My first flash of a headache occurred while still in “emerg” at the first hospital when they moved me from one room to another. I asked the E.R. doctor whether it was possible I had a concussion and he simply said, “It’s possible”, and that was the end of the discussion. No additional information about concussion/brain injury was provided when I was discharged. My brain injury symptoms then appeared again suddenly and with a vengeance a couple weeks after my accident. They included a brutal, seemingly never-ending, pounding headache, dizziness, nausea, and unbelievable light and noise sensitivity. Suddenly, all I could do was lie in bed in complete darkness and silence. I have since learned that it is not uncommon for symptoms to be delayed for hours, days or weeks after a head injury. When I was finally seen 3 ½ months later by a doctor in the hospital’s Head Injury Unit, she indicated her experience has been that patients with a delayed onset of symptoms typically do worse in their recovery.
My experiences dealing with a brain injury.