I was doing pushup-like exercises, head horizontal face down. A plastic 3 L water bottle fell 0.7 m from above with the hard part hitting the back of my head. My head moved downward like a spring because my muscles were flexed to hold my head up in position. It dazed me but did not knock me out. It has been about 3 weeks. I have been avoiding mental stress and physical jostling as reasonably as i can to let my neurons calm down and heal, per online advice for concussion. Most mental fogginess has lifted, but eyes bleary occasionally and pins and needles pain in the back of my throat/nose a few times. Could the concussion affect the pituitary gland? If so, what strategies are there to favor healing?

Hi lane ..

Varying degrees of pituitary disturbances can occur with traumatic brain injuries and concussion but as endocrine function is involved you would In most cases require medical assessment and intervention. Lowering stress levels and reducing anxiety is a good start .

If your head and neck (cervical spine ) sustained a jolt again you should be medically assessed . Think of the blow as a similar mechanism to being rear ended in a car .(whiplash) .. Vision problems and numbness /tingling in throat could be related to this . You should also not be driving if you are experiencing any distortion to your vision .... intermittent or sustained .

Again if there is injury to you neck it is unlikely to resolve on its own .. especially is there is a mild misalignment of vertebrae or nerve involvement . You may just need a few physiotherapy sessions to sort out your concerns .

Hope you are feeling better and taking it easy x

Can be very tricky business. Look up TBI (traumatic brain injury) and you will find tips and what to do.

It could heal, depending on how bad it is. Rest is always important with brain/head trauma.
Like Blondey says, it can be helpful indeed to go see an osteopath or cranio-sacral therapist to have the vertebrae checked. Don't wait too long with that. Physios usually aren't that well acquainted with this sort of thing. It's not in their field of work really whereas it's osteo and cranio are experts.
If you got cramped muscles because of it (shoulder, neck, back) a physio can help.

A pituitary gland can get inflamed by a blow to the head and get skewed a bit.
Read up on it, give it time, take plenty of rest, see a good therapist.

Thanks for the help.

You give very good medical advice. Seriously; they should pay you more since you can be the site nurse on here when you want to be. Everyone else was booked for months out. I did go to the walk-in center yesterday to ask about my neck, but the only thing they would offer me was pain medicine.

From the web, I did some rehab type exercises for neck whiplash. There have been fewer times when i get tingling sensation from resting positions of the neck.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.yorkvillesportsmed.com/blog/8-best-stretches-exercises-for-whiplash%3fformat=amp

Thanks again.

Anytime it is a neck injury and if my Dr just offered pain pills and no other solution I would find me another Dr.

They should have referred you to go get an MRI to see if you did do any damage to your neck.. Not just offer drugs.

When I had a wreck they thought it was just whiplash..After over 4 weeks of therapy told them I could not do the therapy it caused even worse pain. They did an MRI and found out I have 4 herniated discs in my neck. Yea therapy was not the option to try for me, for it was just aggravating my neck even worse.

I would suggest if it still hurts go to your Dr and tell them you want an MRI to make sure what is wrong... If worried about cost ask prior and they will tell you how much they are and most do payment plans..

Horrible how you get treated, isn't it.
Neck, head injury and whiplash are very much underestimated in the medical world.
Of late they are becoming more open to it and more diagnostic and research techniques are available. Only since some 2 years.

In actual fact an MRI isn't necessarily the best option, but it depends of course what your problems are.
If you want to know if your brain is okay you are better off with a CT or CAT scan.
They are working on a better type of MRI but that's not reliable yet.

In essence in case of concussion or whiplash and the like, there's always TBI. Not always permanent, but sometimes it is.

Norfolk is a little bit different. You just have to rely on the old military advice of “don’t get hurt in the first place.”

It makes it easy not to worry when I know what the solution is. Especially when the solution is to not worry.

I am moving soon within the city. This is going to be like waking up in a new place with not as good memory of the past.

I had a sensation of nosebleed, but no actual nosebleed a week and a half after i hit my head. I started having foods high on potassium and lifted the head of my bed a few inches. That all has since faded.

Still doing the neck stretches.

Hoping if I avoid anxiety my pituitary gland will not fail in 6 months.

I doubt neck stretches will do anything much for the pituitary. And I doubt even more it will fail. If something like that would have it fail, mine would've failed decades ago, haha.
I had 4 serious blows to the head, 2x per accident. I'm still going.
And if you're so worried, go see a doctor, ask to see a neurologist and get some diagnostic stuff done.

All this fussing isn't going to help. If you had a concussion it takes time to heal. Give yourself that time. How much it is, will depend. I believe on average it's 6 weeks.
It took me 4 months to get to a basic level of having the mist in my head clear up a bit but I took 2 serious blows. I fell from the top of a high staircase, hit a brick wall with my head with full velocity and my entire body weight behind it. Then I hit my head again against a steel shoring jack.
I was in shock and close to losing consciousness for lord knows how long. What brought me back was panic as somewhere deep down I noticed my breathing didn't go automatically anymore.

In any case, give it time, go see a doctor, that's the most important thing, rest a lot. I could not pay attention to anything for longer than 30 minutes, and even that was pushing it. Then I had to lie down and close my eyes.
And I did. Listen to your body, not the worry.

Thanx Chrystal :)

Stay safe.

And thanks Blondie for your advice, it was very helpful.

No worries, and thank you!

Try to remember that these days there are plenty of new things they can do to help, in case it causes longer lasting trouble. Many of these are still new, as recent as 2 years.
I'm hoping to get a NPO, neuro psychological examination. With that they can check what you can handle.
I've got to see a neurologist for that next week. But there are other things as well, multi-disciplinair teams esp for people with TBI.

If you cannot see anyone where you live, find US organisation for TBI, or whiplash etc. They can give you a ton of info of what to do and what not.

Hi lane .. in most cases I would discourage following advice from the internet without having a diagnosis . Something many people do .. but the wrong interventions can be harmful .

Although a concussion is classed as a TBI . On the spectrum it is the mildest form .

The sensation you experienced of a nose bleed could simply be post nasal drip . Generally blood irritates the stomach and causes symptoms of nausea/vomiting. With a posterior nose bleed that sensation can be present , but with the mechanism of your injury it would be unusual. If that sensation is still present (your injury was over 3 weeks ago ??) and post nasal drip has been ruled out .. then seek medical assessment .

Would also caution you on creating an imbalance with your electrolytes . When you take excessive amounts of potassium . Sodium and other electrolyte levels are affected . Potassium particularly is a key cardiac electrolyte . Having high or low potassium (outside the normal range ) can induce cardiac arrhythmia.

Not sure why you believe you have a pituitary injury .. but again , it is not advisable to self diagnose .

Hopefully you are feeling some improvement by now lane .... . If not .. then you really need a professional medical assessment .

I can appreciate it may be difficult for you to get an appointment but if you are having ongoing concerns it would be wise . Even if there is a wait ., book a checkup (you can always cancel if your symptoms resolve ).

Stay well x

I did get an appointment with a neurologist in two months. I do not now exactly how serious it is but I know the brain is important.

Thanks x

Good luck with your move and assessment Lane .. hope it all goes smoothly I am sure we can help christen your new place