Marina22 - I am in a similar situation and glad to know I am not alone and it is "normal" (or as normal as things get with PCS)

I hit my head on pipe in a parking garage about 2 months ago (not quite sure, but I guess I walked into it or there was something hanging down?) It hurt but I kept walking. Soon I felt shaky and strange and within an hour my husband picked me up from work and the nausea started. The next couples days got worse with severe fatigue and headaches, light/noise sensitivity and increased nausea. I spent at least two weeks having emotional meltdowns or sobbing spells every night.

I've had a couple symptoms come on recently: numbness/tingling in my right arm (already had slight protrusions in C5/6/7 but no change), pins and needles in my back and this week increased anxiety and some shortness of breathe.

I continued to try to go to work - off and on or part days - for about a month until my boss "talked" with me about my "work ethic" and not getting enough work done. I went on medical leave two weeks ago. The first week I slept a lot, but felt pretty functional when I was awake, but this week I feel terrible - sleeping/fatigue, headaches, blurry vision.

For those old hats - I guess backsliding is common? Two steps forward, one step back?

I was already being treated for depression (wellbutrin and cymbalta) as well as degenerative disk disease. After seeing a neurologist who put me on topomax (thanks to this forum, I only took once and then stopped), I saw a neuro who specializes in concussion -- I got an actual physical and eye exam and he thinks the pre-existing conditions are slowing my recovery. I'm going in for a neuro psych eval next week. My psychiatrist increased the Cymbalta and gave me Xanax (started today). I've also begun Mark's vitamin regime. I ate pretty healthy before and took a multi + D + folic but have increased Bs, Omegas, and C/E.

Marina22 - If not already, I highly recommend trying to find specialists for TBI -- it made a HUGE difference for me.

Mark - I am very interested in the link between TBI and progesterone you mentioned. I have had irratic periods since the concussion with my cycles averaging about 2 weeks. I talked to my GYN who said she thought it could be caused by the TBI but advised me to wait. Do you know of any articles on the subject? I'm wondering if taking progesterone would help ...

Lastly, I know none of you can really answer the how long question, but I originally thought I'd be on medical leave for 2-3 weeks. It's now 2 weeks and the idea of working 8 hours + lunch + commuting, 5 days in a row seems impossible. What was the lead up to recovery or at least full-time work for you all? Was it sudden or very gradual? I'm wondering if I need to anticipate 2 more months?

(ps - Marina22, sorry if I totally hijacked your thread. I just got excited to tell my story to others who understand ...)