Contact Sports Post PCS!
 

This is my first thread. A bit about me:

I am 26 years old. About 2 months ago, I suffered from a stomach bug, which left me very dehydrated (my own fault for not watching my fluid intake.) I got up to use the bathroom one night, and passed out. I banged my head quite hard, and about a week later, after stomach bug had cleared, I was diagnosed with PCS. I was having the usual problems: headaches, diziness, lack of concentration, mood swing, lack of sleep... and for some reason, lack of appetite!!!

Anyways, 2 months on I am slowly but surely getting it back together. After 2 weeks after the PCS I went back to work, but 3 weeks after that I got a cold and was back to square 1!!!

I am off again and am waiting to hear about an MRI. I am part of the NHS (UK free health system), so I had to wait a long time to get an MRI!

Anyways, pre-accident, I was involved with martial arts. I was doing Taijiquan (aka Tai Chi) and a grappling martial art.

Has anyone else been able to return to full contact sports after suffering from PCS? If so, has it caused any further problems for you?

Thanks for any help. This is a great online community you guys have here!!!

Hello,
I like to post these chiropractic info links for info whenever someone posts about a head hit or sports injury.
Mainly because I found a really good chiro and he has helped me often with my problem. {RSI/TOS/ myofascial pain}

Chiropractic care info- a good one can help with many symptoms:
http://www.upcspine.com/self.htm
http://www.uppercervical.org/subpag...b/about_faq.php
http://www.spineuniverse.com/index.html
http://www.coloradochiropractic.org/.../glossary.html

My son suffers from PCS brought on by a third concussion during football.:(
His last neuro psych test showed improvement to normal. Yay! He
will be unable to return to football or lacrosse. He is very unhappy and
thinks the doc and I should sign the papers for him to play. Unfortunately,
I am worried about his future and its not happening.:(

I think they take this on a case by case basis. I hope you will be
able to continue the sport you love after you have healed. good luck.

Hi there and welcome. I am 11 months post concussion and almost back to 100% with my physical activity. What I want to tell you though, is that it probably would have been a lot sooner had I taken things on in very gradual increments. Instead, I'd start to feel better and then go for it. Of course, I'd end up back at square 1. And I did this repetitively...over and over thinking that the NEXT time it would be okay. So, I finally had a physiotherapist with experience in brain injury help me to develop a workout program and I'm doing well. I don't do contact sports mind you, but it is high level volleyball, so lots of jumping, hitting, going to the ground.

Take it slow and easy would be my advice and get checked out before you restart your martial arts.

MargN

Thanks everyone, that is really helpful! I think the advice about taking it easy is very important. I am lucky in that my grappling coach is a doctor too, so he will hopefully be able to keep me right!

The links re chiro are really interesting. I have read a lot about people with PCS who went down that route and some folks say it changed their lives. It is something I will look in to more.

I understand your concern for your son. At the end of the day (and this is what I am thinking about too) there are lots of ways to keep active without doing full contact sports. I have some important decisions to make. Thanks for the input folks, it is helping me make those decisions!

Prior to my concussion, I was active in full-contact martial arts. There's not a chance I'll go back to it, though, even if I heal completely. The possibility of getting another concussion is too frightening. I'm even questioning going back to rock climbing, as there were a few times I hit my head...

I was thinking about this myself. I think that if I do return to martial arts, it will be to low contact arts e.g. Taijiquan, Aikido etc.... I actually found Taiji to help my recovery. Certainly it helps when I have a headache, for example.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be doing hard physical exercise once you are recovered but getting another concussion would mean another more severe bout of PCS and the possibility of permanent problems caused by cumulative effects. Is that a risk you wanna take?

To be honest, no it isn't. I enjoyed grappling. It was fun and an excellent form of excercise, but there are less risky ways to keep active, even within martial arts.

Thanks again everyone for your input. It has defintely helped me reach a decision with this. It just isn't worth the risk I think, so I will leave others to it! :winky:

Please be very careful returning to sports too soon. You do not want to get another concussion before you are completely healed.
Good luck!

Read this. I think I have PCS because I returned to too hard excercise too early. Didnt hit my head again but the respons from my body (head) was like a full on TBI (even do it was just overdoing it, to early in the recovery progress (5 days)). This article is very interesting and shows that you are not "healed" when you feel like you are.

Ahh ..I cant post adresses it seems!! Ill send someone to post in the thread for me!
* article link in next post *

the info link from rydellen

[Sports Activity After a Concussion Slows Recovery
Student athletes who return to sports quickly after a concussion appear to have a slower brain recovery than teens who stay off the field longer, a new study shows.

The report, from The Journal of Athletic Training, suggests that athletes who suffer from even mild concussions should slow down their return to the sports field. In fact, students with less severe injuries appeared to be those who return to sports the fastest. But resuming intense physical activity appeared to slow their recovery and even exacerbated their symptoms.

“By continuing with high levels of activity, they began to exhibit similar symptoms to those who initially experienced a more severe concussion,” said Jason P. Mihalik, an athletic trainer from the University of North Carolina and an author of the study. ]
more-
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/0...lows-recovery/

did it setme back??
 

yea im a professional wrestler as in the WWE kind im not at WWE but you get my point that kind of wrestling after my symptoms would leave i would get back in the ring and boom here they came my question is and it may be a dumb one ''but'' did that obviously prolong and setback my symptoms????

I would think so. {see my chripractic links in earlier post}
I watch WWE sometimes and i just cringe when they take some of those head & neck hits. Especially when they had a bad injury once already.
I suppose that's the only thing some of them know , but I wonder what shape they will be in when they are 40s and older.

Exercise
 

HI, I get the bad headaches even after walking quickly for too long - like say anything over 5 km at a failry quick pace - headaches that bad that I vomit and end up having to injections to stop the pain. It has happened 3x time so I guess it is my brain telling me what my limit is. Don't forget that this is 7 years post initial injury.

My doctor has told me not even to consider running - I know that the jerkiness of running will just bring on the headaches.

I am ok at the gym on treadmill, bike and cross trainer and gentle stretching and resisitance exercises with a time limit and taking care not to have my head down for too long.

Lynlee

Dont do any full contact sport you will just re injure yourself.

Was taking Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which pretty much helped me to realize that my participation in contact sports is officially over.

It was causing a lot of dizzy episodes and PCS symptoms (which linger to this day).

So I would say: If you aren't getting paid to be a fighter, take up a new hobby. Knitting is lots of fun you know!? -_-

I got my injury doing Krav Maga when I took an elbow to the temple and a knee to the face. I wish I had been wearing headgear.

Anyway, if you do go back to it, be forewarned that getting another concussion could leave you with permanent problems. So at a minimum, make sure you always wear head gear.