I am 3 months post concussion. I was hit in the head by a baseball at my sons baseball game....

3 months later I still am having difficulties returning to exercise. I went to the neuro 2 days after being hit because my husband did not think it was a big deal... Little did we know I had sustained a concussion. I had an MRI of head, MRI of neck, VNG, sonogram of arteries to head and thru neck... Ears checked.. EEG the whole 9 yards...

Concluded That I was fine except for the post concussion.... Symptoms at the time were: Headache, noise sensitivity, inability to concentrate, foggy head, inability to tolerate annoying people (lol)sore neck, strained eye sight (in one eye) chronic fatigue...and very moody... And major sleeping disturbances.. Meaning stay up late sleep during day... I try to sleep at night but I feel like I cant get into a deep sleep... I don't know if it because I have anxiety that I may have brain bleeding or a blood clot and the Dr.'s missed it... Irrational thought I know.

A majority of my symptoms have decreased other than my anxiety and inability to tolerate exercise... which may very well go hand and hand for me..
Before the accident I was a gym junkie.. 6 days per week with out fail... Doing abnormally high impact exercise... to nothing is horrible for me...

I have gained 12 lbs and am trying to lose it but without exercise well... its kind of hard... I have tried to increase exercise and I am fine while doing it... but later on wow..... Fatigue... anxiety...neck pain...headache head feels tight and numb and a horrible night sleep leading me into sleeping in the whole next day... Example: I took a yoga class... did fine doing it.. felt great.. Later that night I felt like I did not sleep alright... The next morning I was exhausted and went back into bed for 5 more hours getting out of bed at 12PM.... Mind you I have never ever ever slept in unless I was deathly ill... the week before I went on the EFX machine did it for 40 mint... barely broke a sweat... same thing that night sleeplessness = sleeping the whole next day... Tight head feeling, being strangled by the back of the neck pain...horrible horrible neck pain...

Went to a new neuro for a second opinion and he suggest I go for a Psy. evaluation and wanted me to talk Zoloft..... I left there feeling worse than before... Look I get I maybe alittle depressed considering my drastic life style change of course I am upset... But a Psy evaluation .. My sleep all day is not because I am depressed. believe me I am physically exhausted ... Did I over do it doing those mundane exercises .. How about they check if something maybe going wrong with the initial problem my head..Maybe my exercise is exasperating it.... I dunno ...

But I refused to Zoloft ... I can not take it... I am so afraid of those type of drugs.... I think that would make my anxiety worse..... Any advice would help tremendously.... I know there is a lot to digest here...Sorry for its length...Do you think acupuncture would help... Oh and one more weird thing... My hair is thinning out... I have always had abnormally thick hair and it beginning to get thinner... oh and another strange thing... I randomly get freezing cold all over my body.... strange right..

Forget about exercise until absolutely all symptoms have gone. I am 1yr and 2 months on and I thought I was better, went to the gym two months ago and sure enough the neuropathic pain came back and I am now on Lyrica.

Cymbalta really helped me at 30mg both for pain and taking the edge off things. Imigran helped me with headaches.

Get plenty of rest, avoid computers, TV, overstimulation - plenty of quiet rest is the best medicine.

I am working full time and leading a busy life now. However I need to know my limits and the gym on top of everything else is too much.

Good luck!

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk

I am sorry to hear about your struggles. Your symptoms sound much like others with PCS.


As for exercise, I am surprised your dox or the neurologist did not caution you against those. Yes, you are right. Those hard work out you love are not doing your injured brain any good right now. You need to give in to your injured brain, feed it and your body really good food too.

The exercise you can do is gentle walking. It will get your blood moving, and get the oxygen in your brain too. Easy stretching and yoga is fine too if you don't have those head snapping moves. Don't do any exercise to exhaustion like you used to. The key is learning to stop before you get tired.

Your symptoms after hard exercise are telling you this too. It's not letting you heal and most likely setting you back.

