Will this really take a year to get better?
 

This is my first posting of a new thread, so I'm hoping I am doing it right. It's taken me several sessions to write this as I can only work for a short bit at a time. I'll explain everything that happened to me....my main question is when does this all go away? Will it really take a whole year? I'm so over it and ready to move on with my life. I'm an active work all day- activities every evening and every weekend person...and it's all come to a complete halt!

Does laying flat help everyone? (My aunt is an RN and suspects a CSF leak because laying flat alleviates my symptoms)...Doc said it's possible, but hard to test and hard to treat.

I've had several concussion and they weren't like this at all. I can shake off concussions. I was hospitalized when I was 4 and was unconscious for several hours....and I fully recovered. Thrown off a horse at 8, concussion, and fully recovered. Large heavy box fell out of attic onto my head at 18, concussion, and fully recovered. Car accident at 21, concussion, and fully recovered. Wakeboarding accident at 35, concussion, and fully recovered (Puking and headache lasted a little longer than the others). I was raised that you "Suck it up" and get on. Thus, I was able to do all these times.

Now....40.....someone got behind my heels....fell over them backwards....landed on the back of my head on a concrete floor. Out for a bit...come to confused...difficulty walking and talking, but whatever- I'm fine. Friends call husband who takes me to ER....ER says concussion, follow up with Primary Care Doctor. No big deal. In bed, puking starts through the night and the next morning...go to primary care. Neurological tests not so good....can't pinch right fingers together, problems with speech and gait, confusion, headache, nausea, vommitted in doctor office, blurry vision, dizziness. Doc says should go away in a couple weeks.

A couple weeks?? I shrug these things off in a couple days. Tried painkillers, amitriptiline prescribed....all meds make me sicker and dizzier...side effects not worth it. Laying flat and advil help. Went back to doc 2 weeks later, insisted on going back to work. Yes all symptoms are still there, but I'm not puking any more and I can pinch my fingers, so let me get on with life. At work- holding onto walls to walk. Every light hurts, every sound hurts, every conversation hurts...soon co-worker says somehting's wrong....slurring speech, can't walk, don't remember names of relatives to call. Can't remember what street I live on when they drive me home.

Back to doc. Doc says yes something's wrong- you've had a brain injury. Diagnosed with post Concussive syndrom. Doc orders MRI- shows "leisions in white matter that may be related to brain truama"...Doc tries to get me to in patient facility for brain injury. They say no because it's not severe injury.

Friend is chiropractor- adjusts neck and brings me fish oil (1,000 DHA, 500 EPA), B-complex (50 mg Thiamine, 50 mg Riboflavin, 50 mg Niacin, 25 mg B-6, 165 mcg Folate, 50 mcg B-12, 50 mcg Biotin, 50 mg Pantothenic Acid, 49 mg Choline), 4,000IU D3, and Curcumin with bioperine.

Nerologist referall 2 months after fall. Still haven't been able to leave house due to overstimulation. Everything makes symptoms worse, sounds, lights, conversation, thinking, standing up.....having overstimulation issues, headache, dizziness, nausea, blurry vision, ear pain and pressure, neck pain, short term memory loss, confusion, insomnia, inability to multi task, slow processing and talking. Neurologist spends 10 minutes with me- said he didn't have time to look over medical records or read daily journal, but has treated concussion many times, even for football players and knows exactly what I need. All symptoms due to anxiety and magic pill called Cymbalta will make all symtoms go away and I'll be healed in 6 months. If I don't take Cymbalta, it will heal but more like one year. Sends referrral for Physical Therapy for upper neck injury, Cognitive Therapy, Neuro-Psychologist, Neur-Opthomologist. Cymbalta makes me worse feeling- like I was on chemo....or how people describe chemo....achy, didn't care to get out of bed, dizzy. Stop taking Cymbalta.

We are now 4 months out....

