nicnak,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear about your concussion.

You are very early in your recovery. Everything you are experiencing is normal. The clear CT is normal. In fact, you could have a much worse concussion and still have a normal CT.

The delayed symptoms are normal. They are caused by the cascade of physiological and biochemical events happening. It can take a day to even a month for concussion symptoms to show up. The brain tries to continue on like normal but after realizing a strain, it may shut down some brain cells. It also takes a while for the toxins that are released from the concussion to reach a critical mass to cause symptoms.

There is no way to prognose how long your recovery will take. At this early stage, you are very likely to spontaneously get better almost over-night. About 80% will. The rest have recovery times that vary widely.

For the best recovery, you need to do a few things.

Avoid stress. This may mean taking a few days to a week or more off from work or other endeavors. Quiet rest should be you normal day for the near future.

Avoid alcohol, caffeine, MSG, artificial sweeteners (aspartame, Equal, Nutrasweet are the worst) and high sugar content foods, especially high fructose corn syrup.

Many of us increase our intake of B-12, Omega's, and vitamins, but most of us have been dealing with concussions for weeks or even months.

When I say avoid stress, this means physical, mental and emotion stress. No loud music or sounds, limited TV and computer/smart phone, avoid stressful events and people, and avoid any risk of chemical stress/allergies, drugs, environmental toxins, etc. Even being in a room with multiple people talking will tend to cause a panic attack. Many of us use foam ear plugs for those mandatory trips to the grocery store. Shop during off peak times. No mall or busy stores. No driving during rush hour times.

And again, quiet rest. If you need some sort of activity to ward of the frustrating boredom, try activities that are manually oriented. Knitting, sewing, solitaire with a deck of cards, painting/crafts without solvent glues or paints. The hands can not move faster that the injured brain can handle except with the computer or video games.

If after a few days of quiet rest, you do not feel better, let us know what symptoms you are struggling with and we will be here to help.

My best to you.