06/18/07 #1 - Father with enormous headache since hit in head in 1971?

Full Question:
My father had a smack on his head with a rifle in military services back in 1971. The force was enough to split his helmet in 2. He has suffered enormous headache since that day and here in Holland we have been to just about every specialist. The thing is they can't find anything medically but they do give him medicines. His headache has ups and downs but it’s always there and on a good day it even feels like a migraine imagining how it feels on a bad day. So it is hard for him to do anything because it then only gets worse. He has this headache for so long now that he doesn't know how it feels like to have no headache anymore and is afraid of "losing" his headache. After the hit he was out for about three weeks witch he has no knowledge of or is a black hole in his memory. Is it possible that the doctors here are looking at the wrong place that they should look at his neck or something like that? Could this be ghost pain? Have you ever heard a story like this and were these people cured? I don’t see an end on this maybe you do. I hope you do. Thanks for reading my story. Sincerely yours, Frank from Holland.

Answer:

Dear Frank from Holland;

Your description of your father’s headaches is very close to my practice; I have a large traumatic brain injury population in the practice. Your father has postconcussional  headaches and often these behave like migraines. And, they often respond to migraine medications. Often, there are many other postconcussional symptoms: dizziness, memory problems, irritability, mood swings, sleep disturbances. Unfortunately, many of the symptoms can be present for a long time after the injury as you can see.  That doesn't mean they shouldn’t be treated. The problem is to find a headache expert in your country and I might suggest a visit to Dr. Jes Olesen or one of his colleagues in Denmark, at Glostrup Hospital.

Good luck,
John Claude Krusz and Teri Robert

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