Neuro-ophthamologist confirms blurry vision- all other tests okay. Currently making me temporary glasses for the blurry vision with a rose colored tint for the light sensitivity. Says blurry vision will go away in 6-12 months when brain heals.

Neuro-pscyhologist test test validity "normal effort", Overall low-average range 13th percentile. WHAT????? I have a master's degree and had straight A's all through high school, college, and graduate school!!!!!!!! Working memory "Severely Impaired range". Average range for auditory comprehension, NAB Memory test moderately impaired range 4th percentile. Visual Spacial and Executive Functions average.

Physical Therapy twice a week for upper neck issues. Exercises daily.

Cognitive therapy test results impaired range 21/30 on the MoCA. Cognitive therapy twice a week.

Besides the vitamins, I do my neck exercises, light yoga stretches, and am up to walking 1/4 mile a day on the treadmill in 10 minutes (before symptoms get too bad and I can't go on), I sleep 7 hours a night. With melatonin, I can sleep 8 hours, but it gives me a headache. I have always eaten Paleo and am trying to switch to Keto.

Yes, I've seen small improvements, but not like I can go back to work and back to my life....URG!!!

So- does this really take a year to get better? I want my life back!!! I can't leave the house or my brain shuts down and I have difficulty walking, talking, processing, headache, nausea, dizziness. I go to appointments and that's all and even that takes everything out of me and I have to rest. Is there anything else I can be doing? This WILL ALL go away, RIGHT??????

I think others like Mark in idaho will give you some better and more detailed/informative advice but I can tell you that brain injuries, especially after you already had a few, are serious and can take a while to recover from.

You can't rush your recovery, you'll feel better when you feel better but in the meantime all you can do is focus on doing things that help your brain, alleviate your symptoms and that make you feel better. There's no timeline on this type of thing, even a doctor can't tell you.

Being anxious and overthinking things is just gonna be bad for your recovery because they put additional stress on your brain and slows down recovery and exacerbates symptoms. Brain injuries are not something you can just brush off. It's best to just relax, keep a positive mindset and focus on what you can control and what makes you feel better. Trust me, I learned the hard way.

Hope that helps a bit and hope you get better.

Think baby steps for activities, stop as soon as symptoms increase, better yet learn to stop before symptoms increase..

Some medical pros are better than others.. if you feel a lack of improvement might be worth trying another provider.. PTs and MDs..

CSF leak - we have a sub forum with more info on that -
https://www.neurotalk.org/forum78/

LMLS,

Thanks for your hard work to put this together. You did great.

Nobody can predict a timeline of recovery. Every concussion is different. The challenge you have is 2 or 3 fold. First, you have Multiple Impact Syndrome. Each concussion robs the brain of a bit of its ability to recover. You may have sensed you recovered fully but you likely had residual deficits that did not manifest until you were under stress. After each concussion, your tolerance for stress was reduced. One concussion expert complains that most doctors fail to recognize the impact past concussions have and encouraged others to properly document past concussions in medical records for future consideration.

This one issue is important to me because I have a history of 14 concussions. One severe at 10 years old, 4 serious concussions, and 9 mild concussions. My last concussion was a mild concussion but it changed my life the most.

Second, you have a rear of head concussion. They are very tough. They include a neck injury that is very difficult and time consuming to recover from.

Third, you are used to a very busy and productive life with high expectations. You sound like an intelligent Type A personality. This adds a stress component that magnifies everything.

An additional factor is your age. The brain becomes less tolerant to injury as we age, especially as we enter the 40s.

I understand your NPA scales. My visual memory is at the 5% level. My auditory memory is at the 12% level. My processing speed is at 10%. My intelligence scales range for 88 to 99th percentile.

In school I was also high honors even though I had an academic crash and seizure disorder my sophomore year due to a mild concussion from soccer.

My neuro said he had never seen a brain that was so dysfunctional. He was amazed that I could accomplish so much. He attributed it to using intelligence to work around my memory and processing dysfunctions. It takes work but we can learn to move on with our limitations.

