hello, i’m attending classes here at the annadale campus for the first time this semester but i’m not familiar with this area at all. I’m looking for places close by that I can eat at after class then come back to do schoolwork. I’ll basically eat anything you eat in front of me, i just don’t do fast food. Please give me your recommendations, ofc nothing that’s too costly. Thank you!
Hi everyone. This is going to be a very long post because I want to give as much detail as possible. I’m not looking for anyone to diagnose me over Reddit—I am currently being evaluated by sports medicine, doing vestibular physical therapy, and have been referred to a neurologist. I’m mainly hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar, particularly with the combination of headaches, dizziness, visual/motion sensitivity, and balance problems.
I’m 24F and have been training Muay Thai (and some boxing) for about three years. I’ve been training specifically for fights for about a year and a half and have done four smokers so far. I don’t have a athletic background outside of Muay Thai and some casual running.
**Background: training, work and sleep**
When I first started training for fights, I was working remotely, so I was able to sleep and recover well around my training.
This year I lost that job and was trying to get back into consistent training so I could continue fighting. I couldn’t find another remote job, so in April I took a job working in active data centers doing construction/cleaning-related work.
The job was far away from me. I had to wake up around 3–4 AM depending on the shift, work from roughly 5/6 AM until 1–2:30 PM, and then drive about an hour to my Muay Thai gym.
My normal routine was basically:
\-Wake up around 3–4 AM
\-Work until 1–2:30 PM
\-Drive about an hour to the gym
\-Sometimes nap in my car for 30–60 minutes
\-run 3 miles before training, although I would skip the run when I was too exhausted
\-Help coach a kids’ Muay Thai class
\-Do my own Muay Thai training for roughly 1–2.5 hours
\-Leave the gym around 9:30–10 PM
\-Get home around 11 PM
\-Repeat
So I was frequently getting only around **4–6 hours of sleep**, sometimes less, while working a physically demanding job, running and training Muay Thai several days a week.
**The first symptoms**
Around mid-July, I remember leaving a Muay Thai training session with a headache that felt different from the headaches I normally get from dehydration or lack of sleep. I didn’t think much of it because it went away.
The following day, I was demonstrating with my coach and he kicked me several times in the head while I was blocking. They weren’t huge shots, but I obviously still felt the impacts. I left with another headache.
I don’t remember having symptoms afterward.
About 1–2 weeks later, on a Wednesday, I was doing about 40 minutes of clinching and working elbows. We were wearing elbow pads and there wasn’t one specific impact that felt significant.
I went home, slept only about 4–5 hours, and went to work the next morning.
That Thursday, I developed a **head pressure that felt completely different from any headache I’d experienced before**. It felt almost like a crown of pressure around my head. I also felt extremely tired and weak.
I went home and tried to force myself to run my usual 3 miles, but I couldn’t. I ended up sleeping for several hours.
When I woke up, I tried stretching but felt extremely strange dizziness whenever I moved my head. I felt very emotional because I had no idea what was happening and ended up crying and skipping training that day.
**Why I initially didn’t think it was necessarily a concussion**
One thing that made this especially confusing was that my symptoms were **inconsistent**.
There were times when I could run, spar, do Muay Thai training, hold pads, or otherwise exercise and **not immediately develop a headache or obvious symptoms**. Other times, relatively ordinary movement or exertion would bring on the headache, dizziness or head pressure.
Because I wasn’t having symptoms every single time I trained, I initially wasn’t convinced that this could really be a concussion. I think I was also somewhat in denial about the possibility because I really wanted to continue training and had been working toward fighting.
I kept thinking that maybe what I was experiencing was simply exhaustion, dehydration, lack of sleep, heat exposure, or something else related to my work and training schedule.
Looking back, I think the inconsistency is one of the reasons I continued training for longer than I probably should have. I didn’t have a single obvious moment where I thought, **“That was definitely a concussion.”**
Instead, the symptoms seemed to come and go depending on the type and intensity of activity, how tired I was, and eventually how much visual or movement stimulation I was getting.
I obviously don’t know what the medical explanation for that is, which is part of why I’m hoping to hear from other people who have experienced something similar.
**Continuing to train despite the symptoms**
The next day (Friday) I felt much better, so I returned to training and continued trying to run and train for another week despite the headaches and symptoms coming and going.
At first I thought the symptoms were related to the heat at work. Eventually I realized that they seemed more associated with **movement** than simply being hot.
