Exercise and PCS
 

Does anyone have experience of developing an exercise regime when recovering from PCS?

Last month 5 lengths in the pool caused migraines and post concussion symptoms.

Recently on Saturday I was able to walk 2 miles, and yesterday walked 3 miles and did 12 pool lengths. Today I did 10 mins each on the treadmill (walking), crosstrainer and bike followed by 20 pool lengths. This has caused nothing more than a mild headache and earache. I want to push on without provoking my old symptoms. Is PCS recovery rapid when it starts or does it take time? I am being very cautious about exercise because of what has happened in the past, but am growing in confidence.

Mouse,

This is something I've been trying to figure out for the past 3 years. Everything that I have read, been advised upon, and more importantly tried on myself is "let thy body tell you when you are pushing to hard, and reduce intensity, exercise time, or both"

I'd say keep track of what you can do, and notice how and what causes you symptoms. Stay below that threshold for now, and every once in a while, extent time/intensity for a bit to see of the headache threshold is there or if some recovery is noticed. However you want to keep track of it, time, duration, heart rate, type of exercise.

I can really understand what you are experiencing with wanting to exercise but can't because of headaches. I thought my body and brain were going to simply be able to jump back into my typical routine of running 40+ mile weeks & training for triathlons. Nope. I was only able to muster walking for a short time, then was able to race walk without getting exertional migraines.

For me, early in recovery, headaches and PCS symptoms (cognitive fog mostly) happened within an hour or two, and now, sometimes it takes a day or longer. Swimming headaches used to cause a headache lasting 24 hours and road cycling for 90 minutes used to give me a headache lasting several days. This past week I did some swimming and didn't get but a sliver of a headache.

It doesn't take much to keep the body healthy, find what you can do and do as much as you can!

Good luck to you.

Mike :grouphug:

Yes swimming caused head pressure, and this led to 2 to 3 days of migraines, severe light and noise sensitivity and chronic fatigue. I am delighted that I can now do 20 lengths straight after being in the gym for 30 mins. I wouldn't contemplate running or jogging yet, but might increase the walking speed on the treadmill in a few days time. Caution is the order of the day and if I get any significant head pressure I will stop exercising. Hopefully in time I might get running again, I went on the bike and crosstrainer at some pace, so that's promising. Still only have a mild headache this evening as well!

I tried weeding for half an hour and three days later I am still suffering from the worst migraines I have had in almost 2 months! It just isn't worth it.
:(:mad:

Hi Mouse,

my routine is

-Physio treatment 1 per week
-Pilaties 2 per week
-Run 1 per week
-Swimming 2 per week
-Light weights 3 per week

I find that while I am exercising I have no symptoms and then there is a backash for a few hours afetr but thats it. I enjoy the exercise beacuse it helps with restufull sleep and releasing endorphins.

PCS Mikey,

I understand about stopping when you get headaches, but do you also stop when you feel yourself getting physically tired as well? I stepped it up a little today and did 20 minutes on the crosstrainer at pace and 10 minutes speed walking on the treadmill, but by the time I did 8 lengths in the pool was very tired so stopped exercising.

Think I might have over done it! Had headache yesterday and increased ear ache and noise sensitivity, jaw and teeth pain and slightly increased light sensitivity. Too much too soon, but don't feel so bad today and I didn't require migraine medication. It worried me because I thought I might have set the PCS off again.

mouse,

Bummer on the headache. I've often wondered if I did more damage than simply bringing on a headache during some exercise workouts. But if I back off for a few days or so, or if I take some Naratriptan, the headache will resolve. So, it tells me that I'm glad that I'm not doing damage only making the headache mad.

As far as fatigue, I recall within the first year of injury that if I exercised above the threshold I'd get really tired to where I'd want to take a nap. Before injury, I usually didn't take naps afterwards unless I exercised for several hours but even walking for say an hour, I'd be wanting to rest. I listened and napped. It was recharging.

I'm can't say we injured the same parts of the brain but we seem to share some symptomatic similarities.

Just try to dial it down for a while till your brain will tolerate more.

Mike :)

Thanks, I have to say since all that exercise the one thing that hasn't gone away is the earache, it has been really bad for 24 hours and isn't going away. I don't know if this is my system adapting to the noise sensitivity which I had, and it has transformed into earache instead. Or perhaps it relates to the exercise and swimming I did. I know that earache can be related to migraine type symptoms, if it doesn't go away by this evening I might just take my migraine medication. Also going to get my teeth checked out tomorrow because I have had a lot of pain in the jaw and teeth also. But all this could be related to migraine http://headaches.about.com/library/n...n-pathways.htm

before my TBI concussion I was very active running jogging boxing and lifting weights etc etc, taken me a year o get back, I run little less and lift the same and do little less also in cardio, know your limits I couldnt even walk up stairs to the washroom or get out of bed then I walked around the park 5 min here 10 min there

i started off slow with walks then taken me months to run again etc.