I had the same over-stimulation problems early on. I could not endure a grocery store. I would freeze in congested traffic. Sounds were a horrendous problem. The self doubt about whether my struggles were real or imagined only made things worse.

The B-50 complex is good. You should add 1000 to 2000 mcgs of methylcobalamin B-12. All of the anti-oxidants are important to help your brain with oxidative stress. C and E are most important.
It takes a lot of curcumin to get a benefit. Many curcumin formulations have the right bioperine but not enough concentrated curcumin. Even with bioperine, the gut does not absorb much curcumin.

I would encourage you to look into anti-inflammatory diets. The keto diet has a lot of anti-inflammatory value. I think that is its primary value, not the ketosis since few ever enter ketosis.

My biggest concern is how your neck is being treated. The subtle neck injuries that are part of concussion, especially backward falls, require very gentle treatment and disciplined posture discipline. Most chiros are too aggressive. The range of motion efforts of PTs can be just as challenging.

Do you by chance have presbyopia requiring multi focal glasses? The neck extension needed while looking for the right part of the lens can be a challenge.

Have you been assessed by a behavioral optometrist? They are different than a neuro ophthalmologist. Proper visual function aids vestibular function. NORA.cc has a good database. Acuity (focus) is different that visual coordination and convergence issues.

Your quality of sleep is more important than the amount of sleep. Many try to sleep longer than the brain wants and that can actually have a detrimental effect. Breathing can be impacted by upper neck injuries. Do you dream pleasant dreams or stressful dreams?

Rather than taking melatonin, you could try 5-HTP. It is a precursor to serotonin and melatonin and the combination can help the mind settle down. I take 100 mgs every morning as a replacement for an SSRI. The brain knows what to do with 5-HTP. It usually gets it from L-Tryptophan. My doctor is in support of my use of 5-HTP. It can quickly help you with anxiety related symptoms. Do not take it with Cymbalta ( I relalize you stopped). Many take up to 500 mgs. I take enough to feel relief.

The lesions in the white matter can relate to your struggles with over-stimulation. This issue is not fully understood. This is a sign of your anxiety. BUT, your anxiety is not causing your symptoms. Your anxiety is a symptom of your physiological injury. Reducing those stimulation triggers is important. Foam ear plugs, tinted lenses, changes in environment, and such can be helpful. Yes, I realize there is only so much you can shut down in your life.

Your aunt's CSF leak issue is interesting. A spinal tap/lumbar puncture to measure pressure can sometimes indicate a problem. Some have an over-pressure issue that the spinal tap resolves immediately but returns over time.

I think the laying flat may indicate a neck injury that likes the lay flat posture. I have personal experience with this. When I am in my best posture, I sleep and wake up feeling alive. In the early days, poor neck posture would cause malaise and depressed pulse and BP and even suppress my breathing.

btw, I often get my best sleep in a recliner or laying flat. I use a very thin pillow but curl it around my ears so my head does not roll to the side. We figured this out when my wife noticed my facial expression being different with different sleeping postures. She could tell when I was going to have a good or bad day.

Where do you live? There may be some specialists in your area.

I'm sorry for giving you a fire hose of information. I suggest you print this out so you can read it at your leisure without the glare of a computer screen. You can even paste into Word so you can use larger fonts.

I have even more to tell you but......

My best to you.

Do you expanding on some of the concepts?

How does one know when they are dealing with multiple impact syndrome and how many concussive impacts does it take for someone to arrive at that point?

What is over stimulation and is it harmful for the brain or does it simply cause a surge in symptoms?

This is the first I've ever heard of lesions in the white matter of the brain. What are these and what are the implications around them?

Just trying to expand my knowledge on the topic of brain injuries...

BenW,

It is very difficult to scroll through posts that use the Reply button on the bottom right that quotes the entire post. The Post Reply button on the bottom left does not quote the previous post. It makes it much easier to scroll.

