Hey all, just reading some of the threads and I've seen some awesome responses, but I figured I'd just post my exact situation and see if there's and specific feedback....so, here goes!!

History: I'm 34, played hockey my whole life...in my 12-16 age range I would guess I suffered 3-4 concussions. Back then though it was not regarded as anything other than "getting your bell rung". Since then I may have had the odd smack to the head but nothing significant.

July 20th 2014 (15 weeks ago): I sustained a significant blow to the crown of my head (not knocked unconscious). I was a bit woozy getting up and felt a bit off the rest of the day. The next couple days I felt fine. I play hockey 3-4 times a week (non-contact hockey, but accidents happen)....so 3 days after this blow to the head I went to play hockey for 1.5hrs (again, still feeling fine). Felt fine the whole time...the next day I felt HORRIBLE. Major headache, super unbalanced and dizzy. Was like that for a couple of days so I went to the doc and she's like "oh you definitely have sustained a concussion"

Weeks 1-5 following concussion: I did almost NOTHING...no work, no video games, almost no tv, I followed the protocol for concussion recovery pretty well. I started feeling better after 4-5 weeks and started light exercise again. Didn't have a game plan and did walking but stupidly played some tennis, and a LIGHT game of ball hockey. Anyways, this sent me back into a brutal relapse and the symptoms came back worse than before!

Weeks 6-13 following concussion: Again, literally did nothing other than sit on my couch, sleep and listen to my tv. Limited my life better than I think most could. Symptoms were very off/on throughout that time....but towards week 13 I start feeling better!

Weeks 14-15: I feel A LOT better and the symptoms are gone. All last week I was doing 5min of walking 3x a day...and this week was doing it 10min 3x a day (and even did some things around the house and such that caused me to sweat pretty good, and even shot the hockey ball around [no game playing] for 10-15min). I still feel good!!! Ive been seeing my doc every week-10days since this has happened. Now she's saying to slowly amp up the exercise durations with walking and bike riding.....BUT what I didn't like was she said I can't return to hockey (and Im assuming other eye/hand activities like video gaming etc) until Late Dec/Early Jan at the earliest.

So, question is.....is she being overly pre-cautious? She was saying you have to take as much time "post-feeling good" as it took to get to that point in the healing process. So a few more months. But, a lot of what I read I don't see that much time needed from doing light exercise to playing a sport again. Should I question this program she has me on??

Thanks!

Kustamogen,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

I think your doc is being very generous suggesting you can return to hockey so soon. Your history and age suggest you have reached that point where your brain has become very sensitive to impacts. Your setbacks are likely due to taking on activities with a lot of side to side head motions. Tennis and ball hockey both have lots of head movement. You need to find activities that give you a way to slowly regain this head movement ability.

I would not be surprised if you still have a long road ahead. Your age is working against you. I predict that your next concussion or even just a dinger will make you miserable in ways you can not imagine. You have fought hard to get to this point, please consider your future carefully.

Keep in mind that you have a life to live. You don't likely have a big nest egg like an NHL player might have to survive off of if your next concussion disables you.

My best to you.