Do I Have a Concussion? – Concussion Symptoms

A concussion or traumatic brain injury is a very common injury.  It can happen from sports, car accident, or mild head injury. The most common symptoms related to a concussion are headache, confusion, lack of coordination, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in ears, sleepiness, and excessive fatigue.  Most of these symptoms are temporarily and will only last for a few days or maybe a week. You will want to make sure you see a doctor within one or two days after the head injury occurs to get treated.

There are different grades of concussion.

Grade 0 has symptoms that will last up to one or two days.  Symptoms that you can experience are headache, and difficulty concentrating.

Grade 1 similar to Grade 0 will last up to one or two days, and the symptoms include all of the same as Grade 0 plus feeling dazed for less than one minute.

Grade 2 can last up to a few days longer than Grades 0 and 1.  Symptoms include headache, difficulty concentrating, feeling dazed for longer than one minute, dizziness, confusion, amnesia, ringing of ears, and irritability.  

Grade 3 can cause loss of consciousness that lasts less than one minute.

Grade 4 can cause loss of consciousness that lasts longer than one minute. Grades both 3 and 4 can last up to a few weeks.  

Dependent on what Grade of concussion you have will decide how long after your diagnosed how long you will have to refrain from doing certain activities.  You may have to take a few weeks off of strenuous activities. Also you will not be able to participate in contact sports activities for sometime, and you will want to avoid returning to work or school too quickly.  

Post Concussion Syndrome

Post concussion syndrome is when you experience symptoms for weeks or months after the initial head injury happens.  You can have some or all the same symptoms as concussion symptoms. These just have a tendency to last longer. There does not seem to be any correlation between the initial Grade of concussion to how long or if you will get post concussion syndrome at all.  Post concussion syndrome can lead to headache, confusion, lack of coordination, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, ringing in ears, sleepiness, insomnia, and blurry vision. Do not ignore any of these symptoms, let your doctor know immediately. These symptoms can go away within three months or they sometimes can last up to a year after the head injury.  

Treatment

There is no specific treatment, your doctor will come up with a treatment plan specific to the patient, depending on the symptoms that the patient is experiencing. Make sure you make a list of all your symptoms before you meet with your doctor so you can be sure that all of them can get discussed.

Concussions even minor ones can lead to long term symptoms that can last up to a year after the initial head injury.  Make sure you contact your doctor if you continue to have concussion symptoms after the first few weeks, so that they can see if you have post concussion syndrome.