Hello , I was diagnosed with a concussion about 2 years ago. I am in the military and was participating in a training exercise. I was sitting in a humvee that has a circular opening and a heavy hatch that opens and closes on the roof of the vehicle for a gunner to sit. I was sitting in that position just below the opening with the hatch lid open. The driver hit the brakes too fast and the hatch slammed down right on top of my head. Luckily I had my helmet on. I was diagnosed with a concussion and a minor slipped disc in my neck.

The symptoms of the concussion lasted a strong year after the accident. Dizziness , brain fog , brain inflammation feeling , trouble focusing etc. (hard to explain symptoms). All of these were heightened when my heart rate would increase.

After some time the symptoms eventually subsided and now about two years later they have came back. Keep in mind I’ve been fully active again lifting weights, running, etc. and feeling great. Last Tuesday I was doing simple back extensions at the gym. After the tenth rep I stood up and started to black out. I sat down and immediately felt weak. I went home and felt really tired and groggy the rest of the night. I thought maybe I didn’t drink enough water or have enough food. The next day I tried real light exercise and the same symptoms. Now all of the symptoms that I had with my concussion have returned. Even my warms make me feel “out of it” and completely fatigued. I get dizzy just from turning my body around one time, difficulty concentrating , and other similar symptoms that I had before.

One thing that remains constant is my neck pain. My neck gets really tight and sore when I’m going through these symptoms. It feels as though I’m not getting good blood circulation to my brain or something and that’s what’s making me feel so depleted when I start to exercise and even walk down the sidewalk .

I saw my neurologist for this a couple days ago and said that this is just a setback and gave me some vestibular exercises to work on but couldn’t really give me a diagnosis or a reason why the symptoms are coming back.

Just asking for any advice on what this could be or if other people have experienced this. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. I’m trying to get my life back and won’t stop until I feel healthy again .


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I doubt you ever suffered a concussion. Your kevlar would have spread the impact to your neck. Your symptoms sound more like a upper cervical injury which you acknowledge. A vertical compression to C-1 and C-2 can manifest with almost every standard concussion symptom.

Lifting weights and impact exercises can be hard on upper cervical injuries. Weight lifting causes muscle tension in the shoulders and neck.

You are correct about not getting good blood circulation. The vertebral arteries can be compressed by inflammation in the C-1 and C-2 area.

Unfortunately, C-1 and C-2 are not faceted vertebra, meaning the condyles do not snap or center back into the facets very well. Condyles are the convex portion of the bone. Facets are the smooth slightly convex depressions that the condyles slip into allowing movement.

The ligaments that hold these joints together can get stretched and leave the joint unstable and subject to strain and inflammation.

Some have used prolotherapy or PRP or stem cell therapy to encourage strengthening of these ligaments.

The most important part is to limit straining them when they are not properly supported. Sleeping with a crooked neck is a big problem.

Inflammation in this area can impact quality of sleep than can cause many of the symptoms you mention.

Thank you so much for your reply and your feedback. I couldn’t agree more with your opinion. The more I research the more I believe that it is definitely a neck injury that I’m primarily dealing with. However, something that confuses me with the issue is that this neck pain will only start to occur when I get the head symptoms. The past 8 months my body has been feeling great with no neck pain. Exercising better than I ever have. When I was performing the back extensions I never felt a strain or pull in my neck. The neck pain came a couple days later. What is your opinion on physical therapy to strengthen the neck ? Do you have any recommendations for a different pillow ?

Thank you again for your feed back !!


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Possible delayed pain due to the neck strain?

Expert PT should be helpful to find reasons for the muscle/neck and some of the head issues.
Muscles in spasm can clamp down on your arteries & veins..
You can have lingering neck pain that goes unnoticed until something trigger a flare up..because it slowly sneaks up on us..

Trigger points can be a factor also, many sites online with interactive charts to see if they might apply.
samples -
Pain Reference Chart
Head and Neck | The Trigger Point & Referred Pain Guide

A PT will not strengthen your neck. A PT may do some gentle traction and mobilization. Stay away from chiropractors who do the 'Twist the head and pop the neck' adjustments. They are too aggressive.

You can strengthen your neck very carefully. Start with low efforts using a neck strengthening routine.

A pillow that allows a straight head and neck posture is best. Avoid anything that lifts your head so your chin goes toward your chest. Expect improvement to take many months of disciplined effort.

You can turn off that annoying "Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk" by going to Menu > Settings > Signatures

If you do have trigger points in your muscles , the muscles can't be fully released & then strengthened-- until the triggerpoints are resolved..

Sticky thread on TrPs from on of our other forums here-
Trigger point information {TrPs} for short

Also head/neck/shoulder posture is important.. forward head, rolled or hunched shoulders..can close down the upper chest where blood flow, nerves pass thru.

Thank you Mark and Jo Mar for the advice. As of right now I don’t have any trigger points. I used to get them in my back years ago and since I’ve focused more on mobility, stretching and foam rolling I rarely get them any more. My main symptom is just the dizziness and increased heart rate during exercise or a feeling of being “spacey.” This is what makes me think it’s the blood flow issue in the C1 and C2 I have an appointment soon with a neurologist and a regular orthopedic doctor as well so I’m hoping to get more answers.

Thanks again!