Hello all,

my mrs took a bad knock to the head ( NOT biking related )but its not good for either of us as its stressful and limiting life somewhat.. 2 weeks on and she is still suffering dizziness / mood swings and general fuzziness and having to sleep after gentle exercise / stimulation…

a + e docs said recovery could be weeks and more severe in females…

help!!

paul

did they CT/MRI scan her?

Ive been concussed from falling off my bmx and the effects only lasted a few hours. Diziness, lac of short term memory etc.

I also got hit by a motorbike once, and was out for quite a while, spent a week in hospital. Noticed the effects your describing for quite a few weeks afterwards. Think it was a contusion or something.

Id say she'll be alright, but make sure she doesnt hit her head again for a few weeks.

As above woudl be interesting to know what investigatioin/treatment she had.

slightly related and not done to scare you;

My mum fractured her skull in a bus crash in the Cameroon – it was nearly 3 weeks before she received any treatment. She's had a lot of problems since and is now the subject of an ongoing case study at her local teaching hospital due the unusually long time (for this country) between injury and treatment. She has memory, mood and balance issues mainly.

If you're still worried go to gp and get a referal to a specialist.

I've loads of experience of concussion but don't ask me about it, I'm no doctor.

Fell off my bike and was out for a few mins, have no recollection of the 5 mins before or the 60mins after, Complete blank.

After a day or so fully back to normal, had a CT scan, memory of event not returned. I don't recomise any of her symptoms sorry.

Mine was a bit touch and go i think. I was pretty lucky though, if it had been a touch worse then they would have had to drill my skull (something like that) to relieve the pressure, an operation that they wouldnt have been able to perform where i was in marrakech.

mood swings and general fuzziness

I think this bit is common to most women bang on the head or not!

cheers

she didnt have a scan as docs said symptoms not severe enough and was in hosp for a day and didnt worsen – mate of mine is a doc and says dont worry..

just hard to live with esp as we were went to be on holiday this week…

shes just concerned re her memory / balance / sleeping etc isnt quite normal…

paul

Can't comment on your case specifically, but if someone presented to me with a head injury 2 weeks ago and they were still 'cognitively impaired' I would get a CT scan before the sun set……

DrP

Oh – on a personal note I've had several concussions onseveral occasions….

haha tiger you are so right ! its like monster PMT!

Various times with various symptoms.

Slight concussion

Mild head aches
Slight nausea
Double vision
Memory loss for a few hours
Bleeding from ear and nose with no idea who I was and nausea including vomiting for a couple of weeks.

Major concussion

Worth a head scan though

It will take a while to get back to normal, doesnt feel like I have (dont know whether I was to start with) and its been about 8months since my accident.

I've had concussion a couple of times, and never had it last more than a few days. Never had the vomiting, double vision, memory loss or blood from the ears though!

I've had concussion a couple of times, and never had it last more than a few days. Never had the vomiting, double vision, memory loss or blood from the ears though!

Theres different stages of concussion i think. Usually when you fall off your bike its the lesser stage and you feel a bit woozy for a few hours.

Or if you get hit by a motorbike you end up with no memory for days afterwards, bleeding from your mouth, eyes rolling about in your head and a week spent vomiting in hospital. Works great for weight loss though.

I got hit by a tree, not a motorbike but sounds similar effect

If you're worried then get it checked out. But an ex of mine got very bad concussion after being beaten up by 3 guys (broken bones etc. aswell) and it took about half a year or so for him to get back to "normal" in terms of mood and how "quickly" he could think.

Had various concussions over the years, worst in a car crash where i really wolloped my head, didn't feel right for about 3 wks.

I had a knock to the head once, and ended up with Vertigo for a couple of weeks. I was constantly dizzy and had other similiar symtoms. All I wanted to do was lay on the sofa all the time. But doctors should know whether it is this. Maybe ask again.

I can't remember

I'd get it checked.

Been concussed twice – once in a kickboxing tournament, once in a "fight" where I somehow ended up taking on six people and lost.

Was sick, wonky eyes, headaches for a week or so afterwards. A CAT scan on the second one surprisingly revealed that somewhere in my noggin lurks a brain.

Stare at the image below for 5 seconds


No how many puppies can you count

If you managed to stare at the cat for 5 seconds and counted 6 puppies you are fine and have just passed your

Cat scan and Lab test

I'll get me coat

Tiger go sit in the corner and think about what you just did.
I've had two both bike related. The second one I lost memory of most of the weekend but no other symptoms; weird looking at the pictures but having absolutely no recollection of most of it.