The following Thursday, I had another bad episode at work. I had severe head pressure/headache, felt exhausted and weak, went home, slept for several hours, and felt like I could barely get myself to move.
At that point I decided I needed to see my primary care doctor that upcoming Saturday.
**Primary care evaluation**
My PCP did bloodwork, an EKG, blood pressure measurements while sitting and standing, and a basic concussion assessment.
The symptoms I was experiencing included:
\-Head pressure/headache
\-Nausea
\-Dizziness with quick movements
\-Headaches when running
\-A strong rush/pressure in my head when bending over and standing back up
\-Significant fatigue/weakness
My doctor initially told me to increase my water intake, use electrolytes and increase my protein intake. She also told me that if the symptoms continued, I should be evaluated for a concussion because of the timing of the symptoms. I sparred a couple hours after that, got a small headache which left after ten minutes, but I felt perfectly fine other than that.
A few days later ,I was holding pads for someone. They kicked the pads hard enough that I felt the impact in my head and it hurt immediately.
I tried to do some pad work myself afterward, but when I started moving more quickly I became dizzy and had to stop.
My doctor told me to stop training for the remainder of the week until I could be evaluated.
**First sports medicine evaluation**
I went to a sports medicine/concussion clinic around August 14.
They performed a more extensive concussion assessment. I actually did well on most of the testing, although I had some difficulty with balance.
They weren’t ready to definitively diagnose a concussion because I had also been getting very little sleep, and they wanted me to rest more and reassess me.
I was scheduled to return August 21 because I had a smoker planned for August 29 and they wanted to determine whether I would be able to participate.
I took this as my sign to quit my job.
At the first follow-up period, they allowed me to do some **very light activity**:
\-No running
\-No jumping
\-No impact
\-Light bag/pad work only
Stop if symptoms increased
I went to a seminar with a professional fighter and initially felt okay. After about 20 minutes, however, we did some jumping/light movement and drills where I was trying to stay light and move quickly. (Yes, I shouldn’t have participated but I couldn’t help myself)
That caused my headache to increase. I also briefly wondered whether my vision felt slightly blurry, although I haven’t experienced blurry vision since then.
The following day I hit pads with my coach because he wanted to see how I was progressing.
Every time I punched the pads, I could feel the impact travel into my head.
I contacted the sports medicine clinic and asked whether I was progressing too quickly.
They then told me to **stop all activity** until I could be reassessed.
I have not returned to normal Muay Thai training since.
**Symptoms changed after I stopped training**
This is one of the things that has confused me the most.
After I stopped training and quit my job, I started sleeping around **9 hours a night**, but instead of all of my symptoms disappearing, I developed additional symptoms.
I started experiencing significant **motion/visual sensitivity**.
For example:
\-Driving started bothering my eyes and making me nauseous.
\-Fast-moving objects in front of me were difficult to look at.
\-Fast scrolling on my phone caused symptoms.
\-Looking between different things could make me feel disoriented.
\-Walking around stores could cause nausea/headache.
\-Visual stimulation seemed to cause eye strain and headaches.
\-Sometimes I would feel off-balance.
The sports medicine clinic became concerned because I was getting more sleep and doing less activity, yet I was developing new symptoms.
They ordered an MRI and referred me to vestibular physical therapy.
**MRI**
I had a brain MRI without contrast on August 26.
The report came back **negative/normal**. There was no reported structural abnormality, restricted diffusion, hemorrhage or other acute abnormality.
I know a normal MRI doesn’t necessarily answer the question of whether someone has a concussion, but it was reassuring that nothing obvious showed up structurally.
**Vestibular physical therapy**
I started vestibular PT in early September.
The therapist has been working with me on things like:
\-Eye tracking
\-Visual/oculomotor exercises
\-Balance
\-Treadmill/elliptical exercise
\-Light resistance exercises
The eye-tracking exercises can make my eyes feel uncomfortable and can make me feel off-balance. It feels like my eyes have to repeatedly **“refocus” or readjust**, almost like a camera trying to focus.
The treadmill test was 10 minutes at 3 mph with the incline progressively increasing each minute. That made me nauseous and increased my headache.
Interestingly, I can sometimes tolerate the elliptical better.
I’ve also been able to do things like RDLs, squats and light arm exercises. I actually really enjoy being able to do these because I miss exercising so much, even though some of the vestibular exercises are uncomfortable.
**A couple of things that happened afterward**
Around September 3, I briefly tried demonstrating some kicks with my coach. I kicked as quickly as I could, and he kicked me in my shoulder.
