Hi all! Glad to be part of the community, hopefully I can help some people out and get some help back in return.

I am currently suffering from my 4th concussion and it has by far, been the worst. My first was perhaps the second worst, but after I sustained it, I was home from school for a full month and was pretty much fine after a couple weeks. The second and third were barely concussions, I only got some blurred vision for about 15 minutes and then they went away. The fourth however, has been very strange.

I dont know how I got it specifically (the first three were from sports collisions), but i'm fairly sure it was from body surfing in large waves over my spring break. While this may not sound like much, having 8-10 foot waves crashing on you, especially after 3 concussions is certainly not good, and I was foolish to have even gone in.

Initially I experienced the worst of my symptoms and there were times I could barely walk a couple hundred feet without having to stop and settle down. Going to class became near impossible and I was simply not able to function. I went home for a week (i was at college) and it helped a bit and I definitely felt better going back to school. That was in mid april, and I just finished up my finals on Friday. I have not done any heavy workouts, besides some light 10lb weights and some light biking. Despite this, I do end up feeling symptomatic anytime I try to do anything heavier than that, and furthermore, I have some off days, like today. Besides play video games, eat, and go out to dinner, I didnt do much else, but something triggered my symptoms and i'm back to feeling not so great. I should also add that I had an MRI on my head back in mid april and it revealed nothing but a normal looking brain.

Looking back, did my staying in school worsen my symptoms, or at least delay my recovery? I know I should try to limit my activity, but from a lot of literature ive read, people suggest 'doing nothing', which is hardly easy to do. What would be some basic things I can do that ensure im still recovering but save me from boredom and other things?

Now that i'm on summer break, Im sure i will get better soon, but i'm just trying to figure out what will help me the most and what little things I can do to help myself.

Thank you all very much

Alpha5,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Your experience sounds common. It will help if you read the Vitamins sticky thread at the top.

The 'do nothing' advice is important. There are still plenty of things you can do while you do nothing. Keep your activities to things that have a manual limit to them. This does not mean video games. Stay away from video games. They easily over-stimulate the visual processing and audio-processing systems.

Card games with real cards is a start. The manual limits will keep the activity level within the quiet rest range that the brain needs.

Tell us about your summer living environment and available activities and we can direct you to those that will be good for recovery.

Body surfing can cause a myriad of triggers to cause a return of symptoms. You are at the very beginning of the concussion learning curve. Your Multiple Concussion Syndrome will be your greatest challenge.

Feel free to post or ask anything. There are lots of good people here.

My best to you.

Yep, that's they way to heal

don't do too much --no screens, listen to audio books, radio, do something wiht your hands, watch the birds, the sky, build a nest...you get the idea, but just don't stress out.

Your brain needs rest.

read the vitamin stickie at the top. Your brain needs really good nutrition now too.

And, in case you missed it, there is no timeline, really for getting better. It takes the time that it takes because it does.

No doctor can really tell you otherwise....and if they do....they really don't know.

All for now
pm

This is the best thing to do . . . Unless you are like me. I was having panic attacks trying to meditate for a while there. I was such an anxiety-filled disaster. The only thing that would calm me down was watching a little tv--an hour and a half mid-aftermoon. Stress makes PCS symptoms so much worse, so I determined that hour and a half of tv in the afternoon was an acceptable trade.

Listening to podcasts and audiobooks (NOT on headphones) was also a way I could have minimal stimulus but not go completely insane. Again, not the optimal path to recovery but a comprimise I had to make to keep my anxiety levels down.

Marks suggestion of cards is good. Sudokus or similar puzzles can be good too. I agree especially that minimizing screen time is important, and seriously, no videogames! That's the worst! Some online brain games could eventually be helpful if you are having cognitive issues--but I would limit yourself to 15 to 30 minutes per day. (Lumosity is a good site, but you have to pay a little for it.) If you have to get out of your house, leisurely walks can be nice. Helps if you have an old dog to walk!

Good luck healing! Just do whatever helps you feel relaxed and calm but doesn't put stress on your body.

Thank you all for the kind words and suggestions. I read the vitamin thread and I will start taking my multivitamin again, I had stopped for a while, but it seems like it covers a lot of what was listed so that should help as well.

As far as other suggestions go, I like the cards idea, that seems to be a good one and ive always loved playing cards. How about doing puzzles? Would that be too much? That has always been a hobby of mine as well.


My summer living environment is my home and is always a pretty quiet place, I live in a fairly rural area so there is never any noise like you would find in the city.

