PCS: worse in the morning
 

The majority of my PCS symptoms are dizziness, nausea and anxiety.

My symptoms are always worse in the morning. I used to eat the minute I got up. Now I can't eat for a few hours. I have tried walking, showers, visual therapy and stretching in the morning but I can't seem to shake the morning sickness.

I am wondering if anyone has experienced whiplash concussion and whether my symptoms are the result of more neck injury than brain injury. Is the way I sleep some how exacerbating my symptoms?

I completely understand. I'm nine months PCS, largely recovered. But my symptoms used to be worse in the morning, alot worse, I would get the shakes, wake up with a headache and just be in a foul mood.

Since starting to recover I have been feeling great in the morning. I put this down to the nortripltalyine I have been taking at night.

Alot of it has to do with serotonin/ and or blood sugar levels. Our serotonin levels and blood sugar are naturally lower in the morning which can contribute to some of these symptoms.

ClayR,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Whiplash injuries are common with concussions. The upper neck injuries can make concussion symptoms much worse. It would be worth trying sleeping straight out flat on your back with minimal pillow support. Just enough to keep your head from rolling off to the side.. You have not told us anything about yourself, your diagnosis, treatments, meds, etc. Read the Vitamins stickie at the top and check out the links listed.

Feel free to tell us anything about your struggles. There are lots of good people here.

My best to you.

Yes, I got this extremely unusual diagnosis last spring.
I did not hit my head in the accidents so I thought it was all pretty weird.
It really kicked up my PTSD.

It is very disconcerting and really freaked me out.
REST was the best advice I got. anything that helps you calm down is good. Your brain needs to heal from the trauma. Anything that shakes the head severely can cause trauma to the brain (especially if its already storing previous traumas, as mine was)


Mine came at a very stressful time, so it seemed worse.
Brain state brainwave optimization helped me a lot.
Its a cutting edge technology, you can google it.

I pushed very hard and received a large insurance settlement for
the disruption this had on my life...

Remember, this too shall pass. :circlelove::

Thanks for the post Peter. I got the shakes in the morning for about a week but those seem to have subsided. I hear you on the sugar levels in the morning. The thing that really gets me out of bed in the morning is eating. But a lot of times I have nausea in the morning. Even though I want to eat, I can't! But I have been finding after eating that the symptoms go away. Thanks for this advice.

For nausea in the morning, you might try some glucose tablets before getting out of bed.

These are very inexpensive now, even at WalMart, and you can keep on your night stand, grab a couple while still in bed. The concentrated sugar should block the nausea reflex and help you get up a bit better. (this is how the old coca cola syrup worked).

example:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dex4-Wild-...ottle/15084050

Thats interesting that yours is worse in the morning, mine is much, much worse at night

Physical therapy for your neck?
 

I recently had an experience that may help you. I am very weak in my upper vertebrae due to repeated whiplash injuries (and my very long neck), so I was in physical therapy to strengthen that area in order to get rid of headaches and dizziness. I also had nausea due to my neck injury at various times. I really didn't think physical therapy did much for my dizziness, because so many of my problems are due to vision-related issues, but I guess it did something, because I stopped doing my physical therapy two weeks ago and I started getting dizzy again. I thought sensory integration therapy had cured me so I was very concerned! I noticed that my dizziness was definitely worse when I first got out of bed. I remember this was often the case after my dizziness first began months and months ago.

I called my vestibular physical therapist since it was a dizziness issue, and she said that that likely was the cause of my dizziness and that I would need to do these exercises for the rest of my life to keep my upper vertebrae strong in order to keep dizziness and headaches at bay.

I started doing exercises again and almost immediately noticed a difference. It's lame that I will have to do these exercises for the rest of my life, but I guess that'll keep me stronger and healthier. I'm just glad that I didn't do anything to reverse the progress of my vision therapy!

You might want to go to a physical therapist to help strengthen your upper vertebrae, if they determined that is an issue for you. If it is your neck, you should try to make sure it's more supported when you sleep at night, as that might be the cause of you feeling worse in the morning. You might want to try putting a towel roll under your neck and sleeping on your back. Good luck!

I Can Relate
 

I can relate my sickness was at it's worst in the morning as well.I could not get a diagnosis for over a year of TBI/PCS so I was trying anything I could. I found ginger root worked best for me.I had it so bad that I was on birth control at the time but felt pregnant but never was.Down my long road of searching for a diagnosis it all made sense when I got diagnosis and put the puzzle together.If I were you I would give ginger root a try to see if it helps until you get medication.