Post: #1

So I posted about this awhile ago... bout a week ago, sustained an injury to my head while practicing longsword fighting. Dude I was training with went a little nuts and hit me a couple times on the head with wooden kendo sticks...hurts like a b1tch. Anyway seemed to have no noticeable problems the day of except for a little soreness. Fast forward two weeks later, now have headaches and loads of pressure. Went to the specialist here which is the equivalent of seeing a voodoo Doc. Getting my CT scans back today but have been getting what seems like never ending headaches. Read a bunch of stuff on the net but it all seems to be written by hypochondriacs and fuckin idiots. Half the people went on to get a couple more concussions, the other half are going on a couple years and still complaining about stupid sh1t. I'm sort of blown away by the number of Americans who go on to recieve 2nd or 3rd concussions the next day or deal with their problems through alchol and drug use. I'm told symptoms can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 18 months to heal up...

Anyone here have any experience with this? I wont be able to go home for a year until my wife is approved to get her visa. So until then I have to rely on witch doctors to sort my problems. CT scans here cost about 500 RMB (75 USD), I'm guessing that's cheap. I read some stuff about VITAMINS and started taking 1000 mg of Fish Oil and a multi vitamin.

Ugh for anyone reading this, wear a goddamn helmet when you spar.

Post: #2

Yes, I had a concussion in Bangkok. Walked home slightly drunk in the evening, spotted some hottie in a miniskirt and turned to gawk then walked right into a street sign head first (the sharp side end). It was a pretty hard hit that made some noise. Didn't notice anything right away at all, no pain or anything. Then within one week, I began noticing gradual onset of symptoms, being tired, feeling slightly nauseous, but the biggest thing was beginning to have problems walking. The ground literally felt like a trampoline with every step. It got worse to the point where I felt I could hardly walk without fear of falling at which point I went to the hospital where they did an MR scan (which you should get instead of CT). They found no bleeding or fresh damage, so conclude Post Concussion Syndrome. My symptoms went away pretty much one month exactly after the injury.

I would get to a competent doc asap though. Increasing headaches are something you should take seriously. Get an MR scan with a reading from a competent neurologist (someone trained in HK, Singapore or The West). You should get the MR scan to rule out bleeding too. Can't you go to HK? Or go to a private international hospital?

Post: #3

GF and I got robbed in Bangkok a while back and she ended up with a concussion, had to spend a few nights in the hospital.
Another girl I knew died a week after falling and getting a concussion during Songkran last year.

Definitely something to take seriously. If you're getting persistent headaches or feeling nauseous you should get to a doctor that knows what he's doing asap.

Post: #4

(07-08-2014 04:40 AM)iop890 Wrote:  GF and I got robbed in Bangkok a while back and she ended up with a concussion, had to spend a few nights in the hospital.
Another girl I knew died a week after falling and getting a concussion during Songkran last year.

Definitely something to take seriously. If you're getting persistent headaches or feeling nauseous you should get to a doctor that knows what he's doing asap.

It's not the concussion if you die, it is most likely internal bleeding and that is why you're right that BadWolf should go to a competent neurologist asap and get an MR scan. The average chinese/thai doctor is incompetent unfortunately.

Post: #5

Yea, it was bleeding in the brain, not exactly the concussion, but a good example of why you should take any head injury seriously.

Post: #6

I've had two concussions in the last 18 months. The first one symptoms lasted for about 6 weeks and the second one, less severe, about 3. Don't do any physical activity until your symptoms are almost totally gone. No running, weightlifting, swimming, etc. My big mistake after my first concussion was lifting weights and swimming. My doc told me this is what likely prolonged my symptoms for so long. Even if there is no chance of getting another concussion doing the activity, avoid it. Not worth the prolonged headaches and fogginess. Only walking. Also, avoid too much strenuous thinking. Watch TV with sunglasses on. Avoid loud sounds (hard to do in China) Avoid bright lights. It sucks but it's what it takes to recover quickly.

Also, if you're seriously worried for your life or are a hypochondriac, get your ass to a western-educated doctor in Shanghai or Beijing.

