The thing I find really confusing is, why would my symptoms get worse when I concentrate? None of my symptoms have been very typical of pcs, such as no dizziness, memory issues, sight issues and so on. This would suggest that my brain has received minimal damage. But if most of my issues suggest neck injury, why would that affect my ability to concentrate or watch TVs?

Your brain could be working at limited power. To concentrate or watch TV, it has to step up the processing power. A common problem with PCS is the brain's ability to focus on one issue and ignore the others. A healthy brain can easily do this. An injured brain may not do it as well.

My brain doesn't. My neuro, after examining how my brain functions, said, "You hear everything. How do you handle that ?" This precisely my problem. If I want to watch TV, I need to wear headphones so my brain does not hear the faint ambient sounds in the room or the echos. Without the head phones, it is difficult to focus on the TV.

For many, this function will recover over time. For some of us, we just have to learn workarounds.

One of my work arounds is simple. If I need to concentrate and can close my eyes, I can concentrate much better. With my eyes closed, the brain does not have to put processing effort into the visual and can put that effort into other needed processes.

A saying to remember is simple. We often need to "Stop to think." That means we need to stop the other activities, turn off sounds, etc. so we can think.

The brain is not designed to multi-task. It is a stressful action. Learning to not multi-task can reap benefits.

With two kids running around, it's very, very difficult to both keep stimulation and stress at low levels. The noise is continuous. The visual hub bub is continuous. And as this is where I live, there's no other choice besides putting my head in a sound proof, vision proof helmet. It's improved quite a bit, but it's slow going. Does the brain just stop improving? Or do you think in my case it will continue to do so? Does the stimulation help the brain plastercise? Or simply slow down the healing process?

I read so much conflicting information, it's like nobody has any clue what they're talking about.

"Does the stimulation help the brain plastercise? Or simply slow down the healing process?
I read so much conflicting information, it's like nobody has any clue what they're talking about. "

The brain heals best during non-symptomatic periods. I don't understand the plastercise question. What conflicting info are you finding ?

Have you tried to teach the kids to be less noisy ? Noise is not a necessary part of being a kid. I believe kids are conditioned to expect life to be loud and rambunctious. I was one of 6 kids in a 3 bedroom house. My wife and I raised 3 kids without over-stimulating noise. Noise is for outside (outside voices). A less stimulating environment is possible. Maybe you can find a medium level that is tolerable.

Ear plugs??

There is plenty of conflicting information and advice out there. For example, one website will say: the injured brain needs total rest. Another will say, the injured brain will require mild stimulation so it can use brain plasticity to rewire itself. Others with say, once the brain is injured, it can never heal, you have a certain amount of brain cells and that is it. Another will say, exercise can help something called neurogenesis, this means that your brain heals cells and even regenerates new ones.

It's all very confusing.

The information out there needs to be filtered. The total rest concept is old and not supported by more recent understanding. The mild stimulation is valuable to encourage good blood flow. The rewiring, plasticity, and neuro-regeneration all fall into the same concept. i.e. How does the brain respond to injury ? What is often missing is the criteria for each concept. More severe injuries have a potential for a greater recovery. With proper rehab, the brain will find ways to get functional.

Then there is relative levels of injury and recovery. The lesser injuries, concussions, will see improvements but not as drastic as the severe injuries. For example. With a severe TBI, the patient may recover from a 2 or 3 out of 10 to a 7 or 8 out of 10. That is quite a recovery. Wow, almost dead to able to walk and talk and feed oneself and even carry on a conversation.

For a concussion, the patient is only injured to a 7 or 8. Recovering to an 8 or 9 is common but considered problematic. We often start our recovery where others hope to finish their recovery.

Most plasticity comments are about the severely injured. Their brains find new ways of doing a function. So, they go from no function or minimally functional to able to function.

The research shows that for people like us, we attain much of our recovery by learning new ways to function. Fighting a dysfunction rarely gets us to a restoration of that function. Learning new ways to do that function can get us back to a 'sense' of normal functioning.

Neurogenesis, if it truly happens, is a slow process. It is more of a maintenance process than a healing process. The brain does not grow new brain cells to replace damaged ones. The belief is that it is constantly but slowly adding brain cells. But, that regeneration slows as we age. Plus, those new cells still need to be 'programmed.' If you think of it, most of our brain's programming took place over a decade or two, birth to 25 years old.

Most of the healing of brain cells happens in the first few days to a few weeks. By then, the brain has decided which damaged cells have healed to a functional level and which have not. Those that have not are shut down. The brain has a signalling process that shuts down dysfunctional cells.

The mild stimulation is valuable at getting good blood flow to the cells that are trying to recover.

The brain can get stagnant. If it is not used, the cells can go sort of dormant. So, this mild stimulation helps keep these cells from going dormant. Those dormant cells can be rehabilitated by use. It appears some of these cells go dormant in a sort of 'duck for cover' action. Stress causes dysfunction so they 'duck for cover' from the stress.

Moving forward from where we are is the best path. Trying to live life as we used to will cause stress and dysfunction. Having a family willing to make accommodations is extremely beneficial.

So, judging by what you said, considering I'm currently around an 7-8, I have very little chance of ever improving? I'm basically stuck with daily headaches forever. I can't even work out most of my triggers, it's so subtle.

So much for the confidence of my neurologist.

No, What I said was that doctors have little interest in focusing on improvements past the 7-8 level. Improving past that level is up to us and is usually slow at coming. We can seek out specific help, vestibular, vision, etc. but doctors and others are not likely to go out of their way to determine if we should be referred to these other diagnostics and therapies.

I'm in the midst of a mega headache, so it's probably dampened my mood somewhat. It's hard going for sure, but I'm going for at least 98%. That's my goal. One thing I've noticed with this us that it goes through different phases. So one month you'll be going through a nausea phase. Then you'll get a head ache phase after the nausea has gone. Then my neck and back of head may play up. And round we go. Any idea why this occurs?