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What Causes Concussions?
My son had back to back concussions (about 26 hours apart) three weeks ago. He still is having major headaches, blurry vision, seeing purple and while lights, can t read more than a few lines at a time, can t watch anything that is moving quickly, gets nausious. The doctors think that the part of the brain that affects his eye sight is what was hurt during the concussions - how long can this last?
Fri, 24 May 2019
Hello,
Your son is likely suffering from we generically refer to as POSTCONCUSSION SYNDROME (PCS) which includes headaches and all of the other "funny" things that can happen as you've described, dizziness, disjointed or unbalanced movements, brain fog, nausea, etc. PCS usually lasts in one form or another for at least 1-3 weeks after a concussion.
If he had 2 concussions in a short amount of time then, there are at least 2 areas of the brain that are now trying to heal so that number could go up.
It is not unusual for patients that last months with PCS before things start to calm down and in the more extreme cases (depending upon the severity of the concussions) they have been known to last 3 years and longer.
I've got patients who have suffered from military types of head trauma (explosions, falls from significant heights) and their PCS can be protracted to be sure.
I would advise that you try and get his headaches under control just as quickly as possible because if those become chronic (> 3months) then, they become VERY VERY difficult to treat and may possibly never fully resolve.
Get him to either a concussion specialist or a headache specialist in my opinion and make sure he is not taking too much OTC medication or prescription medication and make sure he is documenting his headaches so that they can be optimally followed and treated based on his reporting in order to get rid of them ASAP.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
Your son is likely suffering from we generically refer to as POSTCONCUSSION SYNDROME (PCS) which includes headaches and all of the other "funny" things that can happen as you've described, dizziness, disjointed or unbalanced movements, brain fog, nausea, etc. PCS usually lasts in one form or another for at least 1-3 weeks after a concussion.
If he had 2 concussions in a short amount of time then, there are at least 2 areas of the brain that are now trying to heal so that number could go up.
It is not unusual for patients that last months with PCS before things start to calm down and in the more extreme cases (depending upon the severity of the concussions) they have been known to last 3 years and longer.
I've got patients who have suffered from military types of head trauma (explosions, falls from significant heights) and their PCS can be protracted to be sure.
I would advise that you try and get his headaches under control just as quickly as possible because if those become chronic (> 3months) then, they become VERY VERY difficult to treat and may possibly never fully resolve.
Get him to either a concussion specialist or a headache specialist in my opinion and make sure he is not taking too much OTC medication or prescription medication and make sure he is documenting his headaches so that they can be optimally followed and treated based on his reporting in order to get rid of them ASAP.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Take care
Regards,
Dr Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
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