There is not a magic number for Multiple Impact Syndrome. It is more an accumulation of severe concussions over time that lead to the severe symptoms people like LMLS and I have. LMLS has quite a history of serious concussions. MIS also can have the more severe symptoms like serious memory dysfunctions and such like LMLS indicated.

Ben, Your concussion history and current symptoms do not sound anything like LMLS or mine.

The white matter lesions are imaged with Diffusion Tensored Imaging MRIs. They are just indicators of dysfunction. If they are what I have read about, they are not really lesions as much as they are areas where fluid flow is different than expected. As I said, not much more is understood yet besides the white matter signal being concurrent with anxiety and over-stimulation intolerance.

Over-stimulation just triggers symptoms such as fight, flight, or freeze.

Ben, You need to stop looking for issues that you can exaggerate and use to scare yourself. These issues do not have much application in your case. You risk creating a condition called cyberchondria. This is when a person reads about scary symptoms and becomes obsessed with the thought they have ever symptom mentioned. You should not be trying to expand your knowledge until you have recovered from both your PCS symptoms and your anxiety.

Do you know the old Indian story of the two wolves? Which wolf are you going to feed? The anxiety wolf or the getting better wolf. Google it.

Thank you Mark, this is helpful.

I struggle with overstimulation. Depending on the environment, it feels like my brain can’t process everything and it hurts. Some days I do better than others, but I haven’t sorted out why.

I have one white matter lesion. I also struggle with heightened anxiety. I’ve been told that mindfulness meditation can help strengthen the prefrontal cortex and reduce the size of the amygdala and thus reduce anxiety associated with a brain injury. I’ve been trying the headspace app for meditation.

Mark- have you heard if the overstimulation sensation can improve with time? I feel like I’ve stagnated with that even though I continue to expose myself to things that bother me. What’s your opinion on meditation? If meditation can reduce anxiety could that also reduce the overstimulation feeling? If you’ve posted answers to those questions before, please disregard me.

TomAce,

The first thing to do is stop looking at everything as black and white. The science is just observations, not solutions. There are plenty of studies that point to a single issue like mindfulness meditation and changes they claim result from it. But, do those imageable changes cause improvements? Everything is in shades of grey. We do best when we listen to our bodies.

Moderating stimulus can make a difference. Changing the intensity of how we take on life can make a big difference. Those who are intent on understanding every detail tend to be the people who have the most struggle with anxiety. Letting go of this need to have control over the details is important.

Over-stimulation comes from damage to parts of the brain that filter out extraneous stimulation. Those stimulations are always there. The brain lets them through without the normal filtering process.

Some believe this white matter and similar issues are the result of a break down of the blood brain barrier. This needs proper nutritional support and a reduction of stimulation to give the brain a break with less stress.

Think of it this way. It you injure a joint, you can splint and protect that joint and let it heal before starting a rehab program. Or, you can limp along for months and years because you never allowed the joint to heal.

My orthopedist, after scoping my knee and finding nothing wrong to fix but I improved anyway explained it this way. The scoping trauma caused me to give my knee a break for a month. This low stress recovery period allowed the unfound injury to heal.

We need to reduce our exposure to stimulation so our brains can get the break from stress so healing can happen.

I believe mindfulness meditation works because it becomes a disciplined time of giving the brain a break. Other relaxation systems can be just as beneficial. I changed how I was subjecting my brain to stimulation. Short periods were followed by quiet. I even rested up prior to planned stimulating events.

What people fail to understand is that these over-stimulation events are hard on healthy brains. The brain is not designed to tolerate such stimulation. People subject themselves to some of these over stimulations as a form of self-medicating. It triggers chemistry (dopamine and adrenaline, etc). Over time, this over-stimulation can lead to fatigue, anxiety, depression and more.

There should not be a goal of improving multi-tasking tolerance. Multi-tasking is stressful and harmful to the brain. Trying to do a cognitive task while being stimulated by sound, sight, feel, smell or other is multi-tasking.

