I wondered if anyone had any comments about this--but after my injury I returned to work fairly soon and also started exercising about 6 days after. My symptoms weren't really all that bad at the time . . . . although I still had symptoms.

Did I cause this to be prolonged by not resting more initially? I am still trying to make sense of where I'm at and how I got here and what I can do to make it better.

seth,

It is not uncommon for symptoms to show up weeks later as the brain struggles to sort the injury out. Part of the brain's system is to first try to restore function to injured areas/tissue. If/When that does not work, the brain cells send out a signal to shut down those partially functioning cells. This results in a delayed spike in symptoms.

There doesn't really seem to be any consensus on how long the rest period should be, does there? In fact, what the heck does the medical profession really know about brain injuries? I'm really beginning to wonder. There is no clear consensus on ANYTHING.

Indeed, I actually spent 4 days just being with my family and trying not to exert myself after the concussion. I then went back to work feeling fuzzy, maybe slightly off-balance and with a bit of a headache, but we had a big initiative launch that day and I thought I really should be there. I then did a 20 mile bike ride the following weekend. I felt great afterward. Nothing at that point pointed to anything but a quick recovery.

I spoke at a City Council meeting the next day and was feeling some anxiety that I'd ever felt before. And by that Thursday (1 1/2 weeks after the accident) I felt good enough to go to the gym and do some intense efforts. The next day I felt horrible though, and since that time the symptoms seem to have gotten worse instead of better, or at least hit a plateau.

I know it's not productive, but I keep beating myself up about not resting more. In my darkest moments, I feel like I totally messed up my life and and my family's life by not paying attention to my body. I have to say that I did see a fairly experienced sports medicine person about 48 hours after my injury, and he seemed to think I was progressing fairly well, so I did seek some medical attention.

I did not got to the ER initially. However, I did go at 2 1/2 weeks when my symptoms and anxiety really started getting worse and that was when they did the CT Scan and it was clear. Almost at 7 months now, and still have about the same symptoms as I did 3 months in. Maybe cognitively a little bit better, but that's about it.

I still wonder if a month of rest at home would be what I really need to get over the hump. Now that I think about all of this, in hindsight, I think I really felt pretty good immediately post concussion. Being with my immediate family makes me feel better, always.

Seth,

I think I delayed my recovery also but I am recovering.

I kept trying to exercise through it by running in the 100 degree weather, that's how I did every other ailment. I also used a sledge hammer to beat on some steel fence posts in concrete at around 3.5 months and that backfired something terrible.

Chris

Well, I have also been one to push through everything. Any ailment, sickness, etc. Rest has always been a hard proposition for me. I was the type of guy that would work a 10 hour day and then go on a 3 hour group training ride and feel even better the next day, or get up at 5:30 and hammer out a 30 mile ride. All that stuff just made me feel less tired and ready to handle the day. Maybe all of this is a blessing in disguise in some ways. Or maybe not. I have really had to SLOW down these last few months. I have to say that once the symptoms started getting bad, I did drop down to 20 hours per week at work for about 10 days. And I have taken various amounts of medical leave, shortened hours, this summer. I am trying, maybe trying too hard, to recover. I do not take on any new projects here for the time being, and work is very apprised of my situation.