I'm 16 and I injured my head 10 monthes ago. I really can't be sure at this point if my headaches are getting worse or better. I feel foggy and tired most the day. I'm now back to running fully again which is good and bad. It's hard to think about how much faster I would be without the headaches and gap in training. Some weeks I feel almost completely fine, I train well and my headaches and foggyness is subdued. But this is almost always followed be a week or two of depression and anxiety often onset by a bump in my head. It's so frustrating to train as hard as I do running 50+ miles a week followed by hours in the weight room just to be stopped short in a race by a bad headache. The one medicine that did help, propanonol made my blood pressure too low and my chest tight which affected my training. Some days I feel like the headaches and symptoms of PCS will never go away. I can't tell if it's getting better or not and its been 10 monthes. Schools starting now which will add another variable. The pain would be enough to drive someone like me crazy. Then not being able to function mentally and physically like I want to. And then not being able to train right gets me very frustrated, anxious, and depressed. Meanwhile almost all my friends talk behind my back saying that I'm just saying it for attention, which doesn't make sense because I don't even talk to them about it because they find it funny.

Phoenix I'm assuming you've seen a doctor (or a few doctors) for your concussion? Are you on a school running team and actively training?

From what you're describing it really sounds as if you're overdoing it physically and not letting your brain heal.

I realize this would be very hard to do for you, but I would recommend stopping running competitively and stopping weight lifting (at least scale it down) for a few months, and then building back up very slowly.

Trust me when I say this, you do not want to find out how bad PCS can get if you mismanage it and don't listen to your body, which is obviously begging you to slow down.

Why are you doing weight room work if you are a distance runner ? A distance runner does not want to build muscle mass.

Weight work tends to cause neck and upper body muscle tension that is not good for headaches.

How is your neck ? The injury you sustained was traumatic to your neck. Many headaches are due to neck issues.

How is you sleep ?

Phoenix,

I'm sorry that you are dealing with these difficult symptoms, and that are interfering with your daily life and the regular routine that you want to continue

Exercise is usually regarded as a good thing when treating PCS, but I don't know if your strenuous routine and weightlifting is too much, and may be making your symptoms worse. That is something to discuss with a neurologist.

I don't know how many doctors you have seen up to this point, but sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes and someone with more training and experience to get you on the right path to successful treatment. I would recommend seeing another neurologist for evaluation and treatment.

I'm so sorry that your friends are talking behind your back. It's sad that they think your suffering is "funny." Part of that is immaturity, but it sounds to me like they're acting like ********, and if they were good friends, they would be more sensitive to your feelings. 16 is a tough age.

I hope that you have someone that you can confide in without judgement

I hope you will seek further medical care… or at least advice from a doctor as to whether or not your level of activity is safe, or at least not contributing to your symptoms.

I hope you will keep posting and let us know how you are doing

Kay

Phoenix,

Listen to your body. You are young and have a whole bunch of life ahead for which you will want to be healthy. Missing a year of competition or being satisfied with competing at a lower level is a small price for a lifetime of activity.

Don't listen to the naysayers, life is full of commentators and you are being given a chance to learn a valuable lesson. Ignore the negative that comes from people who are not living inside your skin. There is a vast difference between rumor and advice, learning the difference while young is invaluable.

Bud

[QUOTE=Mark in Idaho;1219956]Why are you doing weight room work if you are a distance runner ? A distance runner does not want to build muscle mass.

Weight work tends to cause neck and upper body muscle tension that is not good for headaches.

How is your neck ? The injury you sustained was traumatic to your neck. Many headaches are due to neck issues.

How is you sleep ?

No neck pain. Pain in the right side of my head, not building mass building lean muscle mass and doing flexibility in the weight room. Mostly for my rock climbing training. Sleep has gotten much better, three neurologists I've talked to now say that my training is fine. I will go crazy if I have to just rest again.

Building upper body strength for rock climbing will limit your development as a distance runner if you want to be competitive. If you run for conditioning, not competition, building upper body strength is OK.

Your neck may not exhibit pain but can still be a problem. Do you have tenderness behind your ear at the bony place ? We can them subtle neck injuries because they have minimal symptoms other than inflammation and muscle spasms that cause head aches and fogginess.

Take a run with foam ear plugs and listen to the pounding of your foot plant. That pounding is at C-1 and C-2, right where inflammation and muscle spasms start.

You may need to give up on roadwork for a while. A stationary bike can help maintain you condition. But, do not push into a headache. The Buffalo Protocol says to limit pulse rate to 80% of your symptom triggering level.

btw, Studies show that 80% of concussions include a subtle neck injury.

Phoenix I've been an endurance athlete for most of my life (mostly x-country skiing/running and variations of that) and agree with Mark on the weight room, there should be no need for that if you're targeting to be an endurance athlete. One of my long time x-country skiing coaches actually forbade us to go to a weight room. We mostly did resistance training using our body weights (pushups, pullups, rubber bands, etc)... But this is for you to figure out/decide, we don't know the full story here.

As for giving up what you love to do - I get your resistance completely, I was twice your age when this last concussion messed me up and I had a very hard time giving up my active life. Sitting at home was literally driving me crazy into panic attacks. I can't imagine going through this at your age.

But what I'll say again is this - you do not want to make this worse and deal with it for the rest of your life. Right now I would literally give up all of my money/posessions just for a chance to feel normal again and be able to do things that I used to do before this last concussion. It is very hard to understand these things unless you've been through it yourself.

One experience that comes close to understanding PCS is when I used to ski in the backcountry and not care enough about avalanches. I knew the risk is there, but at the time I was in my 20s and I guess didn't really think it could happen to me.
Well, one day it did and scared the s**t out of me, you realize just how fragile your life is and how powerful nature is. I'd like to think that I became much wiser that day.

Think about it this way, right now you need to give up very little - stop, or at least cut back on running/physical exercise, for a very good chance of getting well and doing these things again in a few months. Or the other choice is keep pushing it and possibly making it worse and not being able to do much of anything for the rest of your life.

By the way, just because a doctor said it's ok to do something doesn't always mean you should go out and do it. Very few doctors have an understanding of PCS. They are good to rule out any other serious conditions (such as brain tumors), but when it comes to dealing with PCS most of them are useless.

I've had one neck spasm in the front of my neck. And a pain in my left ear above the ear hole. Thanks for the foam earplug suggestion, will try.

The problem with cutting my training is there is no guarantee that will make me heal. If I don't heal in the time I rest that will cause me all kinds of anxiety. But if I keep training I may never get better but at least I'd get to do something I like. It's tricky and there are so many different theories on exercise and pcs.

Oh the choices. Keep training and having headaches or take some time off from training so the headaches go away and slowly rebuild training levels avoiding headaches.

I'd prefer to get past the headaches then ease back into training.