Mild concussion? Update in first post

[Kassia]

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning.  Tried neurology appt. but couldn't get in for two months.  Tried concussion specialist but the ones anywhere near us aren't taking new patients.  A doctor at my family practice who is supposed to be good has an opening tomorrow morning so DH is taking me.  Hopefully it won't be a waste.  

It's going to be close to 0 - so cold!  And they said they will try to have a wheelchair for me that DH can bring out to the car for me.  Otherwise I'll scoot up the icy steps because I am too nervous about going on the ramp on crutches.  

 

[Catwoman]

Good luck at your appointment! Hopefully the ramp and the steps won’t be icy, but if they are, you’re smart to not risk trying the ramp on crutches.

[Starr]

Please don't feel like seeing a doctor is a waste of time. The doctor can give you more definitive guidelines on what to expect and what help there might be. Also they can get you into more specialized doctors if needed. My friend hit her head on a sloped ceiling while cleaning. She was months long with symptoms even with specialized treatment. You are worth getting the best care you can. Many hugs. I know there is so much going on you just need a break.

[mommyoffive]

I am glad you are seeing a doctor.  I think it is a great idea to get checked out.  Sending good thoughts for the apt tomorrow. 

[Kassia]

32 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

 you’re smart to not risk trying the ramp on crutches.

I struggle with them on flat ground - there's no way I could do a ramp!  DH was saying I could and he'd be behind me but I didn't find that very reassuring.  I'd rather scoot safely on my rear end no matter how cold the steps are! 

 

30 minutes ago, Starr said:

Please don't feel like seeing a doctor is a waste of time. The doctor can give you more definitive guidelines on what to expect and what help there might be. Also they can get you into more specialized doctors if needed. My friend hit her head on a sloped ceiling while cleaning. She was months long with symptoms even with specialized treatment. You are worth getting the best care you can. Many hugs. I know there is so much going on you just need a break.

Thank you.  I've had such terrible luck with doctors that I rarely expect appointments to go well.  That's awful about your friend's head injury!  I hope she's back to normal now.  

Thanks to everyone for all the support and advice.  I will try to update soon after my appt.  

 

 

[Harriet Vane]

I'm glad you were able to get an appointment with someone. Consider HBOT? You might need a prescription, but I'm honestly not sure how it all works.

[Kassia]

5 hours ago, Harriet Vane said:

I'm glad you were able to get an appointment with someone. Consider HBOT? You might need a prescription, but I'm honestly not sure how it all works.

Unfortunately, HBOT is out of the question for now.  Closest place is an hour away in good traffic and weather conditions.  And not covered by insurance.  DH would have to drive me, and the way things are going between me and his mom, he'd have to quit his job just to take us to appointments.  I start physical therapy soon too, so just one more driving issue and expense.  We pay 100% of PT until our high deductible is met.  

[MEmama]

Thinking of you this morning, @Kassia. I hope this doctor will be (much, much) better than expected. 
 

Sending you strength. ❤️

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

Thinking of you this morning, @Kassia. I hope this doctor will be (much, much) better than expected. 
 

Sending you strength. ❤️

Thank you!  I picked a great morning to make an appointment - it's 15 below zero!  Eek!  

I'm happy to be going to this doctor.  People like him, I just don't know that he can do anything with me since I don't show any obvious signs of concussion.  Being sleepy with intermittent nausea isn't anything he can see, kwim?  

Will check in later.  Thanks for all the positive thoughts and support.  ❤️

 

[MEmama]

7 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Thank you!  I picked a great morning to make an appointment - it's 15 below zero!  Eek!  

I'm happy to be going to this doctor.  People like him, I just don't know that he can do anything with me since I don't show any obvious signs of concussion.  Being sleepy with intermittent nausea isn't anything he can see, kwim?  

Will check in later.  Thanks for all the positive thoughts and support.  ❤️

 

I’m slowly learning to be totally honest about my symptoms. I think as women we are so accustomed to being dismissed (even by female doctors) the we often talk ourselves out of feeling that what we are experiencing is valid and real. It’s hard to be vulnerable knowing we won’t be heard or taken seriously, but speaking up is so important. And doctors can be really good at putting small pieces of information together even when individually they don’t mean much to us.

Also brrrrrr! Stay warm!

