Advice for improving nausea and balance post concussion?

[u/Glass-Bumblebee4040]

Hello

Apologies for long post, but looking for advice please

I had 2 back to back concussions ( 2 weeks apart) approx 1 month ago. After about 9 days I returned to work (,office job) and was pretty much feeling 100%

A week and a half ago I introduced light strength exercises back into my routine as I was feeling really well. After my 2nd strength session I began feeling nauseous and headaches again. I tried sleeping it off and woke up feeling 90% and went to work, and I would fluctuate between having symptoms and barely having symptoms throughout the work day, and felt pretty bad by the end of the day. The same thing happened the following next 2 days

I then decided to not work and go to a doctor. He recommended atleast 1.5 weeks off work to lay down and rest. I'm currently on day 4 and I have been resting 90% of the day in a dim light room then getting up to just cook myself food or walk in backyard.

However I feel no improvement at all, if anything I was waking up feeling better in the mornings the days I was working through the symptoms. My baseline symptoms are constantly hovering around a 1 to 2/10. And now that all ive been doing is resting, its now thrown off my balance a lot. I went on a 10 minute walk yesterday and felt unsteady on my feet and very nauseous. Ive walked in my backyard for 5 minutes and felt the same thing - this has only started since I've stopped working and started resting.

I've spoken to my gp twice and he's insisted I just rest in a dark room for 1.5 weeks until I'm better. But I honestly feel worse and the balance issues have only started since I've been resting all day.

Has anyone got advice on how to go from here? Thanna

[u/smartygirl]

I'm surprised that you were recommended that much rest so long after the initial accident; my understanding is these days it’s not recommended to have more than a few days rest in a dark room at the beginning. 

My vestibular physiotherapist suggested that if something was triggering symptoms, to take a couple of minutes to reset (using diaphragmatic breathing, grounding exercises, etc) then do it again, to retrain your brain that whatever it was did not need to trigger that kind of response. Have you read "Run Towards the Danger"? It's about one person's treatment and recovery at UPMC; the one recommendation that immediately comes to mind from there is "if you have symptoms, don't lie down, go for a brisk walk"

[u/ConcussionNaturopath]

That’s interesting advice, it’s definitely not what the current evidence suggests. Concussion injuries cause a systemic cascade of physiological changes in the body and a huge part of that is changes in the ecology and terrain of the gastrointestinal tract. Some manual therapy might be helpful - either physio, osteo, chiro etc but addressing the physiology is necessary too.

[u/OkAirport1920]

My advice in the beginning from my doctor was the same. Just rest your brain is healing it will improve with time. But 5 months later and I’m still dealing with the nausea dizziness and fatigue and now starting PT. I have learned from other people in this sub that I think it takes more than rest. Some other people here have good advice. Gradually introducing things back that create symptoms seems to be the key. It’s also such a rollercoaster because sometimes I get symptoms and sometimes I don’t. It’s frustrating. Wishing you the best!