The skill worth learning is Stop to think. That means stop the stimulations so you can think.

Listen to your body. Give it a break.

BenW and Mark,

My understanding about DTI scans is that the very mechanism that they use is what makes it difficult to be precise about the details about a white matter lesion. As the DTI scan measures water molecules travelling along axons (correct me if I'm wrong), doctors can't specify what's going on where the fluid flow is disrupted/different from other parts of the brain. It could be that axons are damaged to the extent that signals can't be transferred over them, it could be that axons are twisted and thus are malfunctioning. Either way, it's a neural traffic jam due to (axonal) road work of some kind. You don't know what's wrong with the road, you just know that things aren't moving forward in your lane.


LMLS,

I'm really sorry to hear about your situation. In my experience, getting better comes parallell to learning more about how one's symptoms manifest themselves. Managing symptoms is key both for being able to go by from day to day and for getting better.

Reading about how you've lived what seems to be a very, very active life made me think of something: I've come to realize that before I hit my head against the ceiling, I was living in a way that was unhealthy in regards to how I was treating myself mentally. Thought patterns of insecurity and very high demands on myself triggered anxiety which in turn triggered pretty severe symptoms. I try to be more chill about things and therapy + meditation seem to be helping with managing anxiety. I'm not at all saying that you necessarily are weighed down by unhealthy thought patterns just because you've been living an active life, just that trying to chill out can be helpful when trying to overcome cognitive symptoms. There are no shortcuts. The physical recovery part can't be helped much by therapy or meditation, but you seem to be on the right track with your supplements.

People on these forums tend to be very helpful and they have helped me out a lot. 11 months after my injury, I'm back in university and I'm able to meet friends at noisy bars for over an hour now. I'm reminded of my symptoms very rarely these days. Things will get better than they are right now. Hang in there and take care.

smutsik,

From what I have read about DTI is it just shows an increase in fluid flow compared to the normal. The science has not yet defined why that increased flow exists other than to observe that is coincides with an injury and/or anxiety/depression. Whether it is axon related, myelin related, inflammation, edema, or ischemia, nobody appear to know yet. Damaged myelin is as problematic as damaged axons. Axons have greater healing potential than myelin. Folic acid, B-12 and such help with myelin healing. The other issues disrupt normal function.

If you want to fry your brain trying to understand DTI, here is a good article.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Brain

Increased fluid flow in the area where it looks like there is a lesion? I seem to have my facts backwards, this sounds really interesting.

Axons having greater healing potential than myelin? Cool, I'd love to read more about this. Is it covered in the article you linked? I haven't read much about continual myelinization at all (at least regarding the concept as a part of rehabilitation), just some vague points about what kind of fats are beneficial for the process in general. Are myelin sheaths thought to be damaged in traumatic brain injury?

Thanks for the article, I'll look into it tomorrow.

The myelin sheath heals/grows very slowly. It does not close open gaps well. Nerve fibers will grow/heal looking to reconnect with the other side of a break.

Multiple Sclerosis is mainly a auto-immune disease of the myelin. That is why it is so deadly. Remove the insulation and the nerve signals short out.

When nerve reconnect surgery is done, they just have to connect the sheath. The nerve fiber will grow along the sheath.

Vitamin therapy is helpful with the myelin. Omega 3 fatty acids are for the nerve fibers.

Mark,

I appreciate the reply. I really liked the knee scope analogy.

I don't think I really ever gave myself much of a break. I've been so concerned about getting back to what I was, that I continue to be active and expose myself to a lot of stimulation.

There is certainly something to be said for relaxing, taking a step back and not being so focused on the problem. I appreciate your insight.

Over the 9 years I have been on NT, I have witnessed dozens who spent a year or more pushing through their symptoms with a drive to get on with their lives. When they finally decide to slow down and give their brain a chance to heal, recovery starts. I've seen people waste 18 months of misery then slow down and recovery remarkably in 6 months or so.