 

 

[Kassia]

Here's the update I edited in my first post:

 

Update:  Hated the doctor but glad I went.  He looked into my pupils and said everything looked good far back there and he doesn't think I have a brain bleed so no CT scan.  Other than that, the visit was a complete waste.  He spent most of my time in the exam room asking me about my foot injury - how it happened, what shoes I was wearing, where I bought my shoes, etc.  Then he asked when I can get back to activity, who my surgeon was, how long before I can bear weight, what exactly was done during the surgery...  He told me to spend time outside and then realized it's winter so he told me to sit by a sunny window.  Okay - I live in NE Ohio and we rarely see the sun this time of year.  He told me to take lots of Zofran even though I don't get nauseated that often (I was really nauseated while I was there though - I think I was overheated and he wanted to give me an injection).  He diagnosed me with post-concussive syndrome and said it could be weeks or months before I'm better.  He also said I should talk to people (?). 

And the nurse wouldn't let me lie on the exam table while waiting for the doctor when I asked her if I could lie down because I was so nauseated.  She was afraid I'd roll off(?).  As soon as she left, I got on that exam table and closed my eyes until the doctor came in.

Edited January 22, 2022 by Kassia

[Catwoman]

He sounded like a real charmer. 😒 His nurse sounded like a peach, too. 

But the good news is that he seems sure that you don't have a brain bleed, and that's the most important thing. I wish you had liked him better and that he would have been less focused on your foot and more focused on your concussion, though! 

I'm surprised he didn't order a CT scan, just to be totally safe, but I'm certainly no expert on these things, so pay no attention to me!

[Kassia]

25 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

I wish you had liked him better and that he would have been less focused on your foot and more focused on your concussion, though! 

I'm surprised he didn't order a CT scan, just to be totally safe, but I'm certainly no expert on these things, so pay no attention to me!

I realized after I got home that he actually put right ankle pain on my diagnosis even though I didn't see him for that at all (never mind that my ankle has been fine anyway).  He better not charge me for a higher level office visit because he wanted to chat about my foot.  They also added two meds on my records (vitamin c and baby aspirin that I take since I'm immobile) for amenorrhea.  I can't make this stuff up.  I might call the office on Monday to make sure they didn't charge me for the ankle diagnosis.

And I'm also surprised about the CT scan not being ordered just to be safe.  Like you, I'm no expert but I really expected that to be inevitable once I saw a doctor. 

 

[KSera]

What a strange appointment! I agree about calling to make sure he doesn’t try to get paid for “helping” you with your ankle 🙄. I’m glad you went though and that he didn’t see anything extra concerning, though post concussion syndrome is enough all on its own. 

[Kassia]

4 minutes ago, KSera said:

What a strange appointment! I agree about calling to make sure he doesn’t try to get paid for “helping” you with your ankle 🙄. I’m glad you went though and that he didn’t see anything extra concerning, though post concussion syndrome is enough all on its own. 

Thanks!  I don't know if I even have post concussion syndrome.  That's just what he said but I have no reason to think he knows what he's talking about.  

[Katy]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

I realized after I got home that he actually put right ankle pain on my diagnosis even though I didn't see him for that at all (never mind that my ankle has been fine anyway).  He better not charge me for a higher level office visit because he wanted to chat about my foot.  They also added two meds on my records (vitamin c and baby aspirin that I take since I'm immobile) for amenorrhea.  I can't make this stuff up.  I might call the office on Monday to make sure they didn't charge me for the ankle diagnosis.

And I'm also surprised about the CT scan not being ordered just to be safe.  Like you, I'm no expert but I really expected that to be inevitable once I saw a doctor. 

 

I’m not surprised. If your neurological exam & pupils are normal you’re probably fine. If you’d had other symptoms or slow pupil response that would be different. And he has to put the ankle down because if insurance sees you didn’t have that as an ongoing thing they might question fraud. 

[thewellerman]

Walking is helpful for concussion recovery, as well as other gentle exercise.  He might have been trying to assess if it was worth mentioning.  Since your foot is out of use for quite a while, it isn't a relevant option. 

[Kassia]

10 minutes ago, Katy said:

I’m not surprised. If your neurological exam & pupils are normal you’re probably fine. If you’d had other symptoms or slow pupil response that would be different. And he has to put the ankle down because if insurance sees you didn’t have that as an ongoing thing they might question fraud. 

