Update...worth a quick read, might help you
 

Hi everyone,

As some of you know, I've posted a little while ago that my PCS symptoms returning lately. For those of you who haven't read my posts, here's a quick recap:

- first concussion boxing 1.5 years ago. Second minor concussion playing hockey about 9 months after the first.
- have stopped boxing, hockey, all contact sports etc, and have been healing well, but have been dealing with nagging neck issues. Stiffness, cracking, HORRIBLE tension-like headaches when I overdo it at the gym and my neck gets bad.
- stopped all overhead exercises, seemed to help my neck
- recently (12 weeks ago) started running outside again. Symptoms of dizziness, malaise, and muscle weakness have progressively gotten worse since then. The weakness feeling, accompanied by a low level anxiety feeling is the absolute worse thing. Nobody could diagnose me. My doctor told me it was a "mono-like virus". CT, MRI, blood tests were all normal.

I was pretty much at the end of my rope. I would get better, then I would have days where I couldn't walk up the stairs. It was not a feeling I had experienced with my previous concussions. Those were more headaches, dizziness, fatigue. I could deal with that. This feeling was different. I never felt tired, but I was unable to do anything when it got back. I was EXTREMELY irritable. My wife was having a really hard time dealing with it.

I found a concussion/sports rehab clinic in my area last week and thought I would give it a try. So I went to the clinic and told the therapist (who was also the owner) my whole history. Right away he pulls out a book and shows me exactly whats wrong. Apparently with concussions, especially ones where you get hit on the side of the head (like the punch I took) and your head snaps to the side, the C1 vertebrae twists and gets stuck. There are 2 capillaries that run alongside the C1 that feed the brain with blood. These become tightened and bloodflow is restricted. Because my neck was never treated initially, I've never really been able to recover from my initial concussion. Which is why the second one happened so easily and why running has set off my symptoms again. He showed me my neck mobility to one side, which was fine, and then the other side my neck wouldnt move at all how it should have. We then corrected the turned vertebrae by holding my head at a certain angle and using my eye muscles (they control the small muscles attached to the C1 vertebrae....unbelievable) and my neck was immediately better. I felt REALLY woozy after, like I was drunk. He said its because the blood is flowing into the brain properly and my brain isnt used to it. It needs to learn how to regulate it. A few weeks ago, I actually went for a massage. The massage therapist focused on my neck the whole time. Afterwards, I could barely walk. I felt like I was HAMMERED. Apparently she had loosened things up in my neck and got the blood flowing properly as the athletic therapist did.

I was pretty much giggling during the appointment because I was so relieved someone was finally able to tell me what was wrong and how to fix it. I am slowly feeling better day by day, and he said I will recover completely eventually, as long as I ease back into exercise very slowly. Unbelievable. Apparently this guy sits on the Canadian national board for mild traumatic brain injury, and works with hockey canada a lot about concussions.

I just wanted to share my story with everyone and I sincerely hope this helps some of you with neck issues to understand what may be the problem. If anyone is in the Toronto area and would like to go to this clinic please let me know and I will provide details.

I am going back tomorrow for a follow up assessment. Will let everyone know if anything comes out of it.

Take care,

Bas

Wow congrats..thanks for taking the time and sharing. Good information

Good luck with your running,

Can you let me know who it is? Sounds interesting.

Wow! That's incredible... Good for you!

Wow Bas!

How exciting for you! I have a lot of dizziness along with the 'usual' PCS symptoms and I start Rehab on Wednesday. I will be sure to ask them about checking my neck.

.
 

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the kind words.

On Monday I felt like a normal, young, energetic man again for the first time in 3 months. I went back to the clinic and had some more massage work done on my neck. I was very dizzy and out of it that night, and am still feeling the effects a little bit today, but that happened last time, so I'm not too worried. I hope it just gets better from here on out.

For anyone interested, the clinic is called "Upper Canada Sports Medicine Clinic". The owner and head therapist is Drew Laskoski. He is fantastic. He is very involved in concussion research, and I feel that he is definitely a leader in the field. I strongly encourage anyone in the Toronto area to check it out. I don't think you will be disappointed.

Will provide updates myself, and I hope to post more on this board to help out others once I'm back to feeling like myself again :)

Take care,

Bas

Upper Canada Sports Medicine Clinic
Drew Laskoski
Address: 130 Davis Dr, Newmarket, ON L3Y 2N1
Phone: (905) 853-4220

Between your boxing concussion and hockey concussion, were you experiencing symptoms? I'm wondering whether I can have a neck issue.

Bas19. Thanks so much for your post. I also ate a left hook in sparring back in June. Going to get my neck checked out today. Again, thanks.

Where do I find good neck specialists?

This is remarkable. I'm having similar symptoms to what you describe and a lot of neck issues, especially when running. I'm having a hard time understanding what the doctor did to you. Could you please offer examples please? Is it something that a chiropractor could do? Or maybe even myself?

Thank you so much