Hey hey all -

I had been on here membership wise in a loooooooong ass time. Though thought I'd share some 'fun' of my life lately. Due to a head blow I had from a volleyball concussion (hit my head hard on the hard gym floor), suffered a while back, I have now a trauma damage to spinal cord from shoulders up and the back of my head.

Aside from daily headaches and dizziness, I suffer from numbness of my right hand (but not arm), and some mild memory loss (although I AM getting old :P) as well as starting to have a few speech impediments.

Am seeing an Orthopedist, a PT, and soon a pain doc weekly. PT is twice weekly (torture that is stuff!) and they give me aside from the exercises acupuncture and retraction. (Can I maybe wind up a little bit taller? ) And will very soon begin seeing a pain doc to receive regular injections into the spine with what a hear is a rather long needle. (Hoooooooaaaaa boy.)

First priority of remove all the spots far enough away from the nerves in my neck so that the REAL fun can begin lol. Then I will REALLY be tortured.

There are days when I am the usual weird old KAUST you all knew and loved (I hope). But a lot of the time is spent in depression, anxiety, and being flat out scared shitless, but at least am not too afraid to admit to it.

But mostly, that is ME right now. Am unable to work atm due to all this, but really hoping to be writing soon about all this; and making it into a book.

But mostly, even though may not be the WORST WORST thing that can happen to a person, is still making me lose a lot of opportunities right now. A lot of life. (I had to postpone a trip to Seattle that was all set for end of this month to attend SeaFair), I am seeing a lot of wonderful great things in the world right now. Am hope and am sure I will be back to fully normal one day soon. 


Your Friendly Neighborhood KAUSTerman      

Let me be the first to say, I wish you well with your recovery.

Quoting WarRI1 (Reply 1):

Thank you very very much!  

Quoting KAUST (Thread starter): headaches and dizziness, I suffer from numbness of my right hand

Neurologist wasn't listed.

Been there done that, even after nearly twenty years, the pain is still there along with headaches, numbness and dizziness.

Good luck on the recovery.

Quoting 910A (Reply 3):

Thanks to you as well! I have asked about a Neurologist, interestingly enough, they wish to keep status as-is. Guess they know what they are doing, heh.  

And making good progress this week, though. Hair a lot shorter in order to necessitate injecting weekly needles into the scalp. (Actually my favorite part.)


KAUST

Quoting KAUST (Thread starter): But a lot of the time is spent in depression, anxiety, and being flat out scared shitless, but at least am not too afraid to admit to it.

Quoting KAUST (Thread starter): Am hope and am sure I will be back to fully normal one day soon.

I can relate to the depression and anxiety. I´ll spare you the details but a few years back my shoulder and forearm were literally destroyed. My shoulder joint now looks like something out of the Terminator series. Worse was not the pain. But the PT and the 6 months where my whole arm had to be immobile. It took me two years to regain 90% of the previous arm function.

The very worst, though, even more than the pain was the anxiety and depression, the sense of being useless and the fear nothing would ever be the same again. Don´t fight those feelings. Acknowledge them, but keep them in check and in their right perspective. Use them to give you more strength in speeding your recovery. I know it sounds easy, but I´ve been there. And look at the bright spots. I am now the best metheorologist around...

I wish you the best. And if you wish to talk futher, feel free to PM me.

[Edited 2015-07-14 15:48:41]

Quoting KAUST (Thread starter):

All the best I wish you, KAUST.


I'm a volleyballer too.


David

Quoting 910A (Reply 3): Quoting KAUST (Thread starter): headaches and dizziness, I suffer from numbness of my right hand Neurologist wasn't listed. Been there done that, even after nearly twenty years, the pain is still there along with headaches, numbness and dizziness. Good luck on the recovery.

Quoting AR385 (Reply 5): Worse was not the pain. But the PT and the 6 months where my whole arm had to be immobile. It took me two years to regain 90% of the previous arm function. The very worst, though, even more than the pain was the anxiety and depression, the sense of being useless and the fear nothing would ever be the same again. Don´t fight those feelings. Acknowledge them, but keep them in check and in their right perspective.