I cannot thank everyone enough for all the thoughtful and helpful replies. Thank you so much! I have printed them off and spent time off and on reading them and re-reading them.

Ben- Thank you so much for your insight...this is so hard for me to think about relaxing and just letting the brain heal, as I've never relaxed my entire life- It's just not something we did or do....it's a complete lifestyle change, but I am going to work on learning how to relax.

Jo-Mar- Thank you for your insight. My cognitive therapist said for me to stop when I notice symptoms....I've just started doing that, but it's so hard as my personality is to push through. Thanks for the CSF leak link- I will check that out!

Mark- Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such a comprehensive reply!! I see why you are so highly respected and valued on this board. It sounds like our histories have a lot in common. I will look into the methylcobalamin B-12 and try to get some ordered. I forgot to mention I also take Magnesium Citrate before bed ...it's called "Calm". The Curcumin is by Bio Schwartz, it has 1350 mg of Tumeric (Curcumma Longa root), 150 mg of Tumeric Extract (95% standardized curcuminoids) and 10 mg Black Pepper fruit extract (bioperine). Is that a good one or is there a better one I could order?

I will look into some anti-inflammatory diets. The hardest part about Keto for me is the fruit, as I've always been a big variety of fruit eater. I only eat Meat, fruits, and vegetables.

For my neck, I don't know what posture discipline is. I know my neck feels best when it's positioned straight forward. I lay down a lot to alleviate symptoms, but any way that I lay hurts my neck more. I have a soft, flat, down, feather pillow and the best way I've found is to "mold" the feathers to stabilize my neck. I have to do this whether I am on my back or my side. I have never been a back sleeper before, but my neck feels best when I"m on my back. My chiropractor is very gentle .....more like an osteopath and just barely pushes. The physical therapist, however, got a little aggressive one day a couple weeks ago and the neck pain was unbearable for 4 days. Once I told him about it, he said he wouldn't manually stretch it sideways and up like that any more. When he stretches it straight I'm okay and then a gentle massage I'm okay. I have to wear sunglasses and ear plugs in their office- I have to go to a quiet dark room when I get there and my therapy takes place in the quiet dark room. Even that, overstimulates me.

I have never heard of presbyopia, so I looked it up....I have never had vision problems and have never warn glasses. All vision tests have been 20/20 my whole life until now.

I have never heard of a behavioral optometrist. I will see if my PCP will refer me to one.

As for sleep- I've been an excellent sleeper my whole life....and despite our active lifestyle I've always gotten 8-9 hours of solid sleep and have always had vivid dreams that I remember every single detail when I wake up. After this head impact, my sleeping would be- sleep 4 hours wake up 2 hours sleep 2 hours...then I went to being able to sleep one additional hour....then I went to 5 hours without waking...now I'm up to the 7 hours without waking most nights. Some nights I still wake up at 2am and am awake for an hour or so. For the first month and a half, I had no dreams...or at least didn't remember them- which was the first time in my life to experience that (I can still recall many childhood dreams even). When I finally started dreaming, it was only about going back to work...I'd sneak into the office so no one would see me, I'd crawl, I'd get there in the middle of the night, I'd walk to the office, ride bikes, steal vehicles to get there. Now- I have a few more mellow dreams- nothing stressful at all, but I still dream about going back to work at least once a night (one dream I even drilled a hole in the side of the office and stole my co-workers).

I will look into the 5-HTP, it sounds worth trying and might even settle me a bit.

Part of the problem is that I live in a tiny, tiny town in the middle of no-where....closest neurologist is a 4 hour drive, closest neuro-opthamologist and neuropsychologist is an 8 hour drive. I'm sure the behavioral optometrist is 4-8 hours away as well. These drives have about killed me. I don't drive, but just being a passenger has been overly demanding on my senses. Your reply to Tom on multi-tasking and constant overstimulation is my former life in a nutshell. Won awards at work for my multitasking ability...literately an activity every night and weekend beyond work. Never thought about how it was actually affecting me. On belief I personally have is that God has a plan for me...maybe his plan is to slow my butt down a bit! Mindfulness and Meditation are both things my cognitive therapist is teaching me about and having me practice daily. A whole new experience. One thing I forgot to mention and am not sure if it matters, is I have an auto-immune disease Hashimotos that has caused Hypothyroidism for which I take Compounded Thyroid medication daily. Again- thank you so much for your insightful and comprehensive reply Mark!

