Dealing With Issues Years After My Concussions. Has Anyone Dealt With Something Similar?
Hi all, I was wondering if someone’s been in a similar situation as me.
Edit 1: I forgot to mention that my last concussion was almost 2 years ago (2024) from a car accident. I had a small C-6 vertebrae fracture as well. The reason I forgot to mention was because I’ve been feeling like I’ve been declining little by little for years after my biggest concussion in 2016.
For my concussion history/background:
I (27F) grew up playing water polo (played until 2022), and I’ve had quite a few diagnosed concussions (and probably some undiagnosed as well). The worst concussion I had gotten was in 2016. When I got hit in the head, my legs gave out and I sunk down in the water. My teammates helped pull me out of the pool, my vision was blurred, I was unable to walk right, and pupils were two different sizes. There were some other symptoms as well, but it was all a blur (pun intended). This concussion caused me to gain 40lbs in 2 weeks and have never been able to speak the same.
Not sure if it’s relevant, but I was medically neglected by my parents (walked around on a broken foot for 5+ years, dealing with muscle tears, etc). I’ve been working hard to undo years of issues that I was not allowed to get taken care of before I was 18. So a lot of my concussion symptoms were overlooked, besides a handful of my big ones (which were diagnosed).
Lately I have been having even more difficulty speaking, and my mind feels trapped. I am able to write as I think, but if I were to read this to you, it’d sound very different. There are times where I try speaking, and I know what I want to say, but I cannot physically say it. It’s been so frustrating because I’ll be in the middle of a sentence, and then I just stop talking and can’t speak.
I’ve also been having some really bad memory problems lately as well. On top of this, I’ve been working on jogging. I’m pretty out of shape, and my pupils have started to dilate to 2 different sizes when I really exert myself.
Basically, I’m really nervous about everything right now.
I’ve been trying to get this medically situated, but nothing is showing up on my scans. I was dismissed by my neurologist because I “seem fine” despite everything. I try to explain how much I’ve changed physically (which happens with time, so I’m not too stressed about the physical) and with my memory/speaking problems, but the neurologist didn’t even address it. It just felt like she spent the entire time trying to tell me I’m normal and nothing is wrong at all, and that it’s normal to cognitively decline and for my pupils to be 2 different sizes when exerting myself. I’m honestly not too worried about the pupil thing, but I’ve only seen it occur when I’ve had concussions, so that’s why I’m mentioning it.
TLDR: I’ve had a lot of concussions in my past due to a contact sport. I’m now having issues, over 10 years, later with speaking, memory, and strange pupil dilation. Scans come back normal, and neurologist thinks I’m perfectly fine, but I don’t feel fine with some recent changes.
I don’t know, maybe I am just overthinking things? It feels weird with things changing like this, and with it getting harder to speak and remember things, but maybe that’s just a part of getting older? Has anyone dealt with anything similar? If so, what did you do?
I don’t think I can look into this issue for much longer, it’s starting to add up cost wise. So I’ll probably just deal with it as is. I don’t even really know how to go about this anymore anyways, I guess that’s why I’m posting here.
Feel free to ask me any questions for clarification. I’m pretty much an open book at this point lol