I know about needing sleep all the time. I do recall that. It's hard, but give in to it. You need it.

Check out the book BrainLashed -- Gail Denton. That helped me a lot. It is free from you public library.

Hang in there and keep asking questions. Others will weigh in. We know about our journey with this scary condition. Your brain can heal. You can recover your life. It takes time like you will not believe. But hang in there.

All for now,

poetrymom

ap11414,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I am confused by your time line. You were hit by a baseball 3 months ago ? Late September Early October baseball ?

What you are experiencing is classic post concussion syndrome. Don't fret about a brain bleed. You are months past the time a brain bleed would manifest. Plus, the imaging would have shown a bleed.

It sounds like you are experiencing anxiety. It messes with sleep and can effect hair and nails. Zoloft is for anxiety as well as depression.

You could try the vitamin regimen with L-Theanine and L-Tryptophan for serotonin and GABA support. They can do most of what an anti-depressant/anxiolitic can do. Look in the Vitamins and Supplements sticky at the top. Here is a link : http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread181974.html

Exercise is not a good idea, especially if it causes symptoms. You may be a dopamine junkie from the exercise routine. Without the exercise, you may be dopamine deficient from being so dopamine rich from your exercise binges. A diet that supports dopamine would be helpful. There was a post recently about dopamine. I'll look for it. Here is the dopamine post:

The third important neurotransmitter is Dopamine. Food sources of dopamine increasing tyrosine include almonds, avocados, bananas, dairy products, lima beans, pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds. Caffeine provides a short term increase of dopamine but the effect ends quickly. Dopamine levels can be decreased by an anti-oxidant deficient diet, so vit C, vit E and the other anti-oxidants are needed.

Wow. Thank you for such speedy responses. I really appreciate it...mark I was hit with the baseball the end of Sept. Sometime (my son played fall baseball). The Dr. Did tell me light exercise and gradually increase. Was trying doesn't seem to be working..but I have been googling the Buffalo protocol and think I'm going to try this in a few weeks or sooner if I feel up to it. Mark you are 100% correct about my anxiety but it is very inconsistent.. as far as a dopamine junky could be but I know for sure I am an endorphins junkie...all chemicals in the brain are probaly outta wack for the past 15 yrs I have been exercising and then...dead stop...I never had this stress before because I simply exercised them away...and honestly what is causing the most grief is the uncertainty of recovery...I am going to try all those supplement you suggested....
Once again....thank you so much...

I forgot to mention something big regarding my post concussion syndrome... I don't know how I could forget this but after reading older post it reminded me... I had an MRI of the neck and they found I have degenerative disk problem on my C5, misalignment and a bulging disc.. Now I have always had neck issues so I never thought it could be in relation because I have been dealing with this so long... But could this be a contributing factor to everything else and why I am not healing properly.. My chiro has been telling me ever since I had the concussion to come in but with all that has been going on I have not made it there....

Considering this I have not had any headaches.... The only time I experience any headaches if when I am very tired/ or stressed.
I am making it a point to get there today and get aligned.... ASAP.. I don't know if this will help me in regards to my fitness and resuming it but I guess its a start...

C-5 is a bit low for causing concussion symptoms. With your disk degeneration, your chiro needs to be very gentle adjusting your neck. The standard 'twist the head and pop the neck' is often too aggressive for necks injured during a head impact. You probably should ice your neck after he adjusts it.

Actually I was incorrect it was my C3... Sorry I do not know where I got that number from.. But the Dr. today told me I was totally out of wack... I did feel a lot better after my visit... But then again my problems only exist after a workout..I did take a yoga class today... Very easy and took it very very light.. felt ok.. just a bit of anxiety and fatigue cuz I only slept 4 hours last night. If I don't workout I am fine.. No symptoms at all other than my own anxiety that I can not workout...LOL.....I am figuring with time.. my stress will work itself out....