Now as far as recovery goes, how do I approach the 'do nothing' strategy? Hypothetically, if I were to do said strategy for a week, and found it to be successful, would it be ok to then perhaps test some of my abilities? For example, playing a video game for 20-30 minutes and seeing how my brain reacts, or perhaps a quick ride on the bike or something like that? From what I remember from my first concussion, the doctor advised me to rest up for a bit and then try to test myself and see what I could do. He told me if I ever felt any symptoms to stop and wait some time because I was not ready to do that activity. Is that the strategy I should be employing here?

Also just to add to the above, how detrimental is simple internet surfing? It seems that video games are the worst, but how bad is posting on here or surfing through facebook or something like that.

I don't know how bad internet surfing is for the healing brain.

I know I can /could feel myself get sort of maxed out by TV if there are bright flashing noises on it -- but I do confess I read my e-mail for about a half hour a day during a recovery time. Was it detrimental? I really don't know.

Sometimes the only way I find out we AM or AM NOT ready for something is to test it, and be prepared to fail or pass.....but if I have a fail in that horrible dizzy feeling comes or the colors start becoming brighter thanI know then are....then I know I am pushing myself too hard and have to back down.

This is a quizzical process of trying and resting and trying.......

I think Mark in Idahoe said it well .........something to the effect that one good day is nothing more than that. It doesn't mean a "recovery" It means you had one good day. When you can have a week of "good" days then that is more of a trend to notice.

Oh boy I am blathering because I had really bad sleep, but my point is...

yes, you need rest, and yest you have to figure out what that means for you, and I find I do have to test it to see if I can do somethinlg like

a. walk a little further today
b. drive a little distance,do an errand and am I wiped out by that?

I hope you get the idea.

pm

Yes that was my general thinking, the testing idea is something that I think i will implement. I'm still sort of trying to figure out what seems to set me off and what does not. Looking back on the past couple of weeks, ive only really felt symptomatic a few times in say, the past couple weeks. Is that normal? School was really the only major mental thing i was doing, so perhaps i was healing..but not really?

These were the only 3 things that bothered me, again the symptoms are not as severe as some have on here, so im still not sure if this happens to people with milder stuff.

1) Did a half workout, i was feeling fine for about 5 days with absolutely no symptoms, decide to do a half workout. Had some symptoms the remainder of the day and then a bit of the next day

2) This past friday, had finished up 2 exams in 2 days, then had to unpack my entire dorm room and carry heavy boxes and bags down 4 flights of stairs. Obviously not ideal...but someone had to do it. Felt crappy for a bout 2-3 hours afterwards

3) Perhaps a continuation of friday, but a played a lot of video games yesterday, felt fine, then around 9 last night felt crappy again, still a bit symptomatic today. This perhaps bugs me the most because I would play with friends at school after class nearly every day, and I never had a problem which is why I think all the stuff i did on friday was so bad. I also never had a problem watching movies or surfing on my computer which is why i asked in the first place.

Yes that was my general thinking, the testing idea is something that I think i will implement. I'm still sort of trying to figure out what seems to set me off and what does not. Looking back on the past couple of weeks, ive only really felt symptomatic a few times in say, the past couple weeks. Is that normal? School was really the only major mental thing i was doing, so perhaps i was healing..but not really?

These were the only 3 things that bothered me, again the symptoms are not as severe as some have on here, so im still not sure if this happens to people with milder stuff.

1) Did a half workout, i was feeling fine for about 5 days with absolutely no symptoms, decide to do a half workout. Had some symptoms the remainder of the day and then a bit of the next day

2) This past friday, had finished up 2 exams in 2 days, then had to unpack my entire dorm room and carry heavy boxes and bags down 4 flights of stairs. Obviously not ideal...but someone had to do it. Felt crappy for a bout 2-3 hours afterwards

3) Perhaps a continuation of friday, but a played a lot of video games yesterday, felt fine, then around 9 last night felt crappy again, still a bit symptomatic today. This perhaps bugs me the most because I would play with friends at school after class nearly every day, and I never had a problem which is why I think all the stuff i did on friday was so bad. I also never had a problem watching movies or surfing on my computer which is why i asked.

I am pretty sure heavy workouts and even half work outs are not a great idea. You need more gentle exercise like walking (probably boring for you) but still a good exercise.

The idea (I think) is to get some oxygen to the brain like in areobic exersize, but not in a heart pounding kind of way yet.

Check out University of Buffalo -- they are leading the way in trying to resolve concussions with the right amount of exercise.

I am more of an extreme knitter than weight lifter or --whatever.

I am sure more experienced members will weigh in on this.

But it's good you figured out a trigger for you -- that is part of the battle.

Here is a link about U of Buffalo. http://concussion.buffalo.edu/research.html


pm