My concussion was bike related and lasted about 6 weeks, first 2 weeks while i was off sick from work was just headaches, when i tried to do normal things when i returned to work thats when i struggled. I did daft things, first was i turned up to my previous work place which i had left 2 years ago, only clicked when i stood outside and though, eh? what am i doing here! I used to walk into offices at work and wonder why on earth i was there, and when i visited the doctors 4 weeks into my concussion he sent me straight to hospital which was 4 miles away. Did i call a cab? no, drive? no, catch a bus? no, for some reason i walked. Still today i have no idea why i walked!

I had a scan that day and was told i had delayed concussion, and had to wait for it to clear, this took another 3 weeks.

The biggest effect was work, as a manager, people around me lost faith in what i could do, and i ended up having a rough time when i recovered, to the point i had to leave and find another job. But my new employers can't see why anyone would of let me go!

Yeah, and I got morphine for it. Winner.

yes.

what was the question?

about a thousand years ago i had a hefty crash at the bottom of Mynnyd Du – the dragon Dh course, knocked my self out. came round with no memory of ANYTHING, very weird, although most things came back within a couple of hours and i felt crap for days.

I still suffer from it; my memory is like swiss cheese – except the holes in my cheese move – i can forget the name of someone i'm talking to and have known for years. or i can suddenly access a memory i certainly didn't have yesterday.

concussion, it feels a bit like the day after a migraine…

Similar to a hangover, although more booze will definitely not sort you out.

Get your lady to a physician, demand a scan and don't take no for an answer. Best to be safe than sorry.

I got hit by a tree

What, it attacked you?

I saw a dog mug another dog for it's ball today.

Got kicked pretty hard in the head during training once (360 axe right on the top of the noggin). Went ow, got angry, carried on training, finished the session went home. Over cooking dinner and playing cards with my flatmate started feeling very odd. Put myself to bed as I was feeling sick, an hour later a friend woke me, I colapsed getting out of bed, couldn't actually speak (though I was thinking fine it just came out as noises) got rushed to A&E. Was put in a wheel chair and rushed straight past the 5 hr wait, given a huge pink pill that made me savagely sick…..couldn't speak properly/stand up until the morning.

Apparently it was 'delayed concussion' which I'd never heard of. Was kept overnight and had a pretty bad head for a week or so.

If your missus still is having issues 2 weeks on I'd be getting a referral sharpish.

If you have any doubts at all go back to the Docs – better to go back pointlessly than spend the rest of your life wishing you had, because some problem could have been stopped in time….

get it checked . i ended up getting reems of testing for epilepsy

fell off my road bike when chain snapped – smashed my temple off the ground.

went out to the pub / club

woke up in the back of the club – to paramedics

seems id taken a fit/siezure on the dancefloor. bouncers accusing me of taking drugs to my mates – my mate laughing at him apparently.

tested to death just to rule it out but suspected delayed concussion as per dt78 never had another since

Sounds like a classic post-concussional syndrome. Unfortunately it can go on for ages. I usually quote people an average of between two weeks and two months, however some people can have symptoms forever following a significant blow to the head.
There is, unfortunately, no way of telling who is going to get symptoms like this, nor how long they are going to last. A mate is working on a research project involving some weird and wonderful blood test that he thinks may help predict it but until this is finished (in a few years) then I'm afraid we are stuck with best guess. Some people can have a very significant head injury and get no long term consequences (I'm thinking here of the kid I saw who fell 30' through a roof onto his head and went to theatre to have a large section of his skull removed to allow space for his brain to swell; who walked out of the hospital) and some people with a relatively minor head injury (ran into a lampost for example) can feel crap for weeks.

At this stage I don't think you have anything to worry about…. However, internet diagnoses are shit as I cannot see/examine your wife (unless you happen to live near Newcastle).

If you are worried go and see your GP, or preferably an A&E doctor (registrar or above). On the whole GP's have less experience in dealing with people with head injuries, some are good, some are less experienced. Most A&E registrars should be very au fait with dealing with head injury, given that we see 1.4 million of them a year. If your wife needs a scan she will get one (that day from A&E; at some point from your GP – we have better emergency access). If she doesn't need a scan she won't get one (demanding one, as per the above suggestion, just makes you look like a dick).

Hope this helps and if you want any more info let me know, off-forum if you prefer.

Steve (A&E registrar)