Post-Concussive

Today is the day. The first day I feel like there may be something significant happening with my recovery. On the night of January 20, 2016, I struck my head on a fellow employee while working. We work in high profile chaotic Hollywood nightlife so there’s no time to stop and relax. I kept working only to realize that I’d be dealing with a concussion that would linger for months to come. After being pushed around by countless workers comp doctors, (what a terrible system to say the least), CT scans and an MRI with, “Nothing is wrong with your head,” daily headaches, migraines, nausea, and vertigo, I finally may be seeing the light at the end of what felt like a never ending tunnel.

I’m not one to just sit there and take medication when something is wrong. I spent a decent amount of time in and out of hospitals when I was younger and when you get thrown so much medication and it alters your mental status, you either accept that is your life or you take action for alternative methods. Today the only thing I take daily is my beta-blocker for my SVT /inappropriate sinus tachycardia and vitamins, I do take those almost every day. When I realized this head injury was much more serious than I ever thought it would be I felt so off that I didn’t know what to do. I felt that my judgment wasn’t clear enough to make decisions nor did I feel well enough to call and track down doctors for answers. Weeks went by without response from doctor’s offices and the insurance. After spending so much of my time in pain I decided to be more aggressive to get what I needed. I left a stronger message with the insurance and my MRI finally gets ordered, that day. This was two months AFTER the injury. Lets keep in mind I had brain surgery as a baby. I fell from a carrier and had a subdual hematoma. Queue red flag. Continuing, I was given medication to help with the symptoms of vertigo (anyone who has experienced that, whew, that is NO fun). I had medication to help with nausea, which it curbed almost immediately. Narcotics for pain relief, which I tried one time and my whole body went numb, yet my head continued to throb all night long. Aleve once a day but I began to bruise easily and if I cut myself shaving it wouldn’t stop bleeding. Even my bum was bruised from sitting and my palm from using it to hold myself up. So I decided I’m not going to just treat the symptoms, something has to help. The last visit with my workers comp neurologist was to read my MRI results. He is only at the clinic twice a month. It took 2.5 weeks to read the results and there was nothing I could do to get it done sooner. Trust me, I tried. At that point no news felt like bad news. He tried to send me back to work, dismissing my current symptoms and phone calls I never was returned while crying with migraines asking for any suggestions to help the pain. After the doctor insenuates that I was “stressed and depressed,” he said he’d give me something to help me sleep. I never mentioned any of those things as problems I was experiencing. The script was an antidepressant. That was it. Done. I left crying and I felt like there was nothing I could do but wait out this weird day-to-day feeling I was living with. Waking up in a fog. Not being able to get out of bed. I decide to try to have a full day of activities. Activities limited as in lunch, dinner, walking around. That was my “full day.” But yesterday, there may have been a shift. All thanks to this great guy I know, TG.

I met TG in May of 2015. He was in Los Angeles visiting his mentor. I had just left nursing school and had a guy behave in such a confusing matter that I was in man hater mode. It happens. Somehow given the circumstances, me completely drunk and mean and he being a stranger from Nebraska, we are still hanging out today. I’m still not sure how it all happened but I guess some great things can’t be explained. Long story short, he is in a great D.O. school and heard a professor discussing Post-Concussive Syndrome and how he’s treated it multiple times. One example, a woman had it for a year and a half and two treatments later, it was gone. This idea to me sounded surreal. I couldn’t imagine NOT feeling the way I have every day for the past 2.5 months. You do what you can to be better and it doesn’t ever go away. You start to lose hope. Needless to say this entire process has been difficult. I’m very active, outgoing, love to be with my friends, dancing and laughing and always having a good time. Weirdest feeling is having no desire to do any of it.

I don’t want to say I’m fearless but I’m definitely always one to challenge myself. Since my concussion, I have had a fear of being in loud environments, lights mess with me so none of that either, even being in a pool. That may not be weird to some but I grew up in the water. My mom and grandmother both swim instructors. I’ve never been scared of the water. I just got in a pool for the first time last week. Little baby steps but I’m glad I had my friend with me reminding me its all okay. As for the activity level, doctors say pretty much to do nothing. I tried doing nothing. It’s harder than you think. I can only rest so much. Minor Yoga at home was my extent of activity. This was mostly to try to get my balance back in order. I continued to try and failed over and over. Wanting nothing more than to feel like I did before I hit my head. It definitely brought me down. There were plenty of tears. But after all of the challenges and dismissive behavior from all of the doctors and insurance, I finally felt something that my work after all.

On 4/8/16 I was set up by TG to see Dr. O. After all that I had been through I had the same nervous feeling I’ve had being in every other doctors office. He was kind, asked questions about the entire process and was genuinely concerned with what was and wasn’t done in this situation. He did a head to toe treatment, (or well he actually started at my feet). My hips were over an inch off, my neck extremely tight where the opening of your scull is, rib out of place. He hooked it up. I didn’t feel anything significantly different walking out except hope that maybe I’d start to feel better soon. On 4/9/16 I yelled to T, “Oh my gosh look at my ankles!” He didn’t seem to really understand. I explained that my ankles had been so swollen and they were so much smaller. Apparently a lot of lymph was able to drain once these openings were allowed to flow. I have a follow up appointment next week. Here’s to staying positive and welcoming all of the good to come!

#concussion #healing #recovery #progress