By: Breisha George

   If you have followed me on by blog or just on many of my different social media mediums you know that a few years ago I was in a motor vehicle accident that impacted my life in several ways. Not only did it change my career goals, but it changed my overall mental and physical well-being. So,  I thought to myself when asked to choose a topic for my Perception class -y’all know that I’m chipping away at my bachelors and hope to carry on in graduate school next fall.  I thought what better topic then one that has so many impacts on all our senses and daily lives. I had gotten a bad concussion from the accident and still suffer from some of the impacts of it. Even with so much focus on concussions especially within sports there is so much more we don’t know about the actual long-term impacts of concussions and much more research that needs to be done.

Post-concussion syndrome occurs from a mild traumatic brain injury and is accompanied by a slue of symptoms that can range from impacting a person  physically to emotionally. Typically like me someone is diagnosed when symptoms linger for longer than three months. (1)  Additionally, some studies have pointed out that they believe the reason symptoms hang around permanently for some is because the neurotransmitters sustain damage.   For me post-concussion syndrome has altered some of my senses not just temporality  but for the long haul. I have hearing loss in one of my ears, which I had an audiogram test to confirm.   Hearing loss is common amongst those who experience a concussion many people only have temporary loss for a few months.( 2)  For those whose hearing loss lasts longer typically end up having damage to their auditory pathway . The auditory pathway is what consist of many parts that basically take sound from point a to z.(3) I still struggle with migraines mostly stemming from the concussion. I even had to advocate for myself that my migraines were legitimate and not just “ in my head “ and thanks to trust a trusty brain MRI that showed my flaring migraines I was able to show it was in fact there and had suffered an injury.

So, I did some more  digging on the topic. I wanted to know am I the only one out there who struggles from the reminisce of post-concussion syndrome after a few months? Turns out I am not alone in fact in this and that there are people out there who have presented with a similar pattern of symptoms  forming and oddly enough the study I read more on  highlighted that if after three years someone had not recovered the impacts were indeed permanent. (4)Wow ! Even more interesting in this was that the more symptoms someone had the less chance of recovery was indicated.  It also pointed out that those pesky  headaches were the most common of the symptoms .  It should be noted as well that no one’s journey after a concussion looked the same and that everyone’s recovery differed.

Another interesting thing the study mentioned was about recovery and treatment . I know early on I tried doing physical therapy to elevate my neck and back pain and it ended up helping some of my Post Concussion Syndrome symptoms.   Vestibular positioning therapy was used mainly because  it tackled so many issues like dizziness,  nausea , inner ear issues, and other things that were occurring. The study showed that the different therapies worked for the different types of people they were studying. It also mentioned other forms that I had/ still do now like yoga, mediation , and exercise.  The study also highlighted the fact that there is need for treatment early on for patients to have a better chance at recovery. 

 I will note that my primary care physician and the first neurologist I saw did not take my concussion seriously. I ended up getting a second opinion due to the fact my MRI did show my migraines and that I still had symptoms after six months that were impacting me. I also want to note some  things to do after a concussion which helped me( I am not a medical professional ).

• Get Quality Sleep and Listen to your body within the first few days .
• Avoid noise and light . No screentime !
• Water is your friend as is a balanced diet .
• Give it a good week before trying  your normal routine . If you notice things don’t feel right then seek out more medical help.

So , I guess I reaffirmed what I always knew. Post-Concussion Syndrome and the long-term impacts are REAL and not just in one’s “head”. I  hope in the future maybe even I could research into concussions and the impacts on mental health.

References:

(1)Smaakjær, P., Wachner, L. G., & Rasmussen, R. S. (2021). Vision therapy improves binocular visual dysfunction in patients with mild traumatic brain injury. Neurological research, 1-7.

(2)Chen, J. X., Lindeborg, M., Herman, S. D., Ishai, R., Knoll, R. M., Remenschneider, A., … & Kozin, E. D. (2018). Systematic review of hearing loss after traumatic brain injury without associated temporal bone fracture. American journal of otolaryngology, 39(3), 338-344.

(3) https://www.kenhub.com/en/library/anatomy/auditory-pathway

(4)Hiploylee, C., Dufort, P. A., Davis, H. S., Wennberg, R. A., Tartaglia, M. C., Mikulis, D., Hazrati, L. N., & Tator, C. H. (2017). Longitudinal Study of Postconcussion Syndrome: Not Everyone Recovers. Journal of neurotrauma, 34(8), 1511–1523. https://doi.org/10.1089/neu.2016.4677