Tom- Thank you for your reply. Yes- it's like my brain just can't process everything, goes on overload, and shuts down. I have several lesions on my left side and one larger one on my right side. The doctors have told me it's nothing to worry about, so I don't.

Smutsik- Thank you for your reply. It's SO GREAT to hear that your symptoms rarely bother you 11 months out and that you have been able to resume your life! I can't wait for that day!! You are right about holding myself to perfection and being so overly-active and demanding of myself....that is...was...so me! Maybe it's good that I'm learning a new way...learning to chill out.

You are all so helpful! Thank you!

Mark,
I forgot to mention-the neck exercises I’m supposed to do everyday are mild but cause more neck pain and vertigo. I push through thinking that’s it’s the only way to heal my neck. I’ve learned to do them less strenuously, and that does help. And PT said I’m presenting with typical whiplash....

LMLS,

First, your supplements. The Turmeric is very low dose. The turmeric has only 4 or 5% curcumin so you are only getting 200 mgs total of curcumin. Twice that 3 times a day should be a starting level. I use the VitaCost house brand. It is all curcumin extract https://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-ro...ng-60-capsules Sign up for the VitaCost email ads and they will tell you when they have it on sale. Buy one, get one for 50% is quite common. Start an order in the online cart, leave it uncompleted and they will email you a 10% discount to finalize your order. I like the NOW B-12 1000 mcgs lozenges. Vitacost also has a good 5-HTP. I start my day with 1000 mcgs of B-12, 100 mgs of 5-HTP and 200 mgs of L-Theanine. My osteopath thinks this is a good morning start.

Posture discipline is limiting the odd and stretched neck positions, especially when sleeping or napping. A position where you head is looking straight forward is best. I am not a believer in range of motion exercises until the neck is stable. C-0 to C-2 do not self align like the lower vertebra do. No facets to slide back into alignment.

The whiplash of your fall likely strained and stretched the ligaments that hold C-1 in alignment with C-0 (occiput/skull base). C-1 to C-2 also. Any strain to these joints can cause inflammation that can interrupt blood flow to the brain and brain stem, reduce nerve function, and reduce the autonomic nervous systems proper function.

My off hand opinion is most of your problem comes from this area and the blood flow problems it can cause.

Learning to sleep on your back will be good. My best nights, I fall asleep on my back and wake up in the same position. This takes effort to find the right combination of factors that allow you to sleep like that. You should not be going to bed until you are ready to fall asleep within a few minutes. This way, you can fall asleep in a good posture. I did a lot of sleeping in a recliner when I was still learning how to sleep on my back. I could sleep 2 hours in my recliner and get more benefit than an all night effort in bed.

All my PT did was gentle traction with some light mobilization and manipulation. Rocking my head gently and manipulating the cervical vertebra. She would massage and use trigger point/myofacial release to relax the neck muscles first. No painful joint movements. Some chiros are trained in Active Release Therapy or Specific Release Therapy. It sounds similar to what my PT does.

You have more than typical whiplash. The skull stopped moving at the floor while the cervical vertebra continued to try to move toward the floor. This causes C-1 to try to slip to the back of the skull. Typical whiplash is mostly just a hyper-extension of the joints.

I would call your dreams bizarre and stressful. The need to get into the office is your mind under stress. Likely a result of poor blood flow or poor oxygenation or both.