Post: #7

(07-08-2014 02:00 AM)BadWolf Wrote:  So I posted about this awhile ago... bout a week ago, sustained an injury to my head while practicing longsword fighting. Dude I was training with went a little nuts and hit me a couple times on the head with wooden kendo sticks...hurts like a b1tch. Anyway seemed to have no noticeable problems the day of except for a little soreness. Fast forward two weeks later, now have headaches and loads of pressure. Went to the specialist here which is the equivalent of seeing a voodoo Doc. Getting my CT scans back today but have been getting what seems like never ending headaches. Read a bunch of stuff on the net but it all seems to be written by hypochondriacs and fuckin idiots. Half the people went on to get a couple more concussions, the other half are going on a couple years and still complaining about stupid sh1t. I'm sort of blown away by the number of Americans who go on to recieve 2nd or 3rd concussions the next day or deal with their problems through alchol and drug use. I'm told symptoms can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 18 months to heal up...

Anyone here have any experience with this? I wont be able to go home for a year until my wife is approved to get her visa. So until then I have to rely on witch doctors to sort my problems. CT scans here cost about 500 RMB (75 USD), I'm guessing that's cheap. I read some stuff about VITAMINS and started taking 1000 mg of Fish Oil and a multi vitamin.

Ugh for anyone reading this, wear a goddamn helmet when you spar.

Try high-dosage vitamin C 5000-10000 mg pure vitamin C powder or good producer (Swanson, Nowfoods, Youngevity or better) - plus double dose of a good Multivitamin-producer. You can take more Omega 3 and the whole spectrum of EFA (essential fatty acids) - they will speed up your recovery process.

http://www.doctoryourself.com/ you can read up on mega-dose therapies

Of course any head injury has to be taken seriously because of some internal bleeding. The supplements will only greatly assist your body with the healing - never to be underestimated - in some cases of mercury poisoning the process is quickened from 10-years-detoxification to 6 months with special supplements.

Apart from that conventional medicine is actually very good at trauma treatment. I would do the CT scan just in case.

Post: #8

Got my CT back with no problems they said no shadows and no bleeding... but I've no shortage of RMBs here so just to be safe I'm also going to go back to the hospital tommorow and do the MR scan. Can't afford any problems here and thankful for you guys posting that. I'd like to not have any problems by the time I get home so I can join up with the other Roosh fans in the Calgary oil fields. I went back to the doctor before I left and he assured me there was no bleeding... the other thing I felt when the guy hit me was my wisdom teeth... I'm wondering if it caused them to become impacted or some sh1t... my headaches feel sort of like when I had my bottom wisdom teeth coming in, except now its the top two.

I am a bit of a worry wort but for good reason. Unfortunately, healthcare here (the Chinese one I can afford is cheap), the western docs would cut through my entire savings in a matter of hours. I've been to a 'western' hospital here aswell... it was actually just filled with Chinese doctors and while the surroundings were a bit nicer, they didn't tell me anything new and stuck me with a much bigger bill (its about 10 rmb to see the doc, they charge hundreds of dollars). In the first two minutes the 'western chinese doctor' tried to give me a $150 dollar IV bag without even trying to figure out what was wrong with me so I'm a little skeptical of anyone claiming to be western. I've heard Hong Kong is better but I depend on my wife for almost everything and she would have to go back to Nanjing just to get her visa approved for a couple days in Hong Kong... I'm really not into going to any hospitals alone anymore... especially with the bullshit I've had to deal with here in the past. My wife goes with me almost everywhere I go, she's kinda like R2D2, she's saved my ass a couple times now. if she wasn't around, I probably wouldn't be here to post on the forums so naturally, I take her with me for anything that needs gettin done from grocery shopping to xrays..

Will definetely start dosing vitamins, I think I haven't had any for a year actually. I read some stuff on the net today about Fish oil and took a couple of those, within 2 or 3 hours my headaches had mostly gone away, tonight I feel them coming back a little but now they are duller. May have been a lack of proper nutrients and vitamins.... I stopped eating for the last few days, was a bit nervous really... alot of what I eat here is probably considered quite unhealthy in the west, but not much is actually edible and I honestly question the nutrition of most fruit and veg in China. Threw down another one with CoQ10 some Vitamin C and B2... hopefully help a bit... read various blogs and webpages which suggested that the brain when it starts to heal itself needs a ton of vitamins... maybe there is something to it.


On an unrelated note here: if you do come to China, don't EVER eat those fvking GOJI berries... those are lethal little bastards. They are sold as a super food but the Chinese version is laced with Sulfur Chloride pesticides and they will eat through your bodies potassium leading to cardiac arrest... found that out after my latest 'heart problem'. Doctors had no idea what was causing my 'angina' to flare up constantly until one day I had massive food poisioning and found out that all of this was related to putting these little red raisins on top of my cereal. So doctors here are kinda sh1t, I understand that. It only requires 4 years to get a medical degree to become a doctor in China. If I discover any sort of bleeding, I'm on the first plane back to Canada. My wife and I will look around for a neurologist here in Guangzhou we are doing our best to get home ASAP... healthcare in China beyond the fancy machines is sketchy at best.

