Finial Diagnoses: A Case Study

Define Differential Diagnoses:
The patient, a white male, has been experiencing headaches for ten days, on a pain scale (1 low pain & 10 being high amount of pain) the patient says that he feels that the headache is a 9. Other symptoms include headache, confusion, blurred vision, tinnitus, tiredness, nausea, dizziness, irritability, and tenderness over the right upper side of the head. After checking him out and talking with him about his past (medically) we found out that he has had three mild concussions from High School and College football. He was then taken in for a CT scan which found a crescentic (crescent moon- shaped) presence. Due to this information given I think that this could be a migraine, concussion, second impact syndrome, or a brain tumor.
Finial Diagnoses:
I believe that the patient is suffering from a concussion.
I believe this because the in the article entitled Concussions by the Mayo Clinic it states that some of the symptoms are headache, amnesia surrounding the event, nausea, memory impairment, vision issues, and bumps on head (Staff, 2014). This type of head injury is mostly experienced by athletes (Staff, 2014) who have a great impact with their head such as football players. Due to the fact that he has had concussions before due to a sport I think that this maybe the most reasonable answer. I also believe that the CT scan may have shown sometime of bleeding or swelling from where the fall has affected the
brain.
Pertinent negatives:
The reason that I believe that it could not be a migraine, second impact syndrome, or a brain tumor is due to the fact that while they all fit some aspect of the symptoms they don’t fully fit all the aspects. I don’t believe what the patient is feeling is a migraine. I deduced this because if it were he were just having a headache and some issues with vision this would be a more reasonable response. Since he has other symptoms though such as memory loss, tenderness of upper right side of head, and nausea I don’t believe that it could be this. If it were a migraine his symptoms would more likely be headache, flashes of light, blind spots, and tingling on face, arms, or legs (Clinic, 2016). The reason that I don’t believe that it could be second impact syndrome is because that would require him to have had another impact within the ten days of the first (Tareg & Brian, 2009). It would also require him to have had a concussion before the first impact and since he didn’t go in right after the fall we are just figuring out now what has happened. Since it is stated that he only had one serious impact I don’t believe that this is what he is dealing with. I don’t think that he is suffering from a brain tumor because while he may have similar symptoms he does not carry all the symptoms for a brain tumor. Some symptoms of brain tumors what lead me to believe that this was not what he was experiencing were seizure, hearing issues, weakness of limbs, and behavioral issues (Musella & musella, n.d.). Also if this was a brain tumor the symptoms he is experiencing would have been experienced sooner.
Treatment plans:
The main treatment plan for a concussion that I found to be the most recommended was rest. In the Mayo Clinic article pertaining specifically to the appointments and care of a concussion it says that rest is the best option for getting over a concussion (Staff, 2014). It also goes on to say that you should avoid general physical exertion and limiting activities that require thinking until you have no symptoms left (Staff, 2014). It states in the text also that if you have a concussion and you have a headache the best thing to do would be to take a pain reliever to relive the headache (Staff, 2014).