The Road to Recovery... in the Form Treatment

Most of the time, a minor concussion will heal with time and rest. But in some cases, such as mine, symptoms don't go away within a few weeks. In this situation, many turn to other kinds of treatment.

I have tried almost every kind of drug possible to help decrease headaches. None of them have significantly helped my headaches and others did not work due to bad side effects such as numbness,  limb pain and agitation. I have been and continue to be on a dose of medicine which helps with the neck pain. I also take medicine to help me sleep better (trouble sleeping is another common result of a concussion).  There is one medication that I found works for me but it is actually the low dose of an anit-seizure medication. Although it has helped somewhat with the headaches, we have had to continually increase the dose because my system becomes use to the medicine. Unfortunately, that medicine has not helped in the past few months so there has not been great success in the drug side of treatment for me.

I have tried other alternatives. For my neck pain, which correlates back to my concussion, I have done myo-fascial release. This is a type of massage that hits certain trigger points to help relieve tension, which in turn, decreases my headaches. Similarly, I have tried acupuncture. This also had helped my headaches for a few months, but the effects later wore off as time went on.

I have also been tested in certain areas to help eliminate any other possible cause of my headaches and visual problems. I had a full eye exam to eliminate that my headaches weren't caused by poor eye vision. But my eyes are completely normal. I have also been tested for vestibular problems. This means that they checked to make sure the balance in my inner ear was not causing my symptoms. Unfortunately, they also ruled that out in my case.

Most recently, I tried another form of treatment to help decrease the headaches. It is called a nerve block. The treatment consist of injecting needles with an anesthetic to help numb the signals being sent to my brain to temporarily relieve pain. The goal was to do six injections in my lower head, neck and shoulder but unfortunately, we were only able to do two injections because I began to pass out. Unfortunately the nerve block injections did not work to decrease my headaches.


Although it has been frustrating to not find treatment that has helped me, there are always new studies being done and I am hopeful that I will continue to see progress in my pain level. Also, just because some of these treatments have or have not worked for me, doesn't mean that they will or will not work for you! Good luck! :)