I am going on two months now recovering from post concussion syndrome. I know that I am still very "early" in the process of recovering, however, we all know that it's nice to get some support from people who can relate early on. Apologies for the Herman Melville novel, but I figured it would be better to tell my story.

A little background on my injury; I was assaulted (sucker-punched) in a bar for no apparent reason. I was hit in the cheek bone/mouth and do not believe I hit the back of my head when falling backwards. I do have a few minutes of amnesia when it happened, however, I do not know how much I can contribute of it to the punch or the alcohol (I was relatively intoxicated and it was around closing time).

Sadly, my friends were separated from me at the time so they were unable to witness what happened. However, I called the place back a few days later and was able to speak with a manager who confirmed that I was found in a state of shock, sitting up on the floor and that once I was a "little out of it" but was conversational with the bouncers as they walked me outside.

The day after, I was feeling a little out of it but I chalked up the symptoms to being hungover and getting hit (I had never been hit before this). My jaw hurt, however, and I had issues chewing for about a day and a half but then that pain disappeared. The biggest issue I noticed right away, was palpitating tinnitus (hearing my heart beat in my ear, on the opposite side of my face where I was hit - Not sure how this would happen from an anatomical perspective?)

A few days later I noticed that my symptoms were not getting any better. I was dealing with severe headaches (back of the head/neck), noticeably bad balance (wouldn't fall over, but felt myself swaying), dizziness, mild memory issues, lethargy and fatigue.

As I didn't have health insurance at the time (had left the work force nearly a year ago for grad school), I went to a free sports med clinic on campus (after a couple of days) who confirmed that I had a concussion and would probably be fine within 6-10 days.

After a few weeks, I was feeling really depressed (as I was used to working out 4/5 times a week and stopped completely) so I went back to the sports MD and he said I should start trying to incorporate exercise back into my routine on a scaled-back basis. I started off doing the stationary bike for 10 minutes at a time, which was pretty intense.

Leaving out a bit, but fast forward to now: I'm about 2 months out. I picked up my workout routine slowly and gradually, but majority of the major depressive symptoms have subsided. I still, however, get headaches every day, but the severity and length are much better. They only seem to get disruptive when I'm in class after an hour or so, where the back of my head/neck tighten up and I'm not able to move around to get the blood flowing.

I started doing Vestibular Therapy two weeks ago. While i've seen a lot of improvement in my ability to stand one one leg, I still find myself off balance. I've noticed (a few days ago) that I have a pretty big knot in the middle back of my neck. Additionally, when performing one of the exercises (looking up at a card raised out in front of me above my head with my head positioned downwards) I get this fluttering sound (similar to getting wind blowing in your ear / ear popping mildly) in the same ear that I originally heard my heart beat in. I'm going to bring this up with my VT this week, however, I'm assuming the sound is a twitching nerve in my face/neck that may be damaged?

My major symptoms right now include; being off-balance, dizziness, tinnitus (noticed it about two weeks out, however it has gotten worst over the past two weeks. why?), mild headaches (come and go), and I see strobing lights at night (largely from car lights / street lights). I've been able to ramp up my exercises to about 45 min a day and am able to get my heart rate up to 170 bpm without escalation of any symptoms.

Apologies for the long and sporadic novel again, however, I was wondering if anyone had any specific experiences similar to mine? In speaking with the Sports MD, he said give the vestibular therapy a try for a few weeks and if you don't see any drastic improvement he would refer me to a local ENT to get checked out (also as I had been a few weeks out at the time, he said I shouldn't rush to get a catscan/MRI as I was not an "emergency").

While I know no two concussions are the same, I am wondering how much of my balance/dizziness/tinnitus could be as a result of physical damage to my inner ear/facial nerves as opposed to strictly neural dysfunction (i.e. if i had been hit in my temporal lobe, or back of the head for example).

I look forward to being apart of this support group and helping others who are currently battling with this condition.