post-concussion syndrome (pcs) is persisting symptoms of a concussion past the ‘normal’ time of healing. ‘normal’ concussion symptoms last anywere from two weeks to two months. symptoms persisting longer than that is considered pcs.

as someone who lives with pcs, it is debilitating. pcs causes daily headaches, attention deficits, extreme fatigue and much more.

unfortunately, like most other concussion-related conditions, there is not enough known about the condition. Pcs can get better with time and therapies, but I, like many others, have symptoms from my concussions that are never going to go away.

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), is a degenerative brain disease caused by multiple, repeated brain injuries. CTE is especially common in athletes and veterans. as you may have seen in the media, a large amount of football players have died from cte due to the continuous head trauma in the nature of the sport.

we cannot yet diagnose cte in living patients. diagnoses is possible with a autopsy after death.

cte causes a multitude of symptoms. The most prevalent being depression, aggression, mood instability, short-term memory loss and impaired judgement.

there is no cure for cte

yet.

concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by impact, blow, jolt or bump to the head that causes the brain and head to shift back and forth.

while concussions on their own are not life threatening, they pose a difficult recovery path due to several conditions that can appear in recovery (ex: pcs). a rare condition called second-impact syndrome (SIS) is a condition caused by a second impact to the head during the recovery period after a concussion. this second impact causes extreme, rapid swelling of the brain. sis has a 50% mortality rate, and those who survive often suffer lifelong disability.

concussions can be treated with time, rest, and various therapies. Read about the different therapies I tried and specialists I spoke to in my blog post: My story.