head trauma

[harlene]

i just recently join this org.since there is one thing that bothers me a lot.Its been past 4 months since my vehicular accident and there is a linear fracture at the back side of my head.Until now i still lost my sense of smell and taste and cant even remember what had happen during the incident.Though after going a CT scan there is no internal bleeding and the doctor said i may back into normal after 3 months but sad to say, i still not normal..im depressed of having this idea in my mind that i may like this forever.Until now i dont understand why it takes too long to recover or do i have still a chance to recover?

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
Loss of smell and taste following head injury can be a symptom of concussion and this may take months to resolve. At times it is due to traumatic injury either to the olfactory nerve or to the olfactory center in the brain and this type of damage is permanent. If it is due to injury to nose internally then this may recover. The various tests carried out to detect the cause of loss of smell are CT scan of nasal sinuses, MRI of brain, allergy testing, and blood glucose levels. This is followed by quantitative smell test which helps identifies the degree of loss.
I am sorry but you will to consult a neurologist to find the cause and possibility of a solution. Take care!

[SamPCS]

I had a similar injury with some bleeding on the brain (brain contusion) a year and half ago exactly today.  I lost my real sense of smell and taste (think it is called Parosmia).  If you have complete loss of smell and taste it is anosmia.

This alone can lead to depression.  No one knows you can get it back or not.  Doctors gave a random number 3 months, 6 months, 1  year etc.,  So it is still earlier to decide in your case.

Also depression, anxiety etc., can happen with head injuries.  You can consult a doctor for these conditions to get medication but if you can handle it try not to get into medication instead try other therapies like acupuncture etc.,

consider yourself lucky if you dont have other symptoms ( i suffer from many symptoms constant dizziness, fatigue, neck pain etc.,)  so in my case medication is not that successful since it increased my symptoms and i got more depressed.  again each one is different how they react to any treatment.

recovery from a head/mtbi can be very short within weeks to years.  It is impossible to predict.  I personally know few relatives, friends who had mild to severe head injury and completely recovered in months to a year.  you can read www.tbiguide.com to get some idea.  

good luck.