Re: OT: help for possible brain injury

[Guest guest]

Thanks. This is indeed helpful. I am fortunate to have a PCP who is open to

weird ideas that I have and also incredibly attentive. I will call him and

discuss getting further evaluations for her.

Thanks to everyone who answered and everyone who tolerates off-topic

questions so well. I really wasn't comfortable with the vagueness of her

symptoms, or sure that I even needed to go any further.

Liz

>

> Reply-To: csb-autism-rx

> Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 07:53:50 -1000

> To: <csb-autism-rx >

> Subject: Re: OT: help for possible brain injury

>

>

> Aloha ,

>

> I would like to reply to your concern regarding the head trauma received by

> your child. I would like to clarify as an R.N. I cannot diagnose, but can

> offer suggestions to you to further medical diagnostics if you so choose. My

> specialty is spinal cord rehabilitation so I can only comment from my

> incidental exposure with TBI or traumatic brain injury.

>

> The symptoms you describe are many weeks after the initial injury. At the

> onset of injury however, physician's are on the look out for closed head

> trauma or bleeding inside the cranium. She is many weeks post incident, and

> you do not describe her as complaining of headaches and/or sensitivity to

> sunlight, for example. Still as a Mom you have an intuition about your child

> most others don't, my advice is to trust your intuition.

>

> You asked about further testing. When a person suffers blunt force trauma

> to the front of the cranium there is the possibility that a condition may

> result known as " contracoup " . This means that although your child had a lump

> on the front of her cranium the force of the blow could have forced the

> brain backward resulting in trauma to the back of the brain ( opposite the

> site you observed where the lump is ). It might seem odd to you at first

> that further evaluation for symptoms resulting from this type of injury to

> the back of the brain may still be requested by your treating physician.

>

> My suggestion to you is to seek out experts in this field for diagnosis and

> testing. I recommend a neurosurgeon consult because these are the experts in

> this field of medicine. I worked along side many. Simple non-invasive neuro

> checks can be done in one office visit by a neurosurgeon and can be

> beneficial when it comes to determining any need for futher testing and

> diagnosis. Some neurosurgeons even perform tests that you may have heard

> about such as MRI's themselves because they will know what they are looking

> for based on your description of your child's specific injury and post

> injury symptoms.

>

> Sincerely,

>

>

>

>

> OT: help for possible brain injury

>

>

>>

>> DR. M, and anyone who has an opinion:

>>

>> My theoretically NT daughter, 8, was injured in a scooter accident this

>> summer. She also fell off her bike while learning to ride and got some big

>> scrapes. It was a very traumatic few weeks, with her getting 4 stitches in

>> her nose.

>>

>> Her helmet took the brunt of the impact, but she did have huge bruising

> and

>> swelling on her forehead. There was no sign of concussion at the time: no

>> dizziness, headache, etc., and she was checked out by a doctor.

>>

>> Now she is having some trouble, and I am not sure how to proceed. She

>> continues to be whiny and clingy. She is having trouble getting ready for

>> school in the morning. No matter how simple the task, she gets distracted.

>> She's always needed direction, but now I have to stay right on top of her.

>> She is anxious and fearful.

>>

>> Some of these signs point quite strongly to Post Traumatic Stress

> Disorder.

>> My brother has this, so I'm familiar with it to a degree.

>>

>> She could also have had a brain injury, even though it passed below the

>> radar of the diagnostician at the time.

>>

>> She also comes from a long family history of ADD, and probably has a mild

>> case of it to begin with. It seems quite a bit worse, now, although her

>> teacher says she's doing fine at school. She was actually quite surprised

>> that I said there was anything wrong. She is apparently happy at school

> and

>> has plenty of friends.

>>

>> She may simply have gotten into some poor habits, as I babied her a LOT

>> after the accident. There may be a bit of manipulation going on.

>>

>> What sort of medical path should I take, if any? Anything I should be

> doing

>> biomedically? Other suggestions?

>>

>> Liz

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> Many frequently asked questions and answers can be found at

> <http://forums.autism-rxguidebook.com/default.aspx>

>>

>>

[Guest guest]

Hmm...is this something likely to be covered by insurance? I have an

osteopath, but is this something substantially different?

Liz

>

>

>

> Hi Liz, I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter. In your shoes, I'd find a

> well-recommended cranialosteopath who can address any stress remaining in

> the cranial structure which (as I understand it) could definitely affect her

> behaviour, sleeping patterns, and/or moods. Good luck.

[Guest guest]

>

> Do you think I should ask for a CT scan? I will be calling her

doctor today

> for some unrelated stuff. Is your daughter on the spectrum, and did

she

> benefit from the anti-oxidants, in your opinion?

>

> Liz

I don't know about the scan. My daughter is or was ADHD/CAPD/LD,

etc. She became those at 11 yrs old after HEP B & MMR Boosters. Yes

she did benefit from the anti-oxidants, I think. I upped them during

this period of time but do keep her on some ordinarily as part of bio-

med with chelation.

[Guest guest]

I THINK some insurance people do cover it, depending in part on whether they

feel the reason is good enough. Seems to me that they covered us for 3

sessions years ago after our little boy had a traumatic birth. Is it

different - yes, my understanding is that it's a whole other specialty

because it deals with (something like)the rhythm of the cerebral or spinal

fluid, the feel of the skeletal plates, all stuff that's mind-blowingly

subtle. And I would warn you that the treatment is so subtle that you

wonder if you're being had. However, I have several friends whose children

slept notably better afterwards, and my husband's headaches improved.

Re: Re: OT: help for possible brain injury

>

> Hmm...is this something likely to be covered by insurance? I have an

> osteopath, but is this something substantially different?

>

> Liz

>

> >

> >

> >

> > Hi Liz, I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter. In your shoes, I'd

find a

> > well-recommended cranialosteopath who can address any stress remaining

in

> > the cranial structure which (as I understand it) could definitely affect

her

> > behaviour, sleeping patterns, and/or moods. Good luck.

>

>

>

>

> Many frequently asked questions and answers can be found at

<http://forums.autism-rxguidebook.com/default.aspx>

>

>