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Constant never-ending headache for 1.5 years straight after whiplash
Brain & Nervous System | Last Active: Dec 24, 2024 | Replies (14)Comment receiving replies
@account100 symptomatically I was in similar shape 10 years ago. But I did not have the diagnoses from imagine that you have. I am mystified as to why you are not being helped. Was whiplash your only injury or did you have head trauma? Have you had the Babinski reflex tested for spinal cord damage? I read the links but as a lay person found the tonsillar herniation to be the most concerning. But your doctor would know.
Ten years ago, stepping off a curb, looking up, a handshake or a bumpy road could all give me what felt like horrendous symptoms. Over time it did improve. I believe tai chi helped me a lot because it stretches and aligns the neck. I have baclofen and clonazepam on hand, but honestly topicals like BioFreeze and Ben Gay, lidocaine and capsaicin patches, seem to help me some. I have a positive Babinski reflex (ask the neuro to check this) which indicates spinal cord damage, stenosis, myelopathy, radiculopathy, facial pain and numbness and a few other things. But my brain is okay. I am not certain that your only issue is neck..again when you see a neurologist they can look at these images and explain.
Every story is different. Another poster had surgery that helped a lot. I know I will need it at some point. It sounds like you may need more imaging, and possibly surgery. I am so sorry. You are so young! On your side if the ability of the CNS to heal itself when young. One of my kids almost died from an accident w/brain and neck injury and is fine now. but they had intensive care.
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I am also confused why it seems so hard to get help, it's very frustraing since it is affecting my life so much. I guess doctors don't believe how severe/persistent my symptoms are or its not common, I don't know.. I don't remember hitting my head on anything, or losing consciousness. I do remember my head/neck getting whiplash trying to hold my head in place from the sudden impact I didn't see coming, and I had a bun in my hair that instantly came out. Which I'm also not sure if its possible the acceleration-deceleration (causing brain to move inside the skull, even with the head not hitting something itself) could have caused TBI or how to check for that. I think contrast MRI could check. I don't have any memory issues though which seems common with TBI, but do have some overlapping symptoms it seems like.
I have not tried the Babinski test, when I get into the neurologist I will ask. I think the first things I'm going to ask the neurologist is for an MRI with contrast, and then a lumbar puncture. The one neurologist I saw previously and waited 3 months to get into just blamed it on stress and refused to try any tests or treatments for me, didn't listen to any concerns about my neck and downplayed it. Just claimed my brain is 'perfect' and somewhat tried to shame me saying how other people have brain tumors etc, and 'I don't have that.' I disagreed with them and believe they just wanted to send me away, my symptoms line up exactly with the accident, but I tried more antidepressants since then as they wanted which all did nothing. They said about the MRI of the Cerebellar tonsillar ectopia by 2.5 mm that 'they've seen tons of people with that' and that was it. And the second brain MRI with 3 mm gliotic focus in the right superior frontal lobe gyrus subcortical white matter, I haven't had reviewed by anyone yet.
So I'm hoping the new neurologist (my new one will be a NP, MD wasn't avaliable for 7 months) will be more knowledgeable and helpful. My previous orthopedist on the other hand was good, and I got the referral today and looks like my new orthopedist will be a spine surgery specialist, while my last was only pain management. So I'm hoping they'll have more insight into my issue.