My struggle for the past 9months

[Crystal81]

On May 10th of 2017 I was in a major car accident for the first time. A car came from my right side and hit me strong. I whacked my head on the steering wheels and the widow. My head hurt so bad. I blacked out for like 10 minutes. I went to the emergency and too a cat scan and everything looked fine. My horrible journey begins now. After the accident I couldn’t talk right at first , I felt like I was in slow motion. Then I went to the chiropractor for a few weeks but then I got this weird pressure in my ear but I ignored it. I stopped going to the chiropractor because all of a sudden I couldn’t sleep. I began to have bad insomnia and heavy anxiety and panic attacks. The insomnia was really bad so bad it mad me want to kill my self and hauloscenate. I would only sleep for like 45 minutes a day for weeks. I felt horrible. The struggling was unbearable. I must of went to the hospital 50 times in the past 9 months. I got a clinical psychologist and started talking to him . It helps in a way just to tell someone who may understand ur symptoms. I was and still are as mess . I have been now experiencing for the past month severe head pain and dizziness which triggers my anxiety and panic attacks. I have seen a neurologist and had a mri with intravenous done which came back I have tightened vessels in the brain but she is not sure if I was born that way so now on February 2 2018 I go for a lumbar puncture. This is suppose to show my brain pressure. The term which I have is tranverse stenosis. I am in constant pain in my head, dizziness is serious and my Insomnia is still here but is better than the first few months after the accident but my anxiety and panic attacks are crazy at time.. please if anyone has gone threw a similar situation please I would love to here about it or if anyone has any advice of me please. I haven’t worked in 8 months and I’m a single mother with three kids .. please help.. so scared .. I am on no meds because the up coming procedure and have took anything even after the accident, I did gain 58 lbs since the accident though. Thank you for listening.

[HearYou]

Dear Crystal81,

Why did you go to the hospital 50 times, what care did you receive and for what?

[Crystal81 in reply to HearYou]

For all my symptoms, insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks head pain dizziness nausea.. no one could tell me what was going on always anxiety anxiety but come to find out when I took it upon myself to go to Boston I found out my brain was inflamed and my vessels were tighten .. as I said in my story . The accident caused everything and the doctors and emergency rooms were no help were I live at at..

[HearYou in reply to Crystal81]

So you did not have a neurologist you were seeing all this time? Why not? That's where hospitals send people who are injured like you were.

Exactly what did the physicians ACTUALLY DO TO YOU OR FOR YOU those 50 visits since May? Doesn't make sense. Unless your blood pressure in your head natural, and didn't know an accident can change that.

Glad you must have had a friend drive you to the ER, as against the law to drive for 6 months after having a head injury like yours where you passed out for 10 minutes after the accident.

I am so sorry you had such an accident. I know how badly and confused I was after mine. It is really difficult not to be able to drive for 6 months ...always needing to get a ride from someone to even go to the grocery store. Am also glad the person who hit you had insurance to pay for all those visits to the hospital and other medical bills and to replace your car. You are going to have medical care and bills for a long time, so I am very glad the driver who hit you had good insurance to pay for all that.

I had a severe truck/auto accident, but the EMS took me to the hospital only a few blocks away. Truck T-boned the passenger side of my car. No way I could even figure out what was happening, couldn't answer the questions the EMS and doctors were asking, didn't really know what had happened, the airbag hit my face and my head,; they think my head hit the driver's side glass as it exploded. All the windows exploded or imploded (except for shattered windshield) and I had glass cuts all over my back...the glass went through my clothes. Could never had driven myself to the hospital like you did.

Car was totaled, and nearly my body. After every test they could think of to do from ER orders,I was taken home from hospital by friend. Friend put me in shower to wash all the glass out of my hair and wash the cuts all over my body.

No headache, pain/bruises all over, just exhausted and needed to sleep at first. It took several years for the neuropsychiatrist to have the SPECT scan done, and my brain injuries were found. They use the more expensive PET scans now.

If you were unconscious like you wrote, you were prohibited by law to drive for 6 months for safety sake for you and others drivers. I couldn't drive and was afraid to even get in the front seat of car for almost a year due to fear and anxiety. Insurance paid for taxi's to get to the neurologist and the exam you are talking about having.

I was not able to go back to work due to the damage to my neck and back that was treated ONLY by a neurologist, absolutely no chiropractor who could have caused a ruptured disc and increased my pain. I am an attorney and had a number of clients who had chiropractors treat their headaches and neck pain, but ended up doing the wrong thing and causing ruptured disc requiring surgery.

That lumbar puncture is the process of sticking needles into your spinal fluid at the base of your back to draw out some of the fluid from our brain to see what is in it's fluid...why that is being done for you, I have no idea. Maybe looking for blood which makes too much fluid than normal in your head, causing the pain?

I would ask for a second opinion before ever having that done again. It was done on me so the neurosurgeon could see where the damage was done so he knew exactually where he had to do surgery. Has anyone actually told you WHY the lumbar puncture is being done, and why?

I still have headaches that make me vomit, back pain, neck pain, arm pain , that can only be controlled by epidural injections. At least I am alive. That has been for the last 17 years. Had epidurals during the last two months. Accepted that my pain, anxiety and depression and nightmares are just part of my life. Life is life. No oral pain med is strong enough, and it just messes with my thinking.

I see a pain management doctor once a month and a neuropsychiatrist once a month.

So, you lucked out that your car wasn't totaled and you could drive it. I am surprised the driver at fault must have been paying for all those trips to the hospital; auto insurance usually stops authorizing that early, and refers you to a neurologist or orthopedic doctor.

But glad the driver's insurance covered your medical care, and the upcoming lumbar puncture. Those bills would be thousands of dollars. Am also glad you are able to take care of your children.

But what were the doctors actually DOING when you went those 50 times to the hospital, did they do pain injections or just rx pain killers?

All I can do is tell you what my accident was like and what I will have to continued to adjust to. My anxiety, depression, insomnia, nightmares, pain are just all part of it.

I hope you improve every day and that your psychiatrist treats your anxiety and insomnia well, and the other doctors help with your headaches and neck pains. xxx

[Crystal81 in reply to HearYou]

Not sure if ur reading the story right, I was brought to the emergency room in the ambulance after the accident, the truck I was in was totaled.. I seen two neurologist were I live and no answers just that everything was fine and I had anxiety and panic attacks. So many mri, cat scans. I didnt agree with them because I know my anxiety this I was experiencing was different. I lost complete vision in my right eye for three days. Two neurologist and my primary care doctors did nothing for me and kept saying I was fine. Until I went to Boston and I was diagnosed with transverse stenosis in the Brain. The inflammation was cause from the impact of the accident which caused my vessel to tighten. So all my symptoms like insomnia, headaches, dizziness anxiety depression is cause from the loss of blood flow in the vessel which these vessels control ur function. The lumbar puncture it to see were my brain pressure is at. If it is high then I will get a stent in my brain in the vessels. This will create the brain to function normally. It’s has been and on going scared process for me and my children . I haven’t work , gone to school nothing I sit here in pain all day everyday trying to take care of my babies to the best. I read ur story and so sorry that u have to continue with ur pain.. I hope god heals u mentally and physically .. I am always here to talk I will send u prayers

[Cwoods]

Wow u have been through a whole lot. Hope things will be brighter at the end of the dark tunnel just keep hope alive.

[Crystal81]

Thanks, it as been super challenging and I just keep telling myself , everything is going to be okay and to simply have courage and be kind..