It wasn’t a head impact, but I developed a headache almost immediately afterward.
The following day I had a pretty significant headache and nausea, even though I had been feeling much better before that.
Then while I was in Puerto Rico, I was at the beach. The waves were somewhat strong, and I turned my back to block one. It wasn’t a huge wave, but it pushed me and I immediately felt pain in the back of my head.
I had a headache for the rest of that night and a lighter headache the following day.
The next day I also took a ferry to Culebra. I felt okay when lying down with my eyes closed, but sitting upright or standing/walking and looking around made me nauseous. But i’ve never been on a larger boat like that so i’m not sure.
After that, my symptoms improved again.
Those two incidents have made me much more cautious because I don’t want to keep accidentally aggravating whatever is going on.
**Where I am now**
I saw sports medicine again on September 18.
I’m still having symptoms in waves. Some days are considerably better than others, but I haven’t had a complete disappearance of symptoms.
\-Driving is sometimes fine and sometimes difficult.
\-Walking for longer periods can sometimes bring on a headache.
\-Fast scrolling or visually busy environments can still bother me.
\-Vestibular exercises can reproduce symptoms.
My sports medicine doctors don’t want to definitively label this as a concussion yet and are now referring me to a **neurologist to rule out other possible causes**.
Depending on what the neurologist says, they may refer me to someone who specializes in persistent/chronic concussion symptoms.
At this point, I am still completely out of Muay Thai training and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to fight again.
**What I’m wondering**
I’ve been trying to understand what happened, but I’m obviously not qualified to diagnose myself.
One possibility I’ve wondered about is whether I had an initial concussion or mild brain injury that wasn’t obvious at first, continued training and taking impacts while sleep deprived, and then eventually developed more persistent symptoms.
Another possibility is that some of my early symptoms were being influenced by the combination of sleep deprivation, physical exertion, heat and repeated impacts, and that something else is contributing to the symptoms I’m experiencing now.
I genuinely don’t know.
The fact that my symptoms were inconsistent early on is one of the reasons I find this so difficult to understand. I could sometimes train, run or spar without symptoms, while other times relatively minor exertion would cause a headache or dizziness.
I’m also wondering whether anyone has experienced something similar where:
\-The initial symptoms were mostly headache/head pressure and exertion intolerance
\-Symptoms were inconsistent at first
\-They were able to exercise sometimes without symptoms, which made them question whether they had a concussion
\-They continued training for a period because they weren’t convinced it was a concussion
\-Symptoms later became more vestibular/visual after stopping activity
\-Driving and scrolling became difficult
\-Eye-tracking or visual exercises reproduced symptoms
\-Balance became noticeably worse
\-Symptoms came in waves rather than being constant
\-A normal MRI was reassuring but didn’t explain the symptoms
\-Vestibular PT became part of treatment
\-Symptoms persisted for more than a month
\-A neurologist or concussion specialist eventually became involved
I’m especially interested in hearing from **Muay Thai fighters, boxers, MMA athletes, or other combat-sport athletes** who have experienced something similar.
I’m not looking for someone to tell me “you definitely have a concussion” or “you definitely don’t.” I’m already being evaluated medically. I’m mostly trying to understand whether anyone else has gone through a similar recovery pattern and what ended up helping them.
Thanks to anyone who made it through this entire thing.
Hi everyone. This is going to be a very long post because I want to give as much detail as possible. I’m not looking for anyone to diagnose me over Reddit—I am currently being evaluated by sports medicine, doing vestibular physical therapy, and have been referred to a neurologist. I’m mainly hoping to hear from people who have experienced something similar, particularly with the combination of headaches, dizziness, visual/motion sensitivity, and balance problems.
I’m 24F and have been training Muay Thai (and some boxing) for about three years. I’ve been training specifically for fights for about a year and a half and have done four smokers so far. I don’t have a athletic background outside of Muay Thai and some casual running.
\*\*Background: training, work and sleep\*\*
When I first started training for fights, I was working remotely, so I was able to sleep and recover well around my training.
This year I lost that job and was trying to get back into consistent training so I could continue fighting. I couldn’t find another remote job, so in April I took a job working in active data centers doing construction/cleaning-related work.
The job was far away from me. I had to wake up around 3–4 AM depending on the shift, work from roughly 5/6 AM until 1–2:30 PM, and then drive about an hour to my Muay Thai gym.
