The doctor I met with (a neurosurgeon who no longer does surgery - he's now 76), a highly regarded specialist whose patients seem to love him (based on his online reviews), told me it's a matter of striking the right balance. He said you should strive to stay "sub-threshold" (ie, not triggering symptoms), but also that light activity/exercise is helpful if you can handle it. He said it's very much a matter of trial and error, and finding the right balance, as you progress towards recovery.

This issue really gets to the core of my situation. Earlier this week I felt significantly better - after about 3 weeks of R&R, I really thought I was on the road to recovery. After feeling better for a couple of days, I went for a walk in the park and felt pretty comfortable, much less constrained, so I decided to keep walking (a total of about 25 mins). I also went for a picnic with my girlfriend that evening.

The next day I had a headache again, and as of the following day (today) I'm still trying to get back on track. It's really frustrating. Two steps forward, one step back...sometimes one step forward, one step back...sometimes it even feels like one step forward, two steps back. Harumph. This has happened to me two or three times now - feel significantly better, get overconfident, do more, get hammered the next day (or 2-3 days). My goal now is to get back to this states of well-being, but next time be more disciplined and take it even slower/easier.

Based on my limited experience thus far, my feeling is that physical and mental rest should be the priority, with the addition of very gentle and gradual activities that have minimal or no adverse effects. Better to go slow than get impatient and overdo it. Obviously, this is easier said than done (as I'm learning)...