I read your posts to my daughter, and she wants to reply. Here is what she wants to say:

Mark, my neurologist is the one who will be performing the Botox injections. He seems a little dismissive of the concerns I raised when I met with him, but I am hoping that I can still trust him. I have had some unpleasant experiences with medical personnel in the past, so I am a bit worried. I did take your advice about asking for a skin test first, so that should at least give me an idea as to whether I will react badly to the Botox. It is really reassuring to hear what you say about head bumps mimicking concussions, but not causing damage. I have had a lot of head bumps over the last 2 years that have worsened my post-concussion syndrome, but with only 1 or 2 exceptions I suspect that these weren't actual concussions. One of my previous neurologists considered Amantadine, but decided against it because he said that it is more often used for patients who are low energy following a concussion. I, on the other hand, have racing thoughts and high anxiety, so my neurologist believes that Amantadine would worsen these symptoms.

TrickiDicki, I was on a relatively short course of Cipro and I did take probotics during and afterwards. I did not notice any worsening of my symptoms after I finished the regimen, but when my head is feeling a bit better, I will try to learn more about the side effects of Cipro.

Digital Drew, my mother did read your story to me in part. In many ways, it is quite similar to mine. I have spent a good four months lying in bed unable to talk to anyone, or open my eyes or do much of anything. I have reached a point where my migraines have lessened in intensity and although talking or listening to audio books still trigger migraines, the migraines are much easier for me to handle. I relate very strongly to what you said in your blog about not wanting to overdo it (and having the people around you not understand). After four months of essentially being a vegetable and over a year prior to that being only somewhat more functional, my mind was craving any sort of mental stimulation. Once I found that I could speak and also listen to audio books, it was very hard to resist just plunging right in to things. For the last few months, I have been doing a lot of talking and listening, and I have gone back and forth on whether this is safe for me to do, or whether it is increasing my recovery time. Based on the portion of your blog that my mom read to me earlier, it seems that you strongly believe that a failure to rest appropriately is going to worsen your condition, but I find it so hard to go back to lying in bed and doing nothing because although it's been 8 months since my last concussion, and although my headaches have diminished in severity, all of the previous triggers I had still tend to trigger me - the only difference is that the migraines are not as bad. If I went to doing only things that did not trigger migraines, I would lying in bed all day with my eyes closed and earplugs in, unable to get up to use the bathroom or microwave a dinner. I very much don't want to go back to that state, especially because all of the resting I did before never seemed to do much to alleviate my symptoms. I would be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Thank you everyone for your responses, and congratulations Drew on your camping trip! It is really awesome that you were able to do that.