I have been a jock my entire life. Everything I do and everything I am revolves around sports. I was a very successful lacrosse and football player in high school and went to a d3 school to play both. The first week of football I lowered my head against my better judgement and got knocked backwards. I suffered a pretty bad concussion a few days later I couldn't even remember what month it was.

2 weeks later i was symptom free for 3 days and returned to practice only to slightly bump my head again resulting in the return of my concussion symptoms. That was 7 months ago and ever since then I have been dealing with terrible headaches that get worse with TV, Computer usage, Video games, and drinking, pretty much anything fun you could do as a college student.

To my surprise i have been dealing with it all very well but my quality of life has really suffered. I maintain good grades although the time in which I allow myself to study directly relates to how my head is feeling that day. I am not as social as I used to be in high school.

as i said before I have just put my head down and dealt with all of this disappointment very well, but I just watched my lacrosse team scrimmage yesterday and later that night i pretty much snapped. it is killing me not being able to play and no one around me quite understands what I am going through. I have tried everything. From chiropractor and acupuncturist to massage and medication but the headaches still persist. I feel pretty good right now, I have headaches all day everyday but they are not that debilitating.

If you have any advice or can give me any hope of recovery I would sincerely appreciate it.

Dallasstar1213,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of your struggles.

What you are experiencing is quite normal for PCS. Have you had any analysis of your upper neck done? A NUCCA.org or other upper cervical chiropractor may be helpful. PCS head aches are often related to misalignment of the upper cervical vertebra and spasming of the associated muscles.

From you recent concussion history, you put your brain at great risk if you return to any level of play. You need to reduce your anxiety and other stimulations to help your brain heal.

It is impossible to suggest what level of recovery you may attain. Nor is it possible to suggest a time frame for recovery.

Most of us have found great value to nutritional supplementation to help our brains heal and tolerate stress.

You are not the first and won't be the last jock with your questions as a college athlete. I hope you are in college with the intent to train for a life-long career as a non-athlete. I suggest you focus on those career goals and give your brain time to heal. It may take a year or two to become symptoms free. No one knows. And, no one knows if you will be able to tolerate another concussion without putting your entire future in jeopardy.

Try to back away from sports for a while so you can focus on healing. Your brain needs rest and low stress. No caffeine or alcohol or artificial sweeteners. Meat protein is good as is B vitamins.

I am having a slow day so others can fill in the blanks.

My best to you.

I understand. When I go past the soccer pitch I used to play on every week I still gaze wistfully out the window at it. It was my favourite thing to do each week and made me forget about everything else. That this source of stress relief was taken from me at the time I was most stressed was very hard.

You won't want to hear this, but I will never be playing any contact sport ever again. Once you have the sort of susceptibility we have the concussions will only happen more easily and get worse, making your life hell for months or years each time and building up problems for later life. However much I love sport, having a brain that doesn't work properly is too terrifying not to do everything I can to avoid it happening again.

I think I've seen it best put by Scott Stevens, a professional Footballer at the top of his game in Australia's most popular sport:-

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-new...#ixzz1muu2d9tE

If he can find a life outside sport, then so can we. Good luck!

I have had a few different chiropractors examine my neck but never an upper one like you mentioned I will look into that. It is difficult watching all my friends get to experience college life to its fullest as I stay away from sports, drinking ect.

It may be surprising but I have had only one diagnosed concussion but obviously it was bad enough to keep me out of athletics for 7 months and counting. I have heard a few people tell me that I should probably stay away from contact sports forever but I am unwilling to give up hope in that regard, it is who I am.

I will most likely never play football again but lacrosse is a different story. My question is if and when I do fully heal from this concussion, if I do receive another concussion is it guaranteed that I will have PCS with the second concussion too? what are the chances that I heal in 2-3 weeks like a normal concussion?

I sincerely appreciate all of your responses every little bit helps.

Dallasstar,

There was research done long ago that showed that nobody every fully recovers from a concussion. You may recover full function with minimal symptoms but you brain will forever be injured. This injury will show up during periods of stress or minor trauma. A minor jostle of the head or an illness with a high fever or just prolonged stress from a job cab cause a return of severe PCS symptoms.

Any further concussions will likely cause more severe symptoms from an equal or lesser impact force.

