stroke/head trauma - Stroke Message Board

Kensr · 02-05-2007, 10:09 PM

My wife had a minor stroke that caused a fall and severe head trauma, a double whammy. She had bleeding on the brain etc. This occurred over 8 weeks ago. She has had sever headaches from day one and generally wants to sleep or at least stay in bed 80% of the time because she feels so bad. She in on tramadol and depakote medicine and takes hydrocodone when the pain gets really bad. Although she has had a few good days,(pain of 2or3 on a 10 point scale). Most of the time her pain reaches 6or7 on that scale. I'm worried that she is not recovering as fast a she should be. Almost no progress lately. Big questions? Is all this normal? What could help her headaches? Are there better medicines for head pain? What could help her recover faster? PS-She is 63 and also has other health problems such as high BP and cholesterol, an anxiety condition and is taking medicine for them. I Need advice from someone that's been there. Maybe I'm looking for assurance or hope but be realistic in your reply.

feelbad · 02-06-2007, 08:52 AM

sorry to hear about your wife,that really must be tough for the both of you.i am just wondering why she is taking the depakote?this is a mood stabilizer.was there a specific reason she is on this,did they think it would possibly make her a bit more "up" with regard to her mood or is this for her anxiety?

the other meds she is taking really are not the best choices for headache type pain,is she being treated by a neurologist or a physical medicine type doc(physiatrist?).do they actually know the extent of the damage from the stroke and the brain injury sepreately or have they not determined that?is she still recieving physical therepy?when my son ended up with a brain bleed from head trauma.he was in a rehab hosp for about a month then we had to take him back there three times a week just for mostly cognative therepy,then he still was going on and off thru the rest of that year.she may need more therepy if she is not progressing at all anymore and is also feeling non motivated because of the need for sleep,depression and or pain.all of this can be pretty hard on a person and can affect many different areas of their lives.depression 'could' be playing into this,really.when i ended up with a severe spinal cord injury,my whole entire life as i knew it just ceased to exist,totally.everything is now very different for me than it once was.i suffer from intermittant severe boughts of depression due to this and the other factors i deal with,one of which is very severe pain in five seperate areas for five seperate reasons.this can really have a huge impact on any and every part of your daily life.

she really does need much better pain management than she is currently getting for those headaches.head pain is really one of the most dibilitating types of pain since it can just effect your ability to really DO anything,you know what i mean?getting some control over this part of things would most likely help with the other areas alot.has she seen a pain management type of doc at all?this would be a good place to start.i don't know what i would do without my pain clinic.they really do know and understand all types of pain.this would just be one possible option for her.but you do need to check into more therepy if they have already stopped with her.she may just not be feeling really motivated in her current state at all.and i can totally understand that.her meds really do need some adjustment to ones ment just to try and control head pain,the hydro is really inadequte for her level of pain.

what this all boils down to is when you feel better,you DO better.right now,she is probably not feeling all that great and this is part of the problem in and of itself.she just needs a full eval again to try and determine a new course of action since the current one is obviously not working for her.perhaps a new set of docs would give a much better perspective?i wish you both lots of luck with this and do hope she can find new methods of relief.please let me know how things are going.Marcia

Budweiser · 02-06-2007, 05:19 PM

[QUOTE=Kensr;2783300] This occurred over 8 weeks ago.QUOTE]

I'm sorry about what happened.

Almost 2 years ago, I had a head-on car accident at the age of 34. I had a head injury and about 4 hours later I stroked (bilateral dissection). I had really bad head aches for about 3-4 months but they got better. I still get than now when I do too much (over tired). The head ache shows I still have a head injury (permanent). I only take asprins when I need it.

(sorry about my writing, my stroke is in the speech/language area).

I hope that helps in any way.

Kensr · 02-06-2007, 09:50 PM

Thanks for your reply. I can tell you have experienced some of the trials and frustrations that we have. My wife has had neurologist both at the emergency room and private practices attending to her needs. She is in the care of a regular physician and a psychiatrist and all are aware of what each other is doing, but she still has the problems I mentioned in my first post. She has completed two weeks of occupational therapy and did very good. She has had many, many tests run. The brain scans showed she had a mild stroke but she really does not show typical stoke injury, ie, cognitive, speech, paralysis, etc. This is the good news. However, the scans did show bleeding on the brain and a fractured skull. She was put on depacode medicine for seizure purposes. Although she had not shown signs of seizure her neurologist wants her to continue the medicine although we have cut the dose in half. I talked to her neurologist today and he wants to do another ct scan and prescribed oxycodone w/acetaminophen for pain. He also wants to get her into a clinical test for Botox as a pain reliever. I have some concern about this because she may be in the control group and may not get any medicine. Does anyone have any advice on this issue? I may seek a pain clinic instead. Marcia, thanks for your knowledgeable reply. I know you truly have dealt with pain and know what we are going through. Bless you. Also thanks to Budwiser for your comments. Ken

Kensr · 02-08-2007, 08:51 PM

Since Marcia and Budwiser replied, the new medicine my wifes neurologist precribed, oxycodone has helped relieve some of the headache pain. He also prescribed gabapentin (neurontin) to replace depakote for seizure. The very first oxycodone pill did an execellent job of pain relief. I only hope it continues to help. I hope addiction does not become a problem, but right now we welcome the pain relief. This medicine seems to be a upper for her also, making her seem to be in better spirits.
Her hands shake badly especially in the mornings and she explains that her insides feel the same. She takes xanax and effexor for anxiety and depression but struggles with being nerveous every day. She has been so down and seeing this has taken a toll on me also. I want so much for her to improve. Another problem she has is leg pain in her lower calf, mainly left leg but tonight in both legs. I have noticed a trend that when the head pain goes down, the leg pain seems to replace it. She is on zetia and pravastatin for choloestrol. I wonder if they could produce the leg pain. She is on so many medicines and feels so poorly, I sometimes think about encouraging her to stop most of the meds and see if things improves. I realize this is this might not be smart but we are so flustrated with her low quality of life especially after the stroke and head trauma that we are getting desperate. Kensr