Since my concussion, I’ve been working out at most 60% of what I used to do. Part of it is detraining – if I’m not doing anything, I can’t expect to be as fit. Not fun, but I always expect I’ll get better.

Yesterday I had a bit of a smack down. I had two appointments in the morning. I rode my bike, thinking I’d go for a long ride after PT. Well. The ride was only 35 minutes, but it was mostly uphill. My heart rate got up to as high as it’s been recently. It felt GREAT. When I checked my heart rate monitor, I noticed that my heart rate was elevated for the longest time in over a year. I was thrilled. During my 20 minute de-sweating, clothes-changing time, I was ready to celebrate with my PT.

By the time she took me for my appointment, I was ready to sit in a dark corner. I had a headache, was dizzy, and my balance was off. Humpf. Loss of balance was one of my most noticeable symptoms of my concussion. I went from teaching barefoot balance training to being unable to walk a drunk walk line. Over the year, I’ve been working on getting that back. And the headaches. I consider my “concussion headaches” as something very specific. Only on one side of my head, in a very specific spot. She did some manual techniques to bring my headache down, and I went home.

Dear Self – 

Be careful. I know you want to get your body going. It’s fun, it feels great, heck, it feels normal. But headaches don’t feel normal. They feel crappy. Even if you feel amazing at the time, still cut it short. Cutting short one day will make it possible for you to do something the next day. Because the discomfort is always worse the next day.

You like reading, right? Well, you can’t read when you have a headache.

You like riding your bike, right? Well, you can’t bike when you have a headache.

You like petting Boss, don’t you? Well, at least you can pet the kitty when you have a headache. Go self, pet the kitty. Pet that kitty good.

Love, Me