Post concussion syndrome- increase in symptoms caused by specific movement (bending up and down/ lifting items/being unbalenced)

[Outdoor123]

Hi,

I’ve been recovering from post concussion syndrome over the past year. As I improve, I’m finding that bending up and down (especially if I am carrying/ picking up a weight or reaching out and putting my body off balance) will bring on an instant unpleasant feeling in my head (kind of like a pressure as opposed to an intense pain) and if I continue with movements (for example like when I have to as I am packing a bag/ tidying up) it will cause other symptoms that had been getting better to quickly come back E.g. noise sensitivity/ trouble with speech/ slower more unbalanced movements. This will improve if I stop movements or lie down. Has anyone experienced anything similar? Got any suggestions to improve it?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Broken_Doll]

Hi there,

I believe the symptoms that you describe could be of vestibular origin (balance system). Following any type of traumatic brain injury the vestibular system can be “upset”.

I have hearing loss following my traumatic brain injury and I also have vestibular deficits although my dizzy spells and sensation of spinning have improved dramatically following vestibular “retraining” sessions in a balance clinic. I was also given hearing aids and they have improved my balance significantly.

I found an article that describes vestibular problems relating to brain injury better than I can!

vestibular.org/concussion

Here’s the most useful part of the information:

“Trauma to the brain can result in abnormal vestibular system functioning, and the brain can receive abnormal signals regarding the position and movement of the head in space. When vestibular information is inaccurate, the brain most often relies on visual input to stabilize the head on the body. This means that the visual system becomes the most reliable system to quickly assess one’s position in space and to remain balanced. Relying upon vision alone as the primary source of balance often leads to fatigue and difficulty performing routine daily activities.”

It might be worth popping along to your GP to see if you can be seen by audiology or even better if they have a balance clinic.

I hope you manage to get to the bottom of this!

Take care!

Emma

[Outdoor123 in reply to Broken_Doll]

Hi,

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, this information was very useful. The article is very helpful too. Thankyou. With so many symptoms it can be hard to see what are the main ones but balence being a key issues now makes a lot of sense. I will talk to my GP.

I hope you continue well on your road to recovery.

Thanks again.

[sospan]

Hi,

Quite a lot of us get these symptoms. They can range from slight imbalance problems to complete vertigo like being on a ship in a storm.

Balance is a combination of senses from things like our feet, eyes, ears etc. Prior to your injury all of these could be processed quickly and corrective signals sent back to the relevant part of the body to steady yourself.

However, post injury it takes longer for the brain to process these and subsequently send back signals meanwhile more signals are coming in to process. This then overloads the brain which is why speech and memory get effected.

I suffered really badly from BPPV, so when I went to bed the room spun around. I had the "Epley manoeuvre" applied several times over 18 months which corrected it.

However, it didn't help my walking or dizziness caused by movements. I used to practice hand and eye co-ordination exercises. Even something like knocking nails into a piece of wood with a hammer retrains the brain to receive positional feed back. When I first tried it, I couldn't even hit the top of the nail !

Other things like concentrating on walking, stand uprights, head and eyes level, hands by your side and try walking in an open space.

There are quite a few exercises out there, let us know how you get on

[Outdoor123]

Thank you all for taking the time to respond. I went to the GP and they suggested it may be persistent postural perceptual dizziness, I’m not sure what that really means/ it doesn’t feel like dizziness as I would have known it, more inside my head that outwards if that makes any sense. Either way they have given a list of Cathrine Cooksey exercises to try so will see how I get on. Thanks again for comments and advice, is much appreciated.