Vestibular Rehab and my story
 

Hi all,

This is my first time posting, but I've been reading the forum every now and then over the past year.

Its been a year since my first concussion, sustained while boxing. Had 5-6 head bumps in the few months after it, each one compounding the problem. Also had a period of 1-2 months of insomnia, anxiety, depression, etc. My head was extremely fragile this past summer. Setbacks happened from the slightest wrong touch/scratch of the head. It was awful. I also have recurring neck pain and minor cervicalgia.

I finally was able to go a few months with no major or minor bumps to the head, starting this past september, but things like riding in a car or rapid head movements still gave me short-term headaches and occasionally slight nausea. Exercised for a few weeks in October and the headaches returned. One day in mid-October I overreacted and very quickly and forcefully ducked out of the way of a thrown paper ball (I work at a high school), and it felt like I had post-concussive symptoms again for 2-3 weeks, without anything actually bumping my head!

FINALLY was referred by a sports medicine doctor to get Vestibular Rehab Therapy. Turns out my vestibular system was jacked up and my ability to process motion, visual stimuli, etc. needed re-training. After a few months of this therapy it significantly improved my tolerance for motion, visuals, riding on a city bus, driving a car, etc. I was starting to feel almost normal again (at rest) near Christmas time.

I finally felt I was ready to start exercising again a month ago, but I must have jumped the gun (again!) and after just four light stationary bike rides of 15-17 mins with a peak heart rate of 120-125, my symptoms came back again. Dull headache, especially behind the eyes, trouble sleeping for several days, etc. I stupidly tried doing my vestibular exercises (moving my head back and forth rapidly while staring at an 'X' on the wall) when I hadn't slept in 2 days and ended up jacking my brain up again (just by moving it too quickly), like back in October.

So now I'm trying to rest as much as possible for a few weeks until my headaches go away, and then I can begin again the Vestibular Rehab exercises at home. And then hopefully in another month or two I can work back up to attempt exercising again. This time I'll start with an even lower peak heart rate. My brain just can't seem to handle much exertion or blood flow at this point.

Anyway, I HIGHLY recommend checking out Vestibular Rehab. It hasn't healed me totally, but it did help a lot for awhile, and I'm confident that it will help me again as soon as I'm ready to start it back up.

Anyone else have trouble with physical/cardio exertion? I'm back down to barely being able to walk more than 5-10 minutes without a headache. Frustrating as hell!

Anyone else seem to notice that your brain is significantly more vulnerable and fragile when you had a night or two of bad or no sleep?

Thanks for your support. It means a lot.

Thank you for sharing your story.

I got my concussion from boxing and have been going through the same exact roller coaster where I would get better and better, but a smallest thing would send my symptoms spiraling out of control again.

Regarding the stationary bike - about a year ago (almost a year after my concussion) I started doing very light exercises on a stationary bike (tried treadmill first but I felt very crappy after it).

Started at elevating my resting heart rate by only a little bit (10-15 bpm) for 5 minutes - did this for about a week.
Then elevated my heart rate again by a little bit and increased the time to 7-8 mins, did that for over a week, and you can see the pattern.
I eventually got to about 150 bpm for 20 mins over the course of 3-4 months, then had a huge setback (not from exercise) and started all over again after not doing anything for about 2 months.
Whenever I have a setback, I always give myself time to get back to where I was, even if it means not excising for a month or two.

Just because you feel ok during the exercise, doesn't mean you should be pushing yourself. Many people of this board note that sometimes it hits them bad the next day or even two days after they exerted themselves. I definitely noticed that delayed response as well, and it makes this whole thing very tricky.

Hey thanks for the reply.

You said that you started riding the bike only 10-15 bpm's above your resting heart rate, just for 5 minutes.

Do you think it is better to start back to exercise by slowly increasing the time of exercise with the heart rate staying constant?? Or it it better to continue to increase the heart rate by 5 bpm's each week or two as well??

If my resting heart rate is around 90, and I start out riding a bike for 10 minutes at like 100-105 heart rate, should I just try to flat line at 100-105 heart rate but continue to increase the minutes that I ride up to 20+ ?? Or should I increase the heart rate to 110-115 for still just 10 minutes of exercise time?

Have you been able to run yet? That still feels far off for me because exertion is one part of the problem, and head sensitivity seems to be another.

I suggest you extend the time at 100 to 105 bpm rather than increase your heart rate. After a month or so, you may try a slight increase in BPM. The good blood flow at 100-105 bpm will be good for your brain. The Buffalo protocol says to stay 10% under your threshold for causing symptoms.