My normal routine was basically:
\\-Wake up around 3–4 AM
\\-Work until 1–2:30 PM
\\-Drive about an hour to the gym
\\-Sometimes nap in my car for 30–60 minutes
\\-run 3 miles before training, although I would skip the run when I was too exhausted
\\-Help coach a kids’ Muay Thai class
\\-Do my own Muay Thai training for roughly 1–2.5 hours
\\-Leave the gym around 9:30–10 PM
\\-Get home around 11 PM
\\-Repeat
So I was frequently getting only around \*\*4–6 hours of sleep\*\*, sometimes less, while working a physically demanding job, running and training Muay Thai several days a week.
\*\*The first symptoms\*\*
Around mid-July, I remember leaving a Muay Thai training session with a headache that felt different from the headaches I normally get from dehydration or lack of sleep. I didn’t think much of it because it went away.
The following day, I was demonstrating with my coach and he kicked me several times in the head while I was blocking. They weren’t huge shots, but I obviously still felt the impacts. I left with another headache.
I don’t remember having symptoms afterward.
About 1–2 weeks later, on a Wednesday, I was doing about 40 minutes of clinching and working elbows. We were wearing elbow pads and there wasn’t one specific impact that felt significant.
I went home, slept only about 4–5 hours, and went to work the next morning.
That Thursday, I developed a \*\*head pressure that felt completely different from any headache I’d experienced before\*\*. It felt almost like a crown of pressure around my head. I also felt extremely tired and weak.
I went home and tried to force myself to run my usual 3 miles, but I couldn’t. I ended up sleeping for several hours.
When I woke up, I tried stretching but felt extremely strange dizziness whenever I moved my head. I felt very emotional because I had no idea what was happening and ended up crying and skipping training that day.
\*\*Why I initially didn’t think it was necessarily a concussion\*\*
One thing that made this especially confusing was that my symptoms were \*\*inconsistent\*\*.
There were times when I could run, spar, do Muay Thai training, hold pads, or otherwise exercise and \*\*not immediately develop a headache or obvious symptoms\*\*. Other times, relatively ordinary movement or exertion would bring on the headache, dizziness or head pressure.
Because I wasn’t having symptoms every single time I trained, I initially wasn’t convinced that this could really be a concussion. I think I was also somewhat in denial about the possibility because I really wanted to continue training and had been working toward fighting.
I kept thinking that maybe what I was experiencing was simply exhaustion, dehydration, lack of sleep, heat exposure, or something else related to my work and training schedule.
Looking back, I think the inconsistency is one of the reasons I continued training for longer than I probably should have. I didn’t have a single obvious moment where I thought, \*\*“That was definitely a concussion.”\*\*
Instead, the symptoms seemed to come and go depending on the type and intensity of activity, how tired I was, and eventually how much visual or movement stimulation I was getting.
I obviously don’t know what the medical explanation for that is, which is part of why I’m hoping to hear from other people who have experienced something similar.
\*\*Continuing to train despite the symptoms\*\*
The next day (Friday) I felt much better, so I returned to training and continued trying to run and train for another week despite the headaches and symptoms coming and going.
At first I thought the symptoms were related to the heat at work. Eventually I realized that they seemed more associated with \*\*movement\*\* than simply being hot.
The following Thursday, I had another bad episode at work. I had severe head pressure/headache, felt exhausted and weak, went home, slept for several hours, and felt like I could barely get myself to move.
At that point I decided I needed to see my primary care doctor that upcoming Saturday.
\*\*Primary care evaluation\*\*
My PCP did bloodwork, an EKG, blood pressure measurements while sitting and standing, and a basic concussion assessment.
The symptoms I was experiencing included:
\\-Head pressure/headache
\\-Nausea
\\-Dizziness with quick movements
\\-Headaches when running
\\-A strong rush/pressure in my head when bending over and standing back up
\\-Significant fatigue/weakness
My doctor initially told me to increase my water intake, use electrolytes and increase my protein intake. She also told me that if the symptoms continued, I should be evaluated for a concussion because of the timing of the symptoms. I sparred a couple hours after that, got a small headache which left after ten minutes, but I felt perfectly fine other than that.
A few days later ,I was holding pads for someone. They kicked the pads hard enough that I felt the impact in my head and it hurt immediately.
I tried to do some pad work myself afterward, but when I started moving more quickly I became dizzy and had to stop.
My doctor told me to stop training for the remainder of the week until I could be evaluated.
\*\*First sports medicine evaluation\*\*
I went to a sports medicine/concussion clinic around August 14.
They performed a more extensive concussion assessment. I actually did well on most of the testing, although I had some difficulty with balance.
