Three Years and Three Months
 

It's been a while since I last wrote here, which is usually a good sign. I thought I'd post up a brief report on how things are now.

My PCS was pretty bad to begin with, nausea, raging tinnitus, insomnia, fatigue - couldn't walk around the block without collapsing in the chair when I got back. A couple of times in the first two weeks my legs stopped working if I walked too far which was pretty weird. Then the anxiety and depression hit and I thought I was going mad. Most of my severe symptoms faded after about six months. The fatigue took longer. After two years I was left with insomnia and tinnitus.

However, over the last few months things have improved another notch and now I feel a whole lot better. My mind is clear and relaxed and I'm getting myself back to the person I once was. It goes to show that you can't put a timescale on recovery and you can still improve years later. I still have some tinnitus, sometimes it's so faint I don't know it's there, but exercise or mental work, like programming, makes it spike for a short while. My sleep is still crummy but I get enough now.

It's been a bewildering period of my life, hard to put into words, it feels like I've lost three years. I think having a sense of humour and stubborn blind faith have got me through it.

Things that I think have helped:

• Quitting caffeine - helped with anxiety
• Quitting alcohol - it's neurotoxic and disturbs sleep (but might imbibe again soon)
• Walking in the countryside - improves circulation without overloading the brain
• Vitamins - B12, B6, Iron, Magnesium, C and D - Especially B complex
• Resting as much as possible - mindfulness if you like
• Rebuilding bike engine - very mind absorbing
• Gardening - low impact exercise and peaceful
• Watching comedies and laughing - relieves tension promotes endorphins

Things that don't help:

• Computers
• Aerobic exercise - took me a while to work this out
• Friends - because you look normal they don't understand why you can't go mountain biking like you used to
• Doctors - as above
• Stress of any kind

Good to hear things have gotten better.

Just curious how long it took you for the depersonalisation to subside?

Good question, I think it grew less as my anxiety subsided. I had long periods where I didn't think I was progressing at all then I'd feel a little better like going up a step. It's like I had to teach myself to be 'normal' again, I found it hard to relax fully until recently.

Do you know of anything that specifically helped with your head pressure? That is one of my worse symptoms.

Super E,

Good report, it took me quite awhile to realize I would be ok if I relaxed as you mentioned about yourself.

This has indeed been an unusual journey but doable.

Thanks Bud, glad to hear you're doing well.



Regarding head pressure I think like most of my symptoms they gradually faded with time, I can't put my finger on any one thing that helped. I always kept mobile going for walks and tried to maintain good posture which I think is important. I did gentle neck manipulation too. My head was like a shaken snow dome and just needed to settle. Forcing myself to be still and relaxed helped, just clearing the mind and concentrating on breathing.

I'd say I'm 90% back the last 10% seems the most stubborn but I reckon I can do it lol.

This is good news. It's been almost 2 years for me. I still have some symptoms.. like when I learn something new it makes me so tired, being tired in general, having worse anxiety than ever before, also people chewing drives me up a wall. I sometimes getvthe bad tension headache that starts at the base if the neck and skull usually lasts 9 hours for me. Hope to one day get past all this. Also having people who do not understand you have limitations now is really really hard.

mussbsweet,

What are you doing to improve your head/neck condition ? With proper care and posture discipline, those head/neck headaches should be improving. It takes time but the improvement should be slowly happening.

I do neck stretches daily, sometimes more than once a day. They only happen when I'm extremely stressed or upset. So not too often I guess. Maybe twice a month. When they do it's not fun.

mussbsweat,

How do you sleep ? Do you wake up refreshed ?

What position do you sleep in ? Back, side, front, thick or thin pillow ?