I suffered a concussion as a result of an assault 2 months ago. Symptoms improved fully after two weeks, after which I hit my head a week after that (not too hard, but hard enough) on a door frame while unloading a van and everything came back full force. Since, things have been up and down, but not consistently normal. My current symptoms include dizziness and lightheadedness, disorganization, brain fog, mild headaches, "slow" thinking, pressure feeling in head, anxiety/panic attacks with physical symptoms including heart palpitations, very mild tremor in hands and jaw, low energy, and intolerance to alcohol, caffeine, and heat, also patterns (i.e. checkered floors in large spaces like the mall or airport make me feel dizzy/weird, etc... anyone experienced that one?? never heard of it..) Initial symptoms of severe headache, (one) hallucination, and numbness/tingling in random areas have subsided. Have had one CAT scan immediately after the incident (normal) and was recommended another, which was also normal, a little over a month after as a follow-up due to jaw tremor symptoms (seizure suspicion, everything was fine though.) Since the beginning have been on a supplement regimen of fish oil, magnesium, turmeric, b vitamins, resveratrol, green tea extract. Was prescribed lorazepam for panic attack symptoms. (never have been on psych meds before). Improved a week before my seasonal job started, which is as a field botanist in the Great Basin in Nevada. Involves lots of camping and hiking in hot desert conditions for 4-8 days at a time.
I have since returned to work last week and I love my job. But, my symptoms are raging and are making it very difficult to be here. I offroad a lot in the work truck and the jostling is really hard to handle. makes me feel like my head is full of pressure and it just hurts. I am not able to adjust to the heat as I have in the past and have gotten dizzy and out of it very easily which is un-nerving out in the wilderness. My co-worker told me the first time it happened I got very pale (to be fair,that was the first day we were out and I think I really needed to be drinking more water..) I lay down to sleep at night in my tent and it feels like my head immediately swells and I have to struggle to sleep.
I really don't want to quit my job. It's awesome. And I feel terrible that I flew out here from across the country and I may have to quit after only one week. Is it harmful to push through these symptoms? Will my body adjust?
This has been a weird and long road, it feels like, although from reading this forum I know a lot of you have been dealing with this for much longer and I hope to not offend you by saying that. I would really like to e-mail someone as a mentor about some of these issues if anyone is up for it and has some hope they would like to share. yesterday i just broke down and cried after returning from my stint in the desert. I haven't had the energy to cry up until this point. I feel defeated but I don't want to give up on this job that is so important to me.