Thank you!  I didn't know that about the exam/pupils.

I don't even have a problem with my ankle - it's been my foot all along.  I'm still going to call and check on that because it doesn't make sense that he'd put that down.  I have other ongoing medical issues as well that weren't mentioned.  

[prairiewindmomma]

This isn’t meant to be a criticism—more of an advocacy in the doctor’s office point—

At the point he asked about your foot, why did you not say something like, “I am not here for my foot. I am here because I banged my foot two weeks ago, and have resulting extreme fatigue (sleeping x hours a day) that is not connected to post op and I have nausea (x hours a day).”

Like, it seems like you are letting doctors not address your issues and go into side tangents that result in the time being spent on that rather than on the questions/issues you do have to address. 
 

Can we maybe help you with that angle? There have been times when I lived so rural that I was stuck with bad docs. Still, if they have a MD behind their name they are perhaps not entirely useless but need some help in focusing… Would talking about how to handle dr visits be helpful for you?

[Kassia]

@prairiewindmommayou're right - that would have been the correct thing to do in that situation but I don't know if I would have been comfortable with it because I would feel it was rude (even though it wouldn't have been).  

But please trust me that my other bad experiences have had nothing to do with going off on tangents and were just bad medical practice.  Sometimes mildly bad - almost humorous if I wasn't wasting time and money - all the way to dangerously bad.  These were not cases of not knowing how to handle doctor visits unless you mean not knowing how to handle visits where the doctor was blatantly wrong and I didn't know what to do. 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Ok 😁

[PeterPan]

He’s saying talk to someone because you sound depressed. Did you up your D? It’s tgat time  of year.

You need to revisit the HBIT question. Try 3 times a week. They have flexible hours. They may take Care Credit to let you pay over time. It would be worth it . 20 sessions 

[Kassia]

55 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

He’s saying talk to someone because you sound depressed. Did you up your D? It’s tgat time  of year.

You need to revisit the HBIT question. Try 3 times a week. They have flexible hours. They may take Care Credit to let you pay over time. It would be worth it . 20 sessions 

I do take a lot of D.  And I told the nurse I was depressed when she asked me before the doctor came in.  Who wouldn't be in my situation?  I think it's perfectly normal.  

HBOT - just prohibitively expensive and too far since I can't drive.  I'd love to do it but can't spend the money and there's no way DH would have the time to take me without quitting his job.  But thank you, as always, for caring.  ❤️

[PeterPan]

21 hours ago, Kassia said:

I do take a lot of D.  And I told the nurse I was depressed when she asked me before the doctor came in.  Who wouldn't be in my situation?  I think it's perfectly normal.  

HBOT - just prohibitively expensive and too far since I can't drive.  I'd love to do it but can't spend the money and there's no way DH would have the time to take me without quitting his job.  But thank you, as always, for caring.  ❤️

Have they run your levels? You can be low even when taking D if your body isn't making enough K2. I take 17k IU D during the winter and a generous K2 supplement to keep my levels up in the winter. In the summer I go down to 12k. Some people need more than others depending on their vitamin D receptor genes and how well their body makes K2 to absorb.

Maybe push harder on the depression thing. Sometimes they blow you off till you push back. Did you have covid? Mental health symptoms can follow from that or uptick. If so, an SSRI that is a sigma 1 agonist like fluvoxamine or fluoxetine can help tamp down the inflammation.

HBOT will be there later when life changes. When your foot heals, you'll be in a better position to drive yourself. It's not too late to do it 6 months or a year from now. I had 3 years from my first concussions till I started getting treatment (I had 5 concussive injuries), and we were able to make progress on them. There's sort of a window where if you start in the first 6 months they go really gently (lower pressure) and if it has been 6 months or more they crank it up (slightly higher pressure to go deeper). So it's not like waiting means you can't get well. It will be there as an option when it's workable for you. 

[Kassia]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Have they run your levels? 

Maybe push harder on the depression thing. Sometimes they blow you off till you push back. Did you have covid? 

 

No, they didn't check anything.  I do struggle with Vitamin D and need to increase the supplement dose - I dropped it a bit after surgery.  I haven't had covid.