Contact Sports Post PCS!
 

This is my first thread. A bit about me:

I am 26 years old. About 2 months ago, I suffered from a stomach bug, which left me very dehydrated (my own fault for not watching my fluid intake.) I got up to use the bathroom one night, and passed out. I banged my head quite hard, and about a week later, after stomach bug had cleared, I was diagnosed with PCS. I was having the usual problems: headaches, diziness, lack of concentration, mood swing, lack of sleep... and for some reason, lack of appetite!!!

Anyways, 2 months on I am slowly but surely getting it back together. After 2 weeks after the PCS I went back to work, but 3 weeks after that I got a cold and was back to square 1!!!

I am off again and am waiting to hear about an MRI. I am part of the NHS (UK free health system), so I had to wait a long time to get an MRI!

Anyways, pre-accident, I was involved with martial arts. I was doing Taijiquan (aka Tai Chi) and a grappling martial art.

Has anyone else been able to return to full contact sports after suffering from PCS? If so, has it caused any further problems for you?

Thanks for any help. This is a great online community you guys have here!!!

Hello,
I like to post these chiropractic info links for info whenever someone posts about a head hit or sports injury.
Mainly because I found a really good chiro and he has helped me often with my problem. {RSI/TOS/ myofascial pain}

Chiropractic care info- a good one can help with many symptoms:
http://www.upcspine.com/self.htm
http://www.uppercervical.org/subpag...b/about_faq.php
http://www.spineuniverse.com/index.html
http://www.coloradochiropractic.org/.../glossary.html

My son suffers from PCS brought on by a third concussion during football.:(
His last neuro psych test showed improvement to normal. Yay! He
will be unable to return to football or lacrosse. He is very unhappy and
thinks the doc and I should sign the papers for him to play. Unfortunately,
I am worried about his future and its not happening.:(

I think they take this on a case by case basis. I hope you will be
able to continue the sport you love after you have healed. good luck.

Hi there and welcome. I am 11 months post concussion and almost back to 100% with my physical activity. What I want to tell you though, is that it probably would have been a lot sooner had I taken things on in very gradual increments. Instead, I'd start to feel better and then go for it. Of course, I'd end up back at square 1. And I did this repetitively...over and over thinking that the NEXT time it would be okay. So, I finally had a physiotherapist with experience in brain injury help me to develop a workout program and I'm doing well. I don't do contact sports mind you, but it is high level volleyball, so lots of jumping, hitting, going to the ground.

Take it slow and easy would be my advice and get checked out before you restart your martial arts.

MargN

Thanks everyone, that is really helpful! I think the advice about taking it easy is very important. I am lucky in that my grappling coach is a doctor too, so he will hopefully be able to keep me right!

The links re chiro are really interesting. I have read a lot about people with PCS who went down that route and some folks say it changed their lives. It is something I will look in to more.

I understand your concern for your son. At the end of the day (and this is what I am thinking about too) there are lots of ways to keep active without doing full contact sports. I have some important decisions to make. Thanks for the input folks, it is helping me make those decisions!

Prior to my concussion, I was active in full-contact martial arts. There's not a chance I'll go back to it, though, even if I heal completely. The possibility of getting another concussion is too frightening. I'm even questioning going back to rock climbing, as there were a few times I hit my head...

I was thinking about this myself. I think that if I do return to martial arts, it will be to low contact arts e.g. Taijiquan, Aikido etc.... I actually found Taiji to help my recovery. Certainly it helps when I have a headache, for example.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be doing hard physical exercise once you are recovered but getting another concussion would mean another more severe bout of PCS and the possibility of permanent problems caused by cumulative effects. Is that a risk you wanna take?

To be honest, no it isn't. I enjoyed grappling. It was fun and an excellent form of excercise, but there are less risky ways to keep active, even within martial arts.

Thanks again everyone for your input. It has defintely helped me reach a decision with this. It just isn't worth the risk I think, so I will leave others to it! :winky:

Please be very careful returning to sports too soon. You do not want to get another concussion before you are completely healed.
Good luck!