... but I only found out the results from the doctors at the hospital, because the first neurologist would only say "we'll talk about it at your next appointment"....

Anyway, one of the doctors at the hospital told me she could get me into their neurology center. About a week after I got home, on that friday I found that I had multiple voicemails from their neurology clinic. I called them back the following monday, and apparently I had been moved up in priority as they got me an appointment that following friday when i had to also see the orthopedic surgeon in a follow up about my leg, so I didn't have to make a second trip.

I saw the neurologist for about an hour and half, we talked about a lot of things, she explained a lot and told me that all the symptoms I was having was consistent with Post Concussion Syndrome. She wanted me to try a different prescription for the seizures, and gave me a prescription for the muscle relaxers to see if it would help with my neck pain and migraines. I have been taking the one for about 5 days now, and it hasn't helped with the seizures so far, just had a "light" one yesterday. But the other one did help with a migraine. I emailed her about it, and she said if the one didn't begin helping with the seizures I may have to try something else. Supposed to see her again at my next appointment in about 5 weeks when I go back to see the orthopedic surgeon, to see if I will be allowed to walk yet.

Like I said earlier, its been over 6 months now... actually now that I think about it, its almost 7 months now... since my head injury. All the symptoms have continued thus far, some even seemingly getting worse. Like many other commenters here, I really feel that many people don't believe me... I know my Dad and Mom does... but some of the doctors, the first "neurologist", and honestly I'm not even really sure if my attorney's office believes me or not. But not much I can do about it. I just want all of these problems to go away so I can go back to being "me". At this point, I'll just be glad when I am allowed to walk again... and I just hope the meds stop these seizures. I'm most worried that if I have a bad seizure, I could re injury my leg at this point. Just pray that doesn't happen, as I can't hardly stand to sit here as is, I certainly don't want it to take longer... I know the only reason I'm still here is because the Heavenly Father Yahuah didn't allow me to die, not only on that day but in other times before this, even when I was a child. I pray that He will heal those who serve Him soon, but until then I'll do whatever I can to help myself. I know I'll get through it, just got to take it day-by-day, do what I can when I feel like working, and let the rest go. All we can do is take one day at a time.

** I had to go back through this comment multiple times just to fix words that I had "skipped" and other stuff.... Also if I'm on the computer to long, it gets hard to read or focus on the screen as well. I found this site last night and was reading the comments, but had to stop and close the computer. Anyway, I pray for the other people here and for anyone who has suffered a TBI, as "mild" or not, its definitely something to go through that no one else can understand unless they have been through it too.

Almost 20 years ago when I was 19 years old, I was punched very hard on the side of my head behind my ear by an abusive boyfriend. The punch was so hard that it left the back of my ear and ear completely black. He used all of his strength to punch me and he was much bigger than me. I felt very sick for days. I never went to the hospital or to a doctor. Since then, I have had so many things happen to me which I know is caused by that injury. I have a lot of trouble finding the right words to use when I want to speak or describe something. The same line of a song will play over and over in my head constantly. If I try to make a decision about something, all of these other thoughts will come rushing in and will just overwhelm me and I cannot make a decision on the smallest of things. I have outbursts and rages over small things. Loud noises or too much noise makes me angry. So many other things that I experience that are just too much to list. Another weird thing that happens to me is when I am in the shower, I will hear commotion going on outside of the bathroom, almost like people screaming and fighting. It happens so often that I know now that it's nothing and there's no reason to get out of the shower and check to see what is going on. I really hope that this does not affect me for the rest of my life, but it has already been close to two decades and still experiencing these things. I don't know if I can be helped.

I was hit on the back of my head very hard when a passenger on the plane dropped his metal luggage on my head as I was seated. I suffered a TBI 1 1/2 years ago and am still recovering. I am writing this because I saw an excellent neurologist but he was clueless. So many of the symptoms that each of you are mentioning were and are the same as mine. The back of the head is the parietal lobe which is responsible for vision. I could see but I could not recognize faces or people. I am writing this to provide comfort, compassion and hope for those of you with a newly diagnosed TBI. One of the scariest and most frustrating aspects was the unknown and not knowing how long this would last. I have suffered for almost two years but I am finally getting better. You must pay attention to your instincts. If it is too noisy outside, stay inside. Protect yourself and cocoon as long as you need to. You will help your brain heal if you let it rest. I recently discovered a small monthly group for people with TBI's. It is amazing in that everyone pretty much experiences the same things, but everyone thought it was just them. The rehab specialist who leads the group recommended ear buds and many people wear them as needed. The other big thing is to use your phone or a timer to remind you to do basic things. If you are cooking, use the timer to remind you to turn off the stove or oven. Set the timer to remind yourself to shower. I was a graduate school professor but after the TBI, I kept forgetting to shower! It will get better but give yourself a year. Your brain will heal. I am almost two years post injury and I never thought I could even be looking at a computer screen and typing this. Baby steps. Some days are harder than others. But you will heal. Be kind to yourself.

I suffered a TBI on April 8, 2019. I thought I had recovered. But my sensitivity to sound and this emotional roller coaster are exhausting. I feel like I'm losing my mind. Has anyone else experienced this?