Concussion: Physical Effects

There has been lots of news over the last several years about concussions in the NFL, NHL, major league baseball, auto racing, and in high school sports.
You may have had, or been told, you suffered a concussion at some point in your life.
At least on two occasions after car accidents I was told by chiropractors that I saw for treatment that I suffered a concussion in the accident.
I was never given any tests to prove or disprove these diagnoses. I was told this because I had cases of whiplash and they assumed I must have hit my head at some point.
I'm now doubting those occasions because I never went through any of the symptoms that I've been experiencing since getting hurt at my job.

The easiest way to describe my injuries is to divide them into the physical injuries and the mental injuries. For the physical injuries I received two blows to the head right next to each other. One to the front top of the skull and another blow right behind that, both on the right side. The doctors are treating this as one big concussion.
For the first two weeks there was pretty severe pain all the time. It wasn't the focused sharp pain that you might get with a traditional headache, rather it was across the whole head as if it was being squeezed in a vice. Moving my head either up or down would increase the pain. Side to side was okay, but I couldn't lie on that side of my head. This made sleeping interesting because I would start sleeping on my left side, however if I rolled over during the night it would wake me up if I went on my right side. If I was lying on my back and turned my head to the right that would also wake me up. The pain was usually mitigated by ice packs
and anti-inflammatory medications, however for the first few weeks it never went completely away.

For the first six months after the accident, half of my head was completely numb.  Doctors could take a pin and push it into my skull and I could not feel it. It tingled all the time, kind of the same tingle feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. The numb feeling made it interesting when it came to putting on the ice packs because I couldn't feel the cold on the area of the head that was numb. If I didn't pay attention and take the ice packs off before 20 minutes my skin would be frozen. I couldn't feel the cold on my head. Almost ten months later the constant tingling sensation has diminished somewhat, however 1/4 of my head is still numb. The numb areas don't seem to be as bad, but there is a clear difference between that area and the same area on the other side of my head.

I was also pretty dizzy for the first three months. Any place I walked I had to walk with my arms outstretched and guiding along a wall or chair or anything else I could grab onto in case I tripped.
While I didn't fall on flat surfaces, going up stairs I stumbled up on several occasions at home and other places. Only once did I stumble down the stairs, and on that occasion I was able to catch myself with the railing. Walking on surfaces with a sight grade either up or down it seemed my balance was even more affected than normal. One day, several months after the accident, I was working at a location where the floor was sloped to one side. I was standing at a table and stumbled to one side. I realized that I had been leaning to one side to compensate for the slope in the floor and fell over. To this day there are still times when I have to walk with my arms out in case I need to grab something.

Close your eyes.
All you "see" is darkness or blackness.
When I close my eyes I see red.
Sometimes I see bright lights like winking stars or flashing lines like the hyperspace effect in Star Wars.

Writing this post, emails, texts, or anything involving looking at a screen is hard. For the first three months I couldn't write anything on a screen because by the time I would finish writing a sentence such as this one, I would feel nauseous and/or my head would start screaming in vice like pain . I've been told that my brain is sensitive to blue light wavelengths that come off of monitor screens. If I look at screens too long, especially my phone screen, the muscles in my head and around my eyes constrict and it feels like my eyes are closing and I get a lot of pressure as if my head gets squeezed in a vice. I have a blue light filter on my screens so when someone else looks at them the screens are very dark and red in color. Since then I can work on a computer screen for about 30 minutes before symptoms come on. I have both an android and Apple phone and those screens I'm still lucky to get about three minutes before I can't work on them. Voice dictation is my best friend for email and texts using my phone.

