Bumped my head, low concentration, poor memory, now failing my grades...

[Alle]

bumped my head against the steel roof of the vehicle I rode when we went through a bumpy road. The hit was so loud, I got dizzy and felt nauseous. I went to the doctor complaining that the bump was affecting my focus. It makes me feel tired even if I got a full night's sleep. He said it's nothing,and will heal after a few weeks.

The feeling was like I have something put on top of my head- something "heavy". Afterwards I really never regained the focus I used to have in my studies, my grades went even lower, and I appeared to be more impulsive. The feeling of something is on top of my head diminished but these problems stayed.

After a year, I bumped my head again (silly, but the driver was reckless) but the impact was less than the first one. Again I felt dizzy and floating in air. Now my condition is bad enough. I can't focus on my projects, get too much sleep, forget things I just said, etc. What is this? I'm afraid it's taking its toll on my studies.I don't have anything bothering me now, and if not for this I'm really positive about life, etc etc.

Thanks for your answers.

(if this will help:
I suffered depression when I was a teenager. We went to a doctor and she gave me meds and some counselling, but I don't really know the root of the problem- I had reasons to be sad but these are not bad enough to be depressed.  I got well and stopped going to the doctor. I admit that after the incident I never really got back to my old self: I can't focus on my studies as well as I did and my thoughts were no longer "consistent". My memory was faulty too. I forget something I just said. My relatives said this is just psychological so I didn't do anything about it, since I was generally "fine".)

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

I hope you will get the appropriate tests done soon. Meanwhile, I would suggest you train your mind. Give yourself short targets and try to achieve them at any cost. This exercise helps a lot. It helps self esteem to the extent one can not imagine.

It's never too late. Please let me know if you have any further queries.

Regards

[Alle]

I really, really appreciate your reply. Yes, that's really me! I plan things yet I still disorganized, my thoughts are really cluttered, and concentrating on tasks requires so much effort. I hope it's not too late getting these tests done. I regret not insisting before. Thank you so much again.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

There does not seem to be any doubt that your cognitive abilities have suffered. You must be finding it difficult to organize, plan things and then follow the plans. The memory issue seems to be with short term memory.

I was wondering if you have had an MRI or a CT scan after the impact. It is always better to be sure there is nothing.

If you don't feel sadness of mood, loss of interest, most probably you are not depressed presently. Your symptoms can be due to the concussion. You had nausea after the head impact. You may also have injured the neck, not to the level of bones, but the muscle may have been stretched.

I suspect there are certain areas in the cerebral cortex which are not functioning properly. Can you get an MRI done?

Regards

[Alle]

Additional question: Can clumsiness root from falling from a vehicle? I was young, around 8-9 years old when I fell from a vehicle. Ever since, I've been really clumsy. My balance was poor, I remember not wanting to go into sports. Now recently I feel I lose balance and about to fall.

[Alle]

I also get occassional pain in the area, and my legs or arms twitch from time to time.