Thanks in advance for any helpful insight!

I experience PCS as a result of a car accident on 3/8/11. For 3 months I went to a neurologist who told me, just rest and it'll get better. After some intense migraines and no help from neuro, a friend suggested I see our University's Concussion Clinic. I went there two weeks ago and was very pleased with my experience. They referred me for vestibular therapy and also to a pain management group to try to address the migraines.

During the vestibular evaluation, the Dr. noticed that I am having some major vision problems and is referring me to a neurological opthamologist for evaluation. (I had 20/20 before my accident.) She also is referring me to a PT for an evaluation of my neck and some therapy, as she did a physical exam and fears there is a lot of trauma in my neck that hasn't been dealt with. However, I have to wait until I make some progress with the vestibular therapy first to start this, because as of right now, moving my head and neck makes me really sick.

I have my first real therapy appt. this Friday. However they gave me 3 exercises to do daily at home to start working on my vestibular system. They told me that if the exercise made my symptoms increase to greater than 5 out of 10, I should take a break, cut back, scale back on the number of reps or the time I do them, etc.

However, after doing just one exercise, which I've scaled back as much as I think I can, I'm done for for a couple of hours, where I have to lay on the floor to feel grounded and I'm nauseous and dizzy. As I had gotten into a comfortable groove before starting therapy, where I could at least partly function, I decided to try doing the exercise later in the day so I can at least feel partly "normal" for some of the day. However, in doing them at night, my brain is exhausted and I really struggle to do the exercise and the symptoms are even worse than they would be if I did them early in the day.

I'm at a loss. I know I am supposed to scale back if it is aggrivating my symptoms, but I dont' want to stop completely as I saw this as something active I could do in my recovery. I still want to make progress.

My question is, has anyone else who has tried vestibular therapy experienced this at the beginning? I expected it to be challenging, but didn't expect to feel like garbage for most of the day after.

I'm just so scared that they are going to tell me I need to stop completely and wait for more healing of my brain... this was atleast something I could feel like I was actively doing to aid my recovery.

Any thoughts/experiences would be greatly appreciated...