Hey everyone. I was reading through some topics on here and it seemed like a good community, so I figured I'd post about my condition, since as a lot of you know it's hard to get support from most people about PCS.

Anyway, I'm Jon. 22 years old. Suffered a mild concussion slightly over 4 months ago, still experiencing symptoms. The injury was entirely my own fault (which is mostly the reason why I beat myself up over the whole thing), I drank too much one night and hit my head off of a table head-on.

I want to make it perfectly clear from the start that over the past 4 months, I have definitely seen improvements over where I was at the beginning of all of this. But lately I've felt that I've hit a wall (figuratively), where my symptoms have been pretty consistent, not seeming to get better or worse.

So the "critical period" of my injury was a giant failure on my part, but as we all know, hindsight is 20/20 on these kinds of things. The night it happened, I didn't even think anything of it when I hit my head since I didn't bleed or go unconscious or vomit. I just hit my head while drinking and then went home and slept. The next day I chalked up my headache to a simple hangover, and went on with my day, even going to the movies with a friend of mine. On the second day, I still had my headache and had foggy vision and a general feeling of disorientation, so I went to the ER and was diagnosed with a concussion. They gave me a week off from work, but didn't take me out of college classes since I was in my final semester.

I felt like I continuously made more mistakes throughout the initial period, like hanging out with people instead of resting (I figured this would reduce the temptation of doing too much screen-related stuff at home). Truthfully I just kind of had no idea what I was doing most of the time, with doctors and other sources of information giving me conflicting information on what I should be doing for it all.

So my symptoms persisted. During the initial phases, I was feeling foggy 24/7, but I also experienced headaches, fatigue, and dizziness pretty regularly. Often times it would get so bad that I had to leave class.

I should mention that after a few weeks, I decided to go into physical therapy, which I've been doing for the past 3 months or so. My therapist had determined my deficits were in the inner ear, so we did balance therapy to work my vestibular system back up. This is probably my greatest sign of improvement throughout this whole ordeal. My balance has greatly improved, and I've actually passed all of the tests in therapy. I'm doing about as well as I possibly can there. Yet my symptoms haven't gone away.

One other thing that is probably worth mentioning is that after about a month and a half, I started to feel some really intense pressure and fullness in my ears. I had to constantly try to pop them because it felt so bad. I went to my family doctor and he chalked it up to my allergies/sinuses, so he put me on stronger allergy medicines. That actually did help, but then those symptoms came back about a month ago and my sinuses were under control this time. I went back to my doctor, and he felt I had a Eustachian tube dysfunction. I went to an ENT after that, and she didn't seem to feel the same way, and instead removed some ear wax and insisted it would improve. While I don't feel the ear symptoms as regularly/intensely anymore, they do come back every now and then.

I'd say my symptoms were most intense in the first 2-2 1/2 months. Since then I have felt better. However, my symptoms have been different now since then. Like rather than feeling dizzy, I tend to feel light-headed, or rather than having foggy vision I tend to get blurry vision. A lot of people don't understand the differences when I talk about it, but hopefully you guys get it. I also have a sensitivity to different kinds of light. I don't get headaches as frequently anymore, but they do pop up every now and then.

The thing is, currently my symptoms have been moderate, which I'm thankful for. They're more an annoying aspect of my day than they are something that significantly hinders it like they did in the beginning. While some days are slightly better or worse than others, I find that every day I seem to be feeling the same range of symptoms, at relatively the same frequency and intensity. While I'm thankful that I haven't gotten worse, I'm frustrated that I've stopped showing any signs of improvement.

So the big question is: is it possible to hit a wall with PCS recovery like this? Can you get to a point where you just stop improving and have to deal with these kinds of symptoms daily?

I recognize that PCS is something that no one seems to have clear answers to since everyone is different, but any input is definitely appreciated.

Also, sorry if this post is kind of long. I wanted to include as much information as possible about my recovery, but if you have any other questions, just ask. Thank you!