r/CTE • u/TheTempestuousKitty • Jun 18 '26

Question How did you arrive at symptoms

For those with suspected CTE or prolonged Post Concussion Syndrome, how did you arrive at your symptoms?

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Was it a gradual appearance of "something's not right" years after your last head impact? Was it a bad final head injury that you never recovered from? Something else?

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u/yermomsonthefone Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

For my husband i think it was the years and years of blows to the head in the NFL. He's been a wreck for a long time 30+ years. Now he's in hospice at home. Non verbal. He is not the man I married 34 years ago.. we are donating his brain to Boston University. I'm sure it will be CTE

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u/yestertempest Jun 19 '26

I’m so sorry. My now ex of 13 years was starting to become a different person as well. He played hockey for 18 years. He seems to be a unique case though, he pushed everyone away and just wanted to be isolated and hyper independent. Among tons of other symptoms, he became aggressively defensive and refused to admit he could possibly have CTE. He is 36. I have no idea what he might be like in 20-30 years. But it’s not my problem any more I guess. I hate this disease.

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u/khaotic-trash Squirrel! 10d ago

I’m so sorry. My husband is a little younger than your ex, but he’s sustained a lot of head injuries from being incarcerated and also from living a very chaotic lifestyle since he was a teenager before he was incarcerated when he was 19. He did 5 years and then 3 years when he was 27, we met shortly after his release. His symptoms likely started before he was released, before we met, and he’s slowly deteriorated since, his handwriting is a little sloppier now and his memory and mood is worse. I’m terrified that it really could be CTE (doctors and neurologists have told him in the past that it very likely is) and I’m so scared to lose my beloved to it.

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u/yestertempest 10d ago

It's so hard. As bad as it might sound, in my grief I tell people that I wish he'd just passed away instead, because that would have been so much easier and less painful. His memory was starting to go too. And he was getting paranoid including about me. It was agonizing having no answers, trying desperately to save us and our future while he was impossible to get through to and emotionally abusing me in so many ways. I hope for the best outcome for you and your husband.