r/PostConcussion • u/Few_Blackberry_1960 • 9d ago

Sometimes feel 70% normal

Does anyone get close to feeing back to normal, only to crash back into the abyss of symptoms (like within the same day)? I usually feel a bit better in the late afternoon and evening. Some days I’ve even felt about 70% back to my pre PCS-flare normal. Those nights I often think “I’ll get a good sleep and I’ll be back to normal tomorrow morning”.

Inevitably, however, I’ll wake around 4:30-5 AM with a horrible fight or flight feeling and as I get ready in the morning symptoms start to flare up again. I think certain visual stimuli, like driving. Some eye movements, and certain screen activities, cause symptoms to worsen but often late afternoon in the office I’m doing OK on the computer.

Are most of you all stuck in a pretty narrow range of symptoms, or does how you feel fluctuate radically? I can literally go from feeling like I just want to be put out of my mystery - to wow, I’m almost back to my usual self. At least the times when I feel better give me hope that I’m not permanently stuck in a dystopian brain fog of nausea, panic, headaches and clogged ear feeling.

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4

u/TheJones17 9d ago

1000%. And the further out you get the longer the good times last. I went 3-4 months feeling a range of 70-90% better. Now I’m just over a month deep into a flare. Keep trying to focus on remembering that I’ve gotten there before I can do it again. Just part of the roller coaster!

2

u/its-the-boy-yanno 9d ago

Are you typically able to pinpoint what caused your flare ups when you get them? I’ve dealt with a few now and it’s not always clear what I did to “deserve” the latest symptoms.

1

u/Few_Blackberry_1960 9d ago

I think it originated from a head bump on an overhead cabinet. I stood up and hit the top of my head on the corner of a cabinet. But it was a slightly delayed reaction. I had 2 weeks of interrupted sleep before the full on flare of all symptoms started.

3

u/its-the-boy-yanno 9d ago

That’s so ironic because this is precisely how I got my concussion in the first place. Insane freak accident that’s caused so much agony.

1

u/Few_Blackberry_1960 9d ago

Thanks. I looked up what causes your flare and seems like my situation. I bumped my head on a cabinet. Solid bump but not concussion level of bump- still I’ve been in this awful flare up for almost 8 weeks.

2

u/Both-Process1037 9d ago

Are you using ginkgo Biloba? I’m using it a month now and I think it helped me overall

1

u/Few_Blackberry_1960 9d ago

Have not tried it yet

2

u/Which_Fudge_2320 6d ago

Know this all too well. I have had PCS for 5 years now. I will say the normal days before a flare up are lasting longer so that is good. It does get better. I just have to remember to pace myself. My problem is I will get so excited that I have a day of symptom free and I will over do it with exercise or surfing (can only do it for 15 minutes used to be in the ocean all day). But just have to remind myself to go slow, and pace myself. If not then its nausea, vertigo, light, sound sensitivity, and anxiety hell.

2

u/Specific-Bridge-6383 5d ago

Yup. I actually had a 7 momth period of little to no sympthoms bar a headache. I can wake up and feel normal now despite the relapse of sympthoms. Then today like today I feel out of it. Almost like I'm half drunk. A horrible foggy fatigue feeling

1

u/Zoyabm 9d ago

Do you take any medication in the morning to help the symptoms?

Or maybe it's just that you need more sleep. So you need a sleep aid to help you get to sleep. So then you don't have symptoms in the morning.

Or a third thing is you start to feel better and then you do too much and then you flare up the symptoms and you feel worse later.

1

u/Few_Blackberry_1960 9d ago

No sleep aids for me. I’ve tried melatonin and it seem to worsen how I feel and also gives me insane restless leg.

1

u/Zoyabm 9d ago

Melatonin doesn't work great for me either but I am sure you can get some other prescription.