Hey, I'm Roos and in April 2020 I fell and hurt my head and neck. More than 5 years later I still have concussion symptoms like headaches, neck pain, exhaustion, dizzyness, sensitivity to light/noise, social interactions and more. I found a clinic that specialises in long lasting concussions, but it is not covered by insurance so that's why I made this gofundme. I would very much appreciate any help, to hopefully get me a bit better and better functioning. More info below.

So what happened? Unfortunately this part is embarrassing: I was at the garden center, so excited about the plants I had found and loaded into my car. While bringing the shopping cart back, I pushed it forward and jumped on it with my hips (like I often do in supermarkets), but this was a different kind of cart and it tipped over backwards. I fell to the ground while the metal cart rotated 180 degrees and hit me in the forehead and forcefully pushed my whole head back (causing a neck injury). I had a cut on my forehead and felt dizzy, but lockdown just started and with social distancing I kind of had to rescue myself. I used the cart as a crutch to go back to the garden center, and found some tissues on the disinfection table to put on the bleeding. After a while, one of the workers helped me, and my boyfriend finally came to pick me up and take me to the doctor.

The doctor (in full covid protection gear) told me it was a very deep cut, put in 3 stitches and told me to do the concussion thing where my boyfriend had to wake me up every 2 hours. In the week that followed my face got bruised and swollen, and my head and neck started to hurt.

Over the next few weeks and months, the scar healed, but the other symptoms didn't go away. A physical therapist I went to for my neck injury told me this is called Post Concussion Syndrome- regular Dutch doctors just call it a concussion even when it lasts this long.

After 6 months, I saw a neurologist who told me to do occupational therapy, regular therapy (to talk through accepting my situation etc) and also recommended a rehabilitation clinic if I still had symptoms after a year. I did all of these things, and many others- one of the hardest things was that there was nobody giving advice or help, I had to just figure it out myself. Some treatments helped or took away some pain (especially occupational therapy for my brain and manual therapy for my neck), but it never fully got better. 5,5 years later I'm still suffering from headaches, neck pain, exhaustion and overstimulation and sensitivity to light/noise/social interactions etc.

Recently I talked to a doctor from the United States, where they're much further ahead in concussion treatment than the Netherlands. He recommended a center not too far from us, that uses the same methods and treatment they do in the States. It is called the Amsterdam Brain Center in Haarlem: https://amsterdambraincenter.com/en. Unfortunately this center and treatment is not covered under Dutch health insurance, making it impossible for me to go short term.

I'm stuck in a loop of not being able to work because of headaches, while not having money for treatments (or bills/mortgage), which causes stress leading to more headaches.

I would love your help to be able to get this treatment asap and hopefully become better functioning again. Below an overview of the expected costs of the treatment:

- first intake: € 265,00

- travel: € 19,25

- second appointment: € 565,00

- travel: € 19,25

- 1 week treatment: € 2.600,00

- stay*: € 1.000,00

- travel: € 225,00

- aftercare: costs unknown to me atm

- taxes? not sure how that works on gofundme

- missed work costs during treatment time

* for the 1 week treatment, stay is not included. I will need to stay close to the clinic as I need to walk there and back to rest in between treatments as I understand it. That's why it's a separate expense, and quite high as there are not many hotels and airbnbs near the clinic with private accommodation.

It feels strange to ask for money like this, but I decided it's worth it to put my pride aside and ask. This center seems to be experts in what I've been dealing with, and if there's a chance it helps, it's worth it. If you read all of this- thank you. And thank you for the continued support, an invisible injury or illness is hard to deal with and if you struggle too, I see you.

Big digital hugs,

Roos