Dr. Gott: Post-concussion syndrome explained

Dear Dr. Gott: My 57-year-old husband was assaulted in May and suffered a concussion.

[mbruddy]

Dr. Gott: I know you talked about a natural sleep aid in your daily newspaper letters but I know remember what the name of it was. Could you please send me an answer as soon as possible. Thanks, Maurice Ruddy at [e-mail]

[Barbara Robinson]

My husband was diagnosed with PCS following a 10 foot fall from a ladder resulting in a nasty concussion, broken scapula, bruised lung and a blood clot in his leg. He too had the spinning dizziness described in your column & was diagnosed with nystagmus w/i his 1st week of hospitalization.

In response to Dr. Gott's "Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, there is nothing that can resolve the problem other than time" this is not entirely true. Ten days after his injury my husband was transferred to another hospital's rehab therapy facility. A P.T. there diagnosed him with Benign Positional Vertigo and conducted the "Epley Maneuver" on him. There was a DRAMATIC improvement in his dizziness immediately. He was put in a neck collar to keep his head level for the next 24 hrs. and at the end of that period his "crystals" remained where they should be. We are talking an 85-90% improvement from pre "Epley Maneuver." He is receiving continued outpatient O.T., P.T., & S.T upon returning home and is improving a bit each day.

The moral of the story? Before writing off PCS as only resolving with time look for a P.T. who specializes in the vestibular system. You too may have your spinning "cured" with the Epley Maneuver