Minor things jarring my head-Is this my life now?
 

Almost 7 months into PCS with all of the classic symptoms still persisting at some level since my December 9th hockey concussion (5th diagnosed).

Over the course of the 7 months my symptoms have started to get better several times only to have things like sneezing, my toddler batting me in the head, and using a hammer to lightly nail a trim board around a window to set me back to how I felt after the initial injury. I am being very cautious and careful and protective of my head. These incidences would seem to be harmless and in some cases tough to avoid.

My questions are: Is it normal to have minor jarring incidences to cause me to have a setback with my recovery? Does everyone with PCS experience this super sensitivity to head movement? Is this my life now? Is it possible that this will get better?

Nolan

I've lived with this sensitivity to quick head movements for more than a decade. You may have a sensitivity to neck movements. I do.

With a bit of time, you can learn to reduce these triggers.

My neurologist says impossible! But I did notice about two months ago, I was feeling better and then I went hiking with my friends and I was jumping around. Then the next two days return of headaches again:(

It depends
 

Some people, like Mark, have to deal with this phenomenon for the rest of their lives and do learn how to adjust their movements to minimize this from happening. I have been lucky. I used to have setbacks from minor bumps to the head, but that seems to have passed now. (Fingers crossed!) Now my toddler hitting me in the head only causes a bit of a headache for an hour or two. She's hit me plenty of times too!

My triggers seem to be more stress related. It's an emotional time in my household, so I've had a terrible headache all day. And I never get headaches anymore!

Is your setback a full-on setback, or is it more like an interlude where you feel akin to how you felt for a short while, then return to the same state you had been? If it's short (or for that matter, long) you may have positional vertigo. As I understand it this is an ear condition in the labryrinth of your ear that's associated with TBI but is related to balance which could give you the feeling, if not the reality of a new TBI.

Original injury in early december. I was starting to feel a little bit better in March when I had a full on setback. I have started to feel a little better several times since only to have a setback. These setbacks are full on and bring me back to the full symptoms which last for months. Currently, I often still have days that feel like the original injury was just this week.
I am finding that good nights of sleep when I can get them, seem to be helping a bit.

Went for a short drive today and just a couple of bumps made me feel my brain moved inside my skull..I am fed up of this ridiculous sensitivity..don't know what to do

Hey, don't give up hope.

I've dealt with this too! I got better than tried biking and came down on a curve to the road =didnt fall- I had gotten up to the point of walking fast, doing quick movements and even able to shoot hoops and jump an inch or so off the ground. then it got worse after the bike thing. Now it's up and down, but I'm almost positive the nerves in my neck are a very big issue. I'll explain that below, but here are a few tips.

1) Sneezing- tilt your head forward and squat down or come down with the sneeze. Then you don't have a quick jerk motion.

2) Keep anxiety and stress out as much as possible. I found most of my headaches were completely or got worse from tension headaches. I was so dang worried about things happening that they got worse. I highly suggest learning how to deep breath and learn how to stay calm in stressful situations. Listen to a guided meditation or deep breathing video to start!

3) When your head is sensitive, take things slow. Avoid doing activities that may agrivate your head for a while. Try to remain calm and not stressed about being slow.

So the nerve stuff. I've noticed that if I tickle my arm or heel or anywhere, those spots cause a weird feeling in my head. That makes me think nerves have to be an issue. Once I realized this, actually, a lot of my headaches got better because I was so stressed.

So what can you do?

1) Make sure you sleep where your neck is straight. Preferably on your back or if you can't then on your side with a pillow that keeps your neck inline.

2) I actually avoided moving my neck too much for a while and it is really stiff. Logically, that makes sense. Things atrophy. recently, I've been moving my neck slowly in different directions. This has helped a lot actually. Be careful, though! Don't push it.

3) Massage helps in the neck and shoulders, but again, don't push it. Be light. If the nerves are pinched or damaged, then you don't want to aggravate them.

4) Maybe a chiropractor would help? It helped me. Then I stopped going after I had the bike incident and got worse this summer. Now I'm back again. After the first adjustment, symptoms were a bit better for my eye pain. If you do go, make sure the chiropractor is gentle. Perhaps a chiro that does the activator method would be better?

5) If you're around any practitioners that have a PEMF machine, maybe talk to one of them. It's a machine that sends pulsed electro-magnetic fields. It helped my migraines and neck a while ago. Haven't had a migraine since. He did it on my neck and head. Each additional appt. I was able to do a higher frequency which he said meant my tissue was healing.

In the mean time, stay careful and try to keep building that threshold. The longer you can stay away from a setback, the more you'll be able to keep tolerating.

Praying for you and everyone else! Keep hanging in there! Things will get better!

almost 3 years for me, and yes, bumps, riding in a vehicle, or my bike, some days it is ok, some days not.