Tpont,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Your experience with symptoms, doctors and imaging is the norm. The MRI will not likely show anything. I can understand why the UPMC Concussion Clinic is backed up. The hockey season likely has them busy.

Read the Vitamins thread to see how to help your brain with nutrition.

The chiro probably did the twist your head and pop your neck. This is far to aggressive for a concussion patient. You likely have a subtle injury to your upper neck. This can magnify your concussion symptoms. Your neck with take as long to heal as your brain, maybe even longer. Think of this as a whiplash injury.

You need to be very disciplined with your head and neck. You should find a sleeping position where your neck is supported in a straight posture. Icing your upper neck will also be good.

Recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. Any improvement should last two weeks or more before you start to increase activity. Weight lifting is very hard on the concussed body as it causes muscle tensing throughout the body. It can also increase the waste in the blood stream from the efforts. These can tax the system that needs to be supporting the brain.

So, take is slow. Try to lower all stresses in your life.

Feel free to tell us about your day to day activity levels. You will be surprised at what can trigger a return of symptoms.

My best to you.

Mark,

Thanks for the response. I know the MRI will likely not show anything, but I thought it may help ease my anxiety because I will know for sure or not if there are other issues going on that may show up on an MRI. I do regret going to the chiropractor. He did help my back but it definitely did not help my concussion and probably just re-aggravated it. Funny thing is I was in a vehicle accident about 6 months before my snowboarding accident. I got rear-ended and suffered whiplash. I did not have any concussion symptoms, but I did go to physical therapy for a few weeks for neck and back pain. I think having this previous whiplash injury may have made my concussion worse.

That is good advice that any improvement should last two weeks or more before activity is increased. I wish I would have known that from the beginning. Live and learn.