No No No No No

Any post must be 10 characters. Otherwise, I would have just said, No.

Thanks Mark.

Now I know youre going to want to kill me for asking this last question but hopefully you wont be to annoyed with me.

If say I was to do the exercise and I was to get some minor exacerbation of symptoms. In *your opinion* does minor onset of symptoms automatically mean a particular activity is impairing healing, or could it be just residual innocuous side effects that might eventually flare up a bit but then go away as time goes on? Solely just pain w/o negative repercussions. Like having to bear weight on an extremity gradually increasing tolerance..

This exercise really does help me in other ways so this is why I ask. If all I was experiencing was a little innocuous neck strain or innocuous headache from neurons readjusting to how they react to vibration, the positives of doing the exercises would definitely outweigh that small negative. I will be seeing a physical therapist soon to address trigger points in my neck, but in the mean time, in case I did experience a minor flare up, I just wanted to get your opinion on whether you felt it could be impairing healing. And I know everyone is unique and it could go either way, just wanted to get your feedback on the matter.

Thanks for baring with me on my questions sir.

I think the simplest answer that empowers you to understand and make decisions is this. Healing happens best when symptoms free. If you do something that causes a return of symptoms but those symptoms only last a hour, then who cares if you have delayed recovery by a hour. If you do something that sets you back for the next whole day, then that activity may be starting to push it but delaying recovery by only a day is still not a big deal. The anxiety of dealing with that bad day may last much longer and be problematic.

So, if you do something that causes a return of symptoms but those symptoms only last a few hours but your anxiety about that short return of symptoms has you spinning for a week, then you need to either not repeat that activity or at least not repeat that activity until you have found ways to resolve the follow up anxiety.

Is this answering your question ?



Anxiety can be worse than the minor return of symptoms.

I follow you Mark. Thanks.

The most annoying part is that aside from the headaches, which feel measurable and tangible, it is very hard to tell if the effects like increased mental haziness are real or psychosomatic.

For instance today, since it has been 3 weeks since the injury, I decided to see how I felt doing a 30 minute jog on the treadmill. The headaches seemed to intensify a bit for like an hour later, but then normalized to regular levels (close to minor to unnoticeable) through the rest of the day. It couldve been just the fact I hadn't jogged for 3 weeks and the increased circulation gave the feeling of a headache..

On the other hand, there were times where I felt the haziness increase with and without any accompanying headaches. When I have no headache but the feeling of increased haziness its hard to tell if its real or psychosomatic.

I see myself possibly running into this problem from doing my scalp exercise.. Where it could be actually totally ok (like the other day, just some feeling of blood rushing to the head, no headache) but I could just end up psyching myself out of doing it. I guess it's something I just have to work on..

At only three weeks post injury, you need to just let go and let time heal. You could be in the 85% who heal spontaneously in the first 6 weeks. You really need to learn to deal with your anxiety. A job as an RN will eat you alive if you can't learn to compartmentalize thoughts.

There are enough doctors who try to say we have somatoform disorder than we need to not set the stage for that diagnosis.

The haziness or foggy brain is often a result of anxiety. Sounds like you may be your own worse enemy.

I agree with you Mark, both about anxiety control
Being key for an RN as well as anxiety being a major cause of brain fog.

It's just difficult deciphering whether it's from anxiety or the actual concussion. I have to become keen on identifying the difference as I don't want anxiety related fog to hold me back from activities I enjoy.

I guess I have to work on taking a step back from it all, be in the moment more, maybe that will help me be more clear on whether it is anxiety related or not.

I don't think you can adequately determine what is anxiety related and what is concussion. In my experience, the concussion fog will go away after a short rest. Properly done, that rest can also help reduce anxiety. You will need to learn to moderate stress that causes anxiety, your thought based anxieties, and how to take short effective breaks.