Since the accident as I get tired or under times of stress the dizziness returns.
The numbness gets more intense and me head starts hurting again.Speaking of vices my head often feels that way at the end of a long work day, too much driving, not enough water, too hot, too much fast moving hustle and bustle around me, bright light, or any other of a number of factors that cause my brain to "overload." The best way to describe this is that a normal brain can hold a five gallon bucket of sand. As we go through a day we can ordinarily dismiss tasks, items, events that are no longer needed. It is as if we reach into the bucket and toss out a handful of sand, leaving some room in the bucket to pour in new sand, or in this analogy all the things our brain stores. In my case sand never gets taken out of my bucket and more sand continues to pour in, spilling all over the sides. When my brain gets full I get really anxious, scatter brained, can't focus on anything at all, the numbness gets intense and the vice like feeling returns full bore. I can't even keep my eyes open as all the muscles around my head contract. The only way to deal with this condition is to lie down in a dark room with little or no noise and just lie there for an hour or two. Sometimes I can sleep which seems to speed the process up, other times the intensity of what I'm experiencing doesn't allow sleep and then it takes a longer time as everything stays intense until finally I can get going again. When this occurs it is very debilitating.  

Any concussion has the potential to do any of these symptoms or more to an individual.
When I was 11 I got hit in the side of the head by a thrown softball.
I never suffered anything like what I;m going through now.
The car accidents I was in that my chiropractor said I might have had a concussion, I don't believe I actually did.
I never had any symptoms on those occasions either.
A concussion has the potential to change your life in ways you don't expect.
I'm experiencing that now.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy...currently with some addled wits

Concussion: Sympathy for Co-workers

Ever have a co-worker, job candidate, or client that you knew and after some traumatic incident they "didn't seem quite right" after recovering?
Two quick stories:

Many years ago my father was mugged in thrown to the ground by the attackers. It split his skull, causing hemorrhaging and seizures. Part of his treatment required lots of medication, and was not himself whatsoever. His ability to speak disappeared. He couldn't walk.
He didn't laugh like he used to  He didn't smile. He seemed a lot less sure of himself and what he was doing and what he used to be. He couldn't sit up or do anything else on his own. He couldn't talk and existed in a zombie like state. After a number of years of rehab, he regained a lot of what he had lost. Back then people would attribute his change in personality to just being a little torn up from his injuries as a victim of an attack. However we now know that he had serious repercussions from his concussion.

I also worked once with a woman who was a very bright and energetic sales assistant.
She was the darling of the sales and management staff, always being able to help out with tasks and get projects done on time. During a birthday celebration for a co-worker, she was standing next to a pole in the middle of the room. While clapping with others for the person's birthday, she turned her head the wrong way and accidentally ran into the pole she forgot was there. From that day forward she was never the same person. She was always depressed. She couldn't taste any of her food. She was very lackadaisical with no ambition. Many people could not understand what was happening to her, got frustrated with her attitude, made fun of her behind her back, and eventually the company fired her after six months.
During that time she would tell me I was the only one that was kind to her.
I could relate to what she was going through because my father was going through his troubles at the same time. I had seen the same symptoms in my father and understood that she had had a serious concussion, even though to everyone else in the company it seemed like a silly small impact at the time, and they didn't give her any sympathy to what she was going through.

I'm going through all the stages of concussion currently. I'd like to share my experience so employers, co-workers, friends and family might understand better what it is like to deal with an injury that no one can see, including me, yet it is as real as broken leg or arm. 

When dealing with customers, job seekers, and co-workers who are involved in any form of trauma involving their head, look for some of the signs I've described here and in the other blog posts I've written about my concussion.

If you know someone has had a concussion there are a few things you can do to help them.
1. Get them to walk or do other exercise.
Many co-workers go for walks during lunch time or leave to work out at a gym. Make sure the person with the concussion joins you or check in with them to make sure they are exercising. Research is showing that getting high blood flow to the brain helps with healing by bringing more oxygen to the brain.
2. Be patient with them
People with concussions will often need more time to find their words or need prompting to stay on task. Give them the time to remember what they are going to say, and help them focus with gentle reminders when needed.
3. Recognize they have been hurt and there is nothing they can do to speed the healing process, so be supportive in whatever way suits you, them, and the situation.

Concussions are life altering events.
A person may never be the same, or be exactly the same.
Each concussion is different because each person is different.
Recognizing that fact, and some of the symptoms described in these posts, can help you better understand what that client, job seeker, or co-worker is going through.
Your support and patience is appreciated by all of us.

Ev
A Heck of a Nice Guy...Currently a bit addle brained