[DavidK]

Hi All

I'm new here and have been reading the comments on this forum for a month or so and I must say this is a great resource. But I still have some unanswered questions I hope you can help with- My story

6 months ago I slipped and fell while jogging and hit my chin on concrete with much of my bodyweight behind it. It was like a boxing uppercut with concrete I suppose.

I had a week and a half off work, then started 6 hour days. It was tough at first- lots of blurry vision, headaches, waking a lot in the night for long periods. This improved a little over time but was still there after 2 months.

At 2 months I felt fairly good despite the symptoms. I was put on 7 hour days, at the same time I had someone replace all the fluoro light tubes in the office and I worked in a noisy environment for 2 days. By the end of the week I started feeling quite bad- malaise and then I had what I would call a meltdown- basically stuck in bed, tired but couldn’t sleep for days. A heavy feeling of stress- like fight or flight.

After this I had a week off work and then put on 5 hour days. Over another 2 months I got used to the 5 hours I stabilised but didn’t seem to be improving further. My sleep was still bad- waking 1 to 3 times in the night then spending a long time to get back to sleep. So I asked for some medication so I could sleep. I was given Nortriptyline, which to my surprise took away much of my headaches, anxious feelings, etc (which turns out were neck related). I seemed to sleep better. However, I started doing more too and seemed have lost my indicators for fatigue. I suddenly just stopped sleeping for days while still going to work and gradually started feeling a lot worse. The drugs weren’t hiding it any more and I had another big meltdown- no sleep, heavy stress, malaise, which took 2 weeks to recover. By this stage 1 hour of conversation would take a day or 2 to recover from

In desperation, I went to an osteopath who informed me my C1 was “locked” and C5or6(?) were out. He fixed that and it made a big difference. Headache, pain, anxiety were much improved and a much clearer perception. Although this started to a little worsen again without doing some neck exercises

So now I’m just managing on 3 hour days, 4 days a week at work. I’ve stabilised at that and seems manageable, but still not really improving. What gets me is my fatigue is really quite bad compared to the first 2 months after injury. Where i wasnt having to hold back much in the first 2 months, now i do half as much in 1 day and I'll be exhausted and on the way to a meltdown

I’m wonder if I have another meltdown, I wont be able to do anything at all. I’m not really sure the reason its got so much worse and whatever it is I want to avoid it.

I’m really confused about having such a delayed increase in fatigue. And if it was the 2 meltdowns that set me back so far, or the neck problem causing headache and poor sleep. Maybe a combination of both? I wonder if others have experienced something similar or I'm just not understanding it right.

Can over doing it cause a large increase in fatigue?

I’m grateful for any insight anyone has to offer.