Hi everyone,
I am a fairly long-time lurker but I just now decided to bite the bullet and join this forum. I can't begin to express what a comfort it has been to read the posts here and realize that I am not alone in my struggle with PCS. A brief history about myself before I ask my questions of you all.

I suffered a blow to the head by falling (whilst inebriated, unfortunately) on a cement staircase in early November of this past year. Because I felt embarrassed by how I hurt myself and because I did not realize the severity of my injury, I continued much of my daily activity/life for the first few days after the injury. Daily migraines, sensitivity to light and sound, and a poor result on the Impact test alerted me and my doctors to the fact that I was probably concussed. I took a few weeks off of exercising (I am a collegiate athlete), then jumped right back into things only to have all the symptoms come raging back. I have since had to withdraw from university, completely cease any and all athletics and exercise, and have been living at home trying to get better. I suffer from the usual PCS symptoms - headache, occasional nausea, difficulty concentrating, pain over and behind my left eye, mood swings, sensitivity to some light and loud noises, etc. Over the last few months I have gone through changes in severity of headache with little discernible pattern - some days I feel symptom-free, other days i am forced to stay in bed with the lights off due to such bad head pain. I have seen numerous doctors and am on a cocktail of various headache/known PCS meds as well as a healthy dose of supplements like D3, Omega 3, B12, etc. I try to limit reading, studying, and media as much as possible. In essence, I am trying to do all the right things. Yet, the process of healing has been incredibly difficult, frustrating, and seemingly slow - especially considering the fact that I have never had a concussion before.

The last couple of days, however, have felt different to me. I don't know if it's my mind playing tricks on me or what, but I have started to believe somehow that I am getting better. My headaches have been lighter than usual but this has certainly happened before (I had a few days in January in particular where I felt good as new and thought I was on the road to recovery, only to be hit with horrible headaches soon after). I am certainly not symptom free, my left eye aches as I type this as a matter of fact, but something inside me wants to believe that this is finally turning around.

I know I am rambling here, but I guess what I wanted to ask is - for those of you who perhaps have cases similar to mine, who have suffered a first-time concussion or a case of PCS - how did you know when you were getting better? At what point did you begin to proceed with your normal life? My doctors tell me, for instance, that the pain around my left eye may be something that will remain with me permanently. If I don't know whether the headaches/symptoms I am experiencing now will ever fully go away...at what point would you think it's smarter to resume my life activities and assume that I've healed as much as I'm going to? It has been almost 5 months now since I hit my head and I know from lurking on this site that people with PCS have suffered for shorter and longer times but the general consensus is a 4-6 month healing process, which I am nearing the end of. I guess what I'm looking for is any reassurance/guidance/(God willing!) success stories that anyone in a situation similar to mine can share. Thank you all so much for your time, I apologize for such a rambling post