Post: #9

Good call on seeing a doctor at least. I've had a lot of concussions, and in hindsight I can tell you it is no joke. There may not be much they can do to help the symptoms, but it can take a lot of the stress out of wondering how bad it is, and if something goes haywire they have an idea of where to start fixing things. My worst one kept me out of commission for a month, and if I could do it all over again I would have gone to a doctor and gotten checked out.

Post: #10

(07-08-2014 08:00 AM)BadWolf Wrote:  On an unrelated note here: if you do come to China, don't EVER eat those fvking GOJI berries... those are lethal little bastards. They are sold as a super food but the Chinese version is laced with Sulfur Chloride pesticides and they will eat through your bodies potassium leading to cardiac arrest... found that out after my latest 'heart problem'. Doctors had no idea what was causing my 'angina' to flare up constantly until one day I had massive food poisioning and found out that all of this was related to putting these little red raisins on top of my cereal. So doctors here are kinda sh1t, I understand that. It only requires 4 years to get a medical degree to become a doctor in China. If I discover any sort of bleeding, I'm on the first plane back to Canada. My wife and I will look around for a neurologist here in Guangzhou we are doing our best to get home ASAP... healthcare in China beyond the fancy machines is sketchy at best.

If CT came up fine, then it is just a concussion - they can't do much with that even at the Mayo Clinic.

And yes - Goji berries, raisins as well as your average vegetables are way more laced with pesticides in China. The Party officials and the super-wealthy get organic pesticide-free produce that has been grown sometimes even in air-tight greenhouses.

Post: #11

BadWolf, hang in there, hope you recover quickly.

Post: #12

Just an update as I got up to take a piss and now can't get back to sleep. I took a ton of vitamins and fish oil before going to bed and woke up, headaches have completely dissapeared but seems I have a minute ringing in my ears.

Thank you all, support means alot even if they are just words on a forum.

Post: #13

Is this normal... I have a really weird sensitivity to loud noises now. Also a really stiff neck... sucks balls.

Post: #14

Sensitivity to noise and light is normal. I might ask a doctor about the stiff neck. Have you felt nauseous or vomited?

Post: #15

No thank god, the top of my head is still fairly tender... I think the blow might have impacted my wisdom teeth a bit cause they are really really sore. They needed to be pulled 4 years ago but I have 'whale teeth' and the experience of having my bottom two removed was enough to scare me off the tops. The dentist had to stand with one foot on the chair and yank them out, I felt it through the freezing... anyway seperate issue.

After spending all week in the Chinese hospitals (and yes they really do suck) I finally found one 70+ yearold doctor who's been a doc for 51 years. Cost 3 rmb to see her and after I was finished, I told her, I only wanted to see her from now on... She said she does private consultations and appointments in a special VIP area of the hospital for 50 rmb (less than 10 USD). So I made an appointment for tommorow morning, I'm going with her from now on, she was the only one who cared enough to ACTUALLY check my head out and ask my wife and I questions... the others just sat behind their desks, I even had one who had the audacity to ask me for free english classes afterwards. I will post that doctor's information on the forum here once I know her a little better. It's VERY important to know at least one doctor here in China, relationships make a big difference as most of these docs see 100's of patients per day, maybe 1000's.

She ordered some sort of special X-Ray, it'll cost about 200 RMB to get, and they'll tell me if I have any damage to my spine or a slipped disc or anything. After that I've got a 30 RMB (5 USD) X-Ray due for my wisdom teeth. For any surgeries or anything though, Id just head back to Canada... I dont trust anyone here enough.

Post: #16

I've had several concussions, but none were super serious. I was just dazed and tired the day of. My last concussion was in April, the very last day of snowboard season. I always wear a helmet, but since it was the last day and I was gonna spend half of it watching se of the mountain events, I didn't wear it. I ended up catching my nose on the tip of a box and went head and chest first right into it. While I had a concussion, the worst part of my fall was my chest. On impact it was definitely my head, but the head pain went away and the chest pain stuck around for a long time. I was affraid I bruised my heart or cracked a rib so I decided to see the doctor. Turned out everything was fine, but the pain continued for around 2 months. I always sleep on my stomache, and I usually felt it in the mornings when I'd wake up.