I am amazed by how many people define themselves by the sports they play. What would you do if you irreparably injured a knee, or neck vertebra or Achilles tendon? All can easily be permanently injured allowing non-stressful activity but not full stress activities.

There are lots of ways to reinvent oneself.

Further head injury can result in severe personality changes that cause a tendency to irrational outbursts and fits of rage.

What parts of your future are you willing to trade away for a few seasons of lacrosse? How about future relationships? How about future sexual functions? Yes, PCS or the meds to treat the pervasive symptoms can cause sexual dysfunctions. How about the ability to perform in a high stress but high pay career?

There are trade-offs in life. We don't usually get second changes to make some of these trade-off decisions.

Hope you can find the strength to make some good decisions.

My best to you.

I asked that exact question in my first ever post on this forum. If I recall correctly, Mark sounded even more exhasperated with me than he does with you

Whilst you will certainly be able to find doctors who will tell you that you will make a 'full recovery' and be able to go back to sport, the evidence I have seen, my own experience of worse concussions from ever more minor sports impacts and the experiences of many others that I have read about on this forum lead me to believe that Mark is right. And I'd REALLY love to believe otherwise.

I know it's tough to hear and will make you more down than you already are but it might save you from a lot worse in the future.

so your saying 50 years from now if im in a stressful situation my pcs will come back? thats crap

what about if i make it to college and i have to do a presentation in front of a big class, ill be nervous, which leads to stress, which will lead to full blown pcs symtoms again??

this never ends.....

I'm more optimistic than this myself. I am already back working almost full time in an extremely stressful job, and whilst I'm still not quite doing my 'full duties' I would guess that my average day at work is more stressful than a lot of other people's.

I seem to be coping ok despite not having finished recovering from my PCS, and based on my current progress I expect to be able to handle any sort of stress or whatever that I could before my injury, once I finish recovering.

This is also taking into account that whilst I know I have caused some degree of permanent damage to my brain, I will also not be doing things I did before my injury which put stress on the brain like drinking alcohol, headering soccer balls, eating badly etc.

If I'm wrong then I will deal with it, the most important thing for me is that I've reached a state of health where I feel that I can enjoy life again, even though I'm not quite firing on full cylinders.

I'm sure some people make 'fuller' recoveries than others, and our current stage of scientific knowledge doesn't really allow us to predict this. Best to be hopeful until proven otherwise, I would say!

Would increased weight training be a passable substitute for you? Am considering this myself, feel like it has some of the 'macho' (for want of a better word) elements of contact sport and can be taken to extremes if you want to without too much risk of joggling your head around. There's less of a team ethos though there is a certain amount of bonding/advice etc down the gym. Just a thought.

Hey there!

I was a super jock (female version) throughout my entire life from sports ranging in martial arts to track events to volleyball. I got scholarships but I had to decline due to concussions. Sports were all I knew and like you my world revolved around them.

I did try and go back too early and that made my symptoms worse and last longer. So i would advise to wait and get a doctors approval before even thinking about doing anything physically demanding.

Over the years you do get used to everything and start to consider them your norm and you get comfortable and you stop comparing yourself to others or how you used to be and you think you are ok. That is where I made my biggest mistake. 5 yrs later I went back to volleyball. I was able to perform just as well as before but it was the day after that I was sluggish and my PCS was very apparent. Of course there was the denial that its solely because I'm out of shape and tired, but after a few weeks it was like a slap in the face. Things have changed and Im not the same person and don't have the same capabilities.

The chances of a re-occuring concussion is pretty good and you will be out for longer. Like Mark said further injury can do a lot more damage and you really do have to start thinking about what in life you are willing to give up in order to play sports again. One of the hardest things you will do is watch your team go on without you, but you need to realise sports are for fun and for many of us not our career.

Another thing you need to remember is it isnt just sports that will cause a concussion anymore. As I recently learned, a dogs knee to the head is just as dangerous. The more blows to your head the more fragile it gets and the less it takes to injure it.

My only advice is be careful and take your time. Don't give up entirely on what you love but find alternatives instead. Biking and swimming are faily low impact but still keep you in shape and can be done alone or with people if you are looking for more of a team feeling. Coaching, which is what i did, will keep you in the game and with the team, just not on the field.

You only live once so live your life to its fullest potential and have fun but be smart about it.

Good luck with everything!!