Kaust, I too hope that you seek the opinion of at least two or three neurologists, especially ones who specialize in head injury and headaches. Like AR385 had said, I too had several surgeries on my shoulder as a teen, and experienced some of the helplessness that can consume you on an emotional level dealing with recovering from a severe injury and not being able to use your limb for a long time. It really hit me the hardest on that level when I had to go on disability 3 years ago for my neck and head pain. I was hit in the head by a hydraulic door closing box that broke free from my apartment building side entrance and swung around when I opened the door one morning and nearly killed me. It did a severe number to my neck and worse off my head as it hit me on the top of my head at the vertex. I've had headaches, neck pain, visual issues, dizziness, seizures, and all of the other post concussion syndrome symptoms lIke tinnitus, etc. The injury took place over 6 years ago and I managed to work an additional 3 years by stepping up the doses of narcotic pain killers with my Dr at the pain center every few weeks. I've taken everything up to and including morphine on a daily basis, and regularly get the spinal injections as well as botox, and nerve block injections. I have also had a few radio frequency rhizotomy's (sp?) on my head and neck that have helped some lstely. Accupuncture sort of helps me a little, so did some physical therapy while some other physical therapy made my paim worse. The pain may be permanent to some extent so you need to be willing to change up your treatment to adjust appropriately as you fight it.

If you don't mind me asking for both of our mutual sake and to better understand our injuries, how long ago did the volleyball concussion occur? What line of work are you in? Have you had past head trauma, or even mild head injury or headaches? Have you seen a neuropsychologist at any point yet?

I hope you're doing fairly well today and keeping your pain under control as best as you can. Have a great evening.

Best,

OMP777X

That sucks man and from Volleyball of all things. My advice is don't push yourself too hard, enjoy what you can, avoid the COX2 painkillers from Advil to Aleve, and use ICE as much as possible to control the inflammation. It does wonders. I too have neck pain and I know how annoying it is.

Sorry all for the long delay,

I have been swamped and drenched, as one could imagine. And never quite any longer so sure what to say. I did just find out today, that I have a high likelihood of brain damage. Am showing ever increasing signs, (such as a few weeks ago when I forgot the name of one of my most favorite bands (The Doobie Brother's)....and for me, music is HUGE), am having changes in speech, changes in vision/focus, and headaches almost all day.

Am soon seeing a neurologist, in order to see if a second MRI or other testing is necessary. Had an injection (can you say looooooooong assssssss needle?   ) last Friday, and am on so many meds that I am practically losing count.

Have been having my ass literally handed to me in PT, and once I get the spine away from the nerve, it'll REALLY be handed to me....ha. Right now though, am feeling so much looser and so much better, this is the literally first time since it all started that I really truly do feel I have a good and solid chance of at least physically 100% recovery.

Just gotta keep fighting at it and hoping that there is indeed and truly an answer out there for me, and there is indeed and truly a truth to that I am feeling right now as I type this, about the best I have since this started.

A smile on my face and a good beat in my heart this day. Let's just hope I can keep it up. I will definitely do what I can to make it so. Thanks for the kind words. Eye of the Tiger!


KAUST  

Go to a chiropractor. Their specialty is aligning the spine. Many people don't believe in chiropractors, but if you find a good one, they're a godsend. My wife used to suffer from migraines and random pain. She now sees a chiropractor regularly and hasn't had a migraine since and the random pain is much less frequent and severe.

I had my first discectomy & fusion about 25 years ago. It too a while to get diagnosed as it first presented as a severe shoulder pain. When a numbness started going down the arm it became obvious that it was a nerve issue. A neurosurgeon took all of 5 seconds to diagnose the problem and ever the area (C6-7). There is an X-ray that uses contrast in the spinal cord and that verified the problem and location. The neck surgery was simple for me, but the hip where they took the bone for the fusion hurt like hell. These days they use a plate and my second op (20 years after the first) was pretty simple in comparison.

Quoting KAUST (Reply 9): Have been having my ass literally handed to me in PT

LOL! I've ben married to a PT for 46 years now and long ago lost count of how many times she has handed my ass to me. Good PT's can help a lot so keep at it and good luck.

Quoting KaiGywer (Reply 10): Go to a chiropractor.

Can do good work in some cases, but after a spinal/cranial injury I would get a sign off from a neurologist and make sure I had a CD with copies of the MRIs and CT Scans for review prior to treatment. Also be cautious if the chiropractor wants you to have PT in his office - and ask if there is a real PT or a PT Assistant or Aide.

Hi KAUST,

I'm neither a doctor, nor someone who has experienced such a traumatic physical injury, so I can't give you any specific advice. I thought I'd say, though, that I really hope you recover soon. It's always painful to see someone going through something tough, especially if that person is a fellow avgeek!

Looks like you have a lot of support here, and it's really nice to see that.

Best,
Amrit