Update and a question - Chiropractor or Physiotherapist?
 

Hello to all, this is a long post:

Update (with some positive developments):

Just a little update, so its been 2.5 months since my initial concussion (slipping on icy surface and hitting the back of my head February 10), after which I recovered around 90%, and started to quickly getting back to my normal life. Please note that I do not play any contact sports, I do however typically spend my winters snowboarding and wakeboarding during the summer. I have an office job, so the probability of getting another head trauma post my initial concussion was very low. But I did forget to mention that I am doing major renovation at my house DIY, using construction materials and various power tools.

Two weeks after my initial concussion, I got back to working on my house and while coming down from the roof the ladder slipped under my feet and I ended up falling on the deck which at the time had snow, though it was pretty hard and icy after the freezing rain. I should mention this, because I find it very interesting, that in the spear of that moment of falling down the 7 foot ladder all I could think about is "I can't land on my head or hit it" so in that moment I used my limbs as much as possible to absorb the impact, though unfortunately, hit that icy snowbank with a side of my head. Although I thought the impact wasn’t that bad, the icy snow did give me few scratches on my face where I hit it. Anyhow, I did not think much of it, but the next day I started noticing the same symptoms I had after my initial concussion in particular, dizziness, disorientation, fatigue, some depersonalization, subtle headache, and difficulties concentrating and thought processing. Unfortunately, two days after my 2nd fall, I had a week long career development training, which I had to endure since it's already been paid for. In retrospect I feel that if I took another week off to rest, I wouldn’t have been stuck with PCS for this long.

After 2 weeks of my second fall, my girlfriend and I traveled to Colombia for the first time. I was very hesitant at first given the fact that I had most of the symptoms present at that point, but I sucked it up and still went on one week intense trip, where we did tons of walking, hiking, and swimming. Btw I highly suggest visiting Colombia, it’s a very intriguing country. To my surprise, I was feeling pretty well there, or at least I was so focused on exploring and enjoying the trip that I forgot about most of my symptoms, I even had few beers, and went to few loud restaurants with loud music and tons of people, which wasn’t too bad for my sensitive brain.

When we returned to Canada, I was pretty tired as I slept very little on the overnight flight. The following 2-3 weeks, I went back to work and was somewhat ok, but I had several symptoms flare up, brain fog, disorientation, subtle dizziness, trouble focusing for too long, some depersonalization, some headaches, and reminiscing about my "old" self. But then over about a week or so I started to see some improvements, my mood improved, I was less symptomatic, and more hopeful that I will soon recover. Things were getting much better and my girlfriend also noticed that.

Fast forward to Easter Weekend, my friend was celebrating her 30th bday, big croud of people, restaurants, then out to a loud club. I had 4 or 5 drinks that night, smoked a cigar and in general kind of forgot that I had a concussion. After that night I sort of slipped back to feeling "off" again with the typical symptoms. It has been 2 weeks since that relapse and I haven’t seen any positive progress in how I am feeling. I also start to feel depression creeping in, and my general outlook on life is very bleak.

Question:

I am at the point now where I want to explore some alternative options, as my GP, like most, has very limited knowledge on TBI. I am just a bit sceptical of all these "alternative medical practitioners" but maybe it doesn’t hurt to try. I am thinking of trying either chiropractor or physiotherapy, anyone has any suggestions as to which one of these could provide some relief to certain aspects of my PCS. What about osteopathy? A close friend of mine claims that 2 visits to an osteopath, completely cleared her months-long migraines as a result of whiplash that she sustained from a car accident, and she definitely wouldn’t lie, I know her very well.

Thanks for your input!

It depends on what symptoms you are trying to treat. Your fall could have caused a whiplash event. Not all chiros or physiotherapists have the same skills or perspective. Same goes for osteopaths. I strongly believe in chiropractic but have only found 1 in 4 chiros to be of any benefit.

But, I don't think you current struggles are as related to the fall as they are related to over-doing it by celebrating. Chiro will not fix that.

In my view, you first have to decide to take part in your recovery. The Easter weekend celebrating can put many with PCS into a long struggle.

Working outside and off the ground when there is snow and ice is also high risk. Ladders and cold weather and ice do not mix.

I still do everything I did pre-PCS. I just do it with more care. My reactions are not as reliable so I don't go near stability risks.

In my experience and observation, improvements need to be looked at over longer periods of time. Two weeks should be the minimum time. "I've felt better for a week." is meaningless. No change, either up or down, means much in the short term.

I think you need to give yourself more time and take charge of your recovery by moderating things. A good rest period before and after the training week would have been good. Many of us take it slow to bank mental energy for stressful events and plan on needing a restful or low stress period afterward.

If you see a chiro, try to avoid getting a 'twist the head and pop the neck' treatment. They are usually too aggressive for the subtle neck injuries we struggle with. They can make matters worse. Gentle traction and mobilization can be much better.

Where in Canada do you live? I can make some suggestions if you're around Vancouver.

Also, I had a very similar 'withdrawal' from my symptoms when travelling with PCS. It's a strange phenomenon that I think might be linked to the reduction of everyday life stresses.

I recommend Network Chiropractic. They do not (usually) do any structural manipulation, which can be very dangerous for folks with head and neck injuries, as the motion of "cracking your neck" can dislodge clots that can be stuck in vessels of the neck. Networking "gets the nervous system talking to itself again", and that can help with a lot of symptoms.

One thing to keep in mind with concussion, is that it can greatly reduce our ability to judge risks and danger, so you can end up endangering yourself again -- like going up a ladder in bad weather. Even if you don't fall directly on your head, the jolt to your neck and/or the sudden deceleration can cause your brain to smack against the inside of your skull. It's good that you didn't fall directly on your head, but like with auto accidents, you can still sustain damage from the brain colliding against the inside of the skull.

Partying and pushing the envelope in terms of social things may seem like a good idea at the time, but just keep in mind the risk assessment issues - you may be getting yourself in trouble without even realizing it.

Caution is called for, even if everything seems "fine".