My symptoms had been getting better until I got really bad burnout from school after my attempt of getting caught up from the three weeks of school I missed earlier.

I failed to realize the burnout symptoms until those got really bad, and they've caused some concussion symptoms too.

Recently my hearing is super sensitive and my vision is a bit more too. Ear plugs help a lot.My brain is shutting down it seems like. I have brain fog really bad, which has been very rare. I'm tired almost all the time, even after I sleep for 10 hours, which is what I'm trying to get each day. I can feel veins in my head and sometimes they spasm. I never noticed this before.

When I'm in a light, noisy place too long my vision starts to go and my head really starts hurting. I also was misspelling several words today.

I get muscle spasms (different than my tics) throughout my body, especially after I sleep. Is my posture wrong? I sleep on my back with a small pillow.

My tics have returned a little bit, but not seriously.

I returned back to school for the first time today with these symptoms not knowing how bad they really were. I had several appts. this weekend and they were not much help. I have about 3 weeks left in the school quarter and I'm taking two very heavy difficult college level classes. As of right now, I'm pretty much caught up with them, but my symptoms are bad.

I just could not sit in class for about 30 minutes without knowing what was going on. and I toughed it through. I go to one class for an hour and a half. Go to a quiet room for an hour and a half, go to the 2nd class for an hour and a half. But today I left the first class early and would have left it way earlier had we not been doing something more important.

Should I completely rest and shut down for a week or so until symptoms fade? Should I try and finish out the quarter of school? The school has been very accomadating and has already made plans because I've had concussion issues before. My mom called the hospital to get some advice today, but they haven't callsd back yet.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

A week off from school will be worthless unless when you return to school, you can take it slow. I don't think you have such an opportunity.

You need to stay away from bright noisy places. An hour long class would be too much if it is lecture and other verbal instruction. You probably can tolerate 10 to 20 minutes of lecture at the most. The many voices in a lab class would also be problematic.

There is no such thing as toughing it out with concussion recovery. The brain does not heal like a muscle or bone. It needs rest. Sleep is not the only rest. Simple cognitive activities will keep blood flow stimulated without straining your brain.

What courses are you taking that cause the most work-load ?

Maybe you need to drop some classes and take them later. Classes with a lot of memorization or intense multi-step mental processing would be best taken after you have recovered substantially. It took me a year to return to full academic performance when I was a sophomore. I ended up with a lot of B's when I had straight A's as a freshman.

Plain and simple, your brain needs rest.

Go ahead and see how you feel in the morning before making a decision, but from my experience if I got all those symptoms from trying to do something then it would only continue to get worse until I became completely debilitated unless I rested.

Maybe you should take a quarter off? Or lessen your course schedule?

I imagine you just got back from a Winter Break? So, if you're having this much trouble after having a break, then you should really consider that it's only going to get more demanding over the next few weeks until Finals.

I'm glad to hear that your school is so progressive when it comes to concussion recovery!

Thanks!

I think that I could start off slow. And I'll ask for an extension on tests, etc. into next quarter if possible.

I have a college chemistry and college spanish class and there is lot of memorizing in the spanish class. There is also a lot of active participation by the class, so it is very tough to be in. It is also a very bright room. You're right only about that long was all I could take. These are the only two classes I have. These are semester long classes that I am at the end of and they are already paid for by the district, so I can't drop them. I dropped my other classes and will try and take my next quarter off of school if possible.


What are the other simple activities that won't strain my brain? I've found yoga and deep breathing helpful. Especially when I'm in poses that bring lots of blood to my head.



Do you think it would be ok to still do homework with lots of rest breaks at home until the end of the quarter at least?

I've taken 4 years of Spanish including a semester of Spanish lit. No such thing as college level Spanish. It just takes a lot of memorization. Don't try to memorize alone. Study with others speaking Spanish out loud. Your brain needs to hear you and others speak as much as possible.

If it is your first chem class, it is just an honors chem class. Don't psych yourself out with 'college' labels.

Your bigger challenge is the need to do mental gymnastics in chem and Spanish. If you are still thinking in English, learning more Spanish will be a struggle. Trying to translate Spanish to English and English to Spanish is difficult for an injured brain. Getting over the "thinking in Spanish" hump will make a big difference. Think of the Spanish terms as concepts, not words.

Record your work and play it back as background sounds when you are relaxing. Play it at low volume so your mind sort of melts into it. You will be surprised at how you can memorize the information this way. You may be able to get someone at your school to make MP3's of it as part of their help.

You will retain the information best if you learn it under low stress with lots of these low stress repetitions. The 'study hard' system does not work for us. It actually does not work well for healthy brains, either.

I used this soft memorization technique very successfully. Don't push your brain. Just listen over and over.

Stay up on B-12, a B-complex, D3, vit C and vit E. Omega oils will also be good.

Don't let anybody push Adderal or Stratera on you. Bad news.

It makes sense that you are having trouble since it is the end of the semester. College classes typically get harder as the semester (or quarter) come to an end. Your professor is preparing you for your Finals.

I think doing your homework would be fine, with lots of rest breaks. Just keep in mind that if you are struggling a lot, it might be a sign that you need to rest. In my own experience recovering from the concussion I sustained, if I had to struggle, there was no way I could retain that information. Your mileage may vary: meaning you may have a different experience.

When I need to rest, at this point in my recovery, more than 3.5 years after the auto accident I was in, I can either lay down and try to do nothing but sometimes that makes me restless. I have an iPad and playing a very simple but repetitive game, one that isn't really challenging, like Candy Crush, is a good rest for me. That way I am occupied but not pushing it - I hope that makes sense.

Any zen-like activity like that works for me. I can watch a simple TV show that isn't stressful for me, like New Girl of The Big Bang Theory, but I can't watch something that is going to be suspenseful, like The Following, because it makes me anxious and then it's not restful.

Coloring may also be a good activity.

Putting a puzzle together may also be restful.

Just don't get stressed out. If you start to get frustrated, then it's a sign that whatever you're doing isn't restful.

Make sense?

I'm sorry to hear you are encountering problems. I think it is very common for the 'in-between' stage of trying to establish just what your threshold is.

If you haven't already, get a doctor's note and visit your university's accommodations office. They help provide work arounds for students with established "disabilities". This includes longer test taking time, note takers, etc. to help you with your condition.

It may be that you can also work with your teachers a different schedule of assignments (a bit extended) given your condition. I would hope most professors will try to work with you as you heal.

Best of luck!

Can you stay home and get a tutor from the school district? I did that for my job when I first started out teaching and full time jobs were hard to come by. Not sure if districts still offer that but I would think they would. I bet being in your own home with less stimuli would really help and then you could work more at your own pace.

Also, as far as simple activities that aren't too stressful, I've been recording old familiar shows on TV (preferably 30 min ones) and find that those are the easiest to watch. Movies that I've seen several times are also ok because they're predictable---no thinking involved.

That's about all I can handle at this point because I'm having vision problems as well as fine motor issues.