Post: #17

Thanks for posting, if anyone has had these in the past, I'd appreciate your story, as you can imagine, stuck in the 3rd world with 'sales' doctors, have no idea who to trust. So personal anecdotes really help alleviate my worries and stress.

One thing I think someone should do is put up a website where people could post critical contact information of recommended doctors, landlords and that sort of thing from abroad with tagged reviews.

Anyway just a thought.

Post: #18

I really don't understand why you don't spend extra to see a competent western educated doctor, either at a private hospital or in Hong Kong. This isn't a cold, it's your brain, don't you have insurance?

Post: #19

When I was in China back in April, I was banging this chick in my room. We were on the bed and I was on top of her, and she grabbed my head and pulled me down to kiss her, and ended up slamming my head right into the fucking headboard fairly hard.

Kind of hurt initially, and left a big red mark on my forehead for the entire day. Of course she apologized profusely. Pretty funny now that I look back on it, but I was surprised I didn't get a concussion as well. Haha.

Post: #20

(07-10-2014 08:37 AM)berserk Wrote:  I really don't understand why you don't spend extra to see a competent western educated doctor, either at a private hospital or in Hong Kong. This isn't a cold, it's your brain, don't you have insurance?

No, not here, everything costs real money in HK. Medical Insurance from Canada would be almost half my salary per month... and actually right now I'm off work for I don't know how long. I'm waiting for the go ahead from the visa office to go home with my wife. So we've got to sort of make it on just what I have in savings. Might be an entire year before that happens... hopefully not longer.

I've got enough for about a year for rent and food, was hoping not to have
to dig into savings but looks like I might not be teaching again until this problem resolves. The added costs of going to HK, staying there a couple nights and using private healthcare would cost me a couple months rent here. The 'western educated' doctors here in China are no different, they are all about doing 'tests' which actually just end up racking dollars for their bank accounts and the 'hospitals' account. The entire notion of privatized healthcare is kind of disgusting because it just amounts to doctors recommending tons of unnecessary care to fill their quotas.

It may be because I'm Canadian but I find when money enters into the equation you get doctors rubbing their greedy little mitts when they see a potentially exploitable case. Last year I had a 'heart attack' which later was found out to be severe food poisoning from goji berries. The healthcare they were trying to push on me was open heart surgery for 250,000 RMB. I left that hospital sicker than when I went in and was saved just from a gut feeling.

I don't think we'll be returning to another country with money-based care systems after we get home.

Do you actually know how much it costs to see a doctor in Hong Kong?

In Canada, you may have to wait a few hours to see a doctor but at least you know they aren't going to throw you a laundry list of pills and services to try and get you to drop dollars at 'their hospital'. Canadian doctors are usually fairly stingy with meds so you only get those and XRAYS when you REALLY really need it. I'd rather have Colonial Healthcare any day.

Post: #21

It's not particularly expensive to see a doc in HK. I think I paid $50 for a private evening clinic consultation. What would you have done if you had to have your skull drained with this? Pay it out of pocket? That is going to cost you a lot more than 5 RMB. I thought China was infamous for not giving two sh*ts about people who couldn't pay. I distinctly remember reading a story about an infant who died because the mother couldn't afford the ambulance. Imo, you're playing with fire by not having insurance. It will cost about $150 a month, expensive yes, but worth the piece of mind.

Post: #22

Get better man!

Post: #23

China IS infamous for that and if you know anything about my posts, you know I'm not a fan.. I think probably in order to get insurance I'd have to be at home... $150? I don't think that's out of my price range and I was under the impression is was several hundred to have a consultation in Hong Kong... I will ask my friends about it, they like HK and they'd probably be happy to bring me down there. Thanks for the suggestion. Do you happen to remember the clinic's name that you went to?

Post: #24

Eh, CT came back normal but this neurological doc ordered a different X-Ray... thought it might be a different thing... came back said I had a spinal injury in the cervical vertebrae and something called Hyperostosis. She said I need to take a couple months off work and just relax but that nothing is broken but when I got hit it must have compressed my spine near my neck. She also said that I should get a second CT scan after a month just to make sure there isn't an internal bleeding.

Spinal injury, anyone know anything about that?

Post: #25

1) Very sorry to hear that BadWolf, please take care of yourself

2) Try this thread /thread-32160.html

3) PM Prophylaxis - He seems like a solid guy

4) I am sure there are some experts floating around on this thread - maybe if you post on that "The Roosh V Neck and Back Pain Thread" - maybe a specialist will also see it

5) GET BETTER!