Blood sugar issues can impact sleep. Many of us have to feed our brains to get a continuous night of sleep. If you are waking up 5 to 7 hours after your last meal, you brain could be hungry/lacking glucose. Eating a complex carb or fat and protein or other slow to digest snack before bed may help. 200 calories usually is all I need. Cheese and crackers, peanut butter and crackers, a piece of sliced turkey with cheese, and such help me sleep longer.

My injury caused me to slow down and also to be more aware of others who I previously discounted as lazy or lacking direction. Understanding mental processing struggles from the inside has given me a better perspective on how others function. I am now somewhat intolerant of impatient and overly driven people. Slow down, get and life and enjoy it. I know God has allowed me to impact a few lives because of my struggles. My signature "Be still...." refers to Stop striving and listen to/for God.

What big nowhere do you live in the middle of? If you have to drive so far, maybe I can help you find better help in one of those distant cities.

The Hashimoto's could cause some metabolic challenges as your metabolism may cycle through the day as your synthetic thyroid meds rise and fall. I'm just wondering....

Please consider the 5-HTP. It is fast acting if your brain is serotonin and melatonin deficient. No side effects unless you take a large dose for an extended period. I can explain those later if needed.

My best to you.

Mark- thank you so much for sharing that link and the cost saving details! I will order the supplements today, including the 5HTP. I will work on being more aware of my posture. The blood flow thing makes a lot of sense....especially because when the PT does his mild straight stretch and massage- it's so weird, but I swear I feel more blood flow going into my brain....so, you know when you push down on the vein in your wrist and then your hand starts to feel funny from lack of blood flow? Then you let go! That Let Go feeling is how my head feels for a good couple hours after the PT is finished with my neck!

I can't sleep in a recliner at all- as it's not flat enough to alleviate my symptoms, but I am going to work on trying to sleep on my back. I found if I wrap my feather pillow around my ears and then under my neck and kind of "mold it" my neck feels best. I will try some protein before going to bed each night- thank you for that suggestion. It didn't help last night, but I woke up in pain...not from just waking up.

I forgot to mention the xray of my neck showed degenerative disc disease in my neck and lower back. Doc said not to worry about that as most people have it too and don't know it and that it doesn't matter. My lower back has been killing me off and on these past couple weeks and I think it's from all the laying down. I've always been able to walk a lot and do exercises to keep my tummy muscles strong. I had a slipped disk and scoliosis as a child, had to be in a back brace for a couple years, but since then have maintained tummy muscles until now. I can still lay flat and push my tummy muscles to the floor to help, but I can't do any crunches or situps like I used to due to my neck. UGH!!

This here that you said is terrific. "My injury caused me to slow down and also to be more aware of others who I previously discounted as lazy or lacking direction. Understanding mental processing struggles from the inside has given me a better perspective on how others function. I am now somewhat intolerant of impatient and overly driven people. Slow down, get and life and enjoy it. I know God has allowed me to impact a few lives because of my struggles. My signature "Be still...." refers to Stop striving and listen to/for God."

I too have SO MUCH more awareness and empathy for people that I used to write off as "lazy" or "just not trying hard enough". I now know what it feels like to struggle cognitively....never knew that feeling in my life. Every time since this has happened that I pray- I get the STRONGEST feeling of a voice "This is my plan for you- trust me...you'll see".....only thing that has kept me from going crazy.

LMLS,

I had an accident involving my head 4 years ago.

PCS changed my whole world big time, it's a long story.

Be patient with your recovery, PCS has its own timeline and progress can be difficult to assess, it's not like a broken bone or a cut. I think with all certainty I can say I'm better off in many ways today than prior to my accident, character, determination and patience are necessary and achievable.

Bud

Thank you so much Bud, for the encouragement! It’s reassuring to know that even though it changed your life drastically, you feel you are better off in ways. I can say, I am less stressed in ways (no one in the outside world is placing demands or expectations on me), and with the isolation, I haven’t been sick at all. There’s some positives! Thanks for helping me look at the bright side....and I’ll try to be more patient. My best wishes to you and continued recovery.