They weren’t ready to definitively diagnose a concussion because I had also been getting very little sleep, and they wanted me to rest more and reassess me.
I was scheduled to return August 21 because I had a smoker planned for August 29 and they wanted to determine whether I would be able to participate.
I took this as my sign to quit my job.
At the first follow-up period, they allowed me to do some \*\*very light activity\*\*:
\\-No running
\\-No jumping
\\-No impact
\\-Light bag/pad work only
Stop if symptoms increased
I went to a seminar with a professional fighter and initially felt okay. After about 20 minutes, however, we did some jumping/light movement and drills where I was trying to stay light and move quickly. (Yes, I shouldn’t have participated but I couldn’t help myself)
That caused my headache to increase. I also briefly wondered whether my vision felt slightly blurry, although I haven’t experienced blurry vision since then.
The following day I hit pads with my coach because he wanted to see how I was progressing.
Every time I punched the pads, I could feel the impact travel into my head.
I contacted the sports medicine clinic and asked whether I was progressing too quickly.
They then told me to \*\*stop all activity\*\* until I could be reassessed.
I have not returned to normal Muay Thai training since.
\*\*Symptoms changed after I stopped training\*\*
This is one of the things that has confused me the most.
After I stopped training and quit my job, I started sleeping around \*\*9 hours a night\*\*, but instead of all of my symptoms disappearing, I developed additional symptoms.
I started experiencing significant \*\*motion/visual sensitivity\*\*.
For example:
\\-Driving started bothering my eyes and making me nauseous.
\\-Fast-moving objects in front of me were difficult to look at.
\\-Fast scrolling on my phone caused symptoms.
\\-Looking between different things could make me feel disoriented.
\\-Walking around stores could cause nausea/headache.
\\-Visual stimulation seemed to cause eye strain and headaches.
\\-Sometimes I would feel off-balance.
The sports medicine clinic became concerned because I was getting more sleep and doing less activity, yet I was developing new symptoms.
They ordered an MRI and referred me to vestibular physical therapy.
\*\*MRI\*\*
I had a brain MRI without contrast on August 26.
The report came back \*\*negative/normal\*\*. There was no reported structural abnormality, restricted diffusion, hemorrhage or other acute abnormality.
I know a normal MRI doesn’t necessarily answer the question of whether someone has a concussion, but it was reassuring that nothing obvious showed up structurally.
\*\*Vestibular physical therapy\*\*
I started vestibular PT in early September.
The therapist has been working with me on things like:
\\-Eye tracking
\\-Visual/oculomotor exercises
\\-Balance
\\-Treadmill/elliptical exercise
\\-Light resistance exercises
The eye-tracking exercises can make my eyes feel uncomfortable and can make me feel off-balance. It feels like my eyes have to repeatedly \*\*“refocus” or readjust\*\*, almost like a camera trying to focus.
The treadmill test was 10 minutes at 3 mph with the incline progressively increasing each minute. That made me nauseous and increased my headache.
Interestingly, I can sometimes tolerate the elliptical better.
I’ve also been able to do things like RDLs, squats and light arm exercises. I actually really enjoy being able to do these because I miss exercising so much, even though some of the vestibular exercises are uncomfortable.
\*\*A couple of things that happened afterward\*\*
Around September 3, I briefly tried demonstrating some kicks with my coach. I kicked as quickly as I could, and he kicked me in my shoulder.
It wasn’t a head impact, but I developed a headache almost immediately afterward.
The following day I had a pretty significant headache and nausea, even though I had been feeling much better before that.
Then while I was in Puerto Rico, I was at the beach. The waves were somewhat strong, and I turned my back to block one. It wasn’t a huge wave, but it pushed me and I immediately felt pain in the back of my head.
I had a headache for the rest of that night and a lighter headache the following day.
The next day I also took a ferry to Culebra. I felt okay when lying down with my eyes closed, but sitting upright or standing/walking and looking around made me nauseous. But i’ve never been on a larger boat like that so i’m not sure.
After that, my symptoms improved again.
Those two incidents have made me much more cautious because I don’t want to keep accidentally aggravating whatever is going on.
\*\*Where I am now\*\*
I saw sports medicine again on September 18.
I’m still having symptoms in waves. Some days are considerably better than others, but I haven’t had a complete disappearance of symptoms.
\\-Driving is sometimes fine and sometimes difficult.
\\-Walking for longer periods can sometimes bring on a headache.
\\-Fast scrolling or visually busy environments can still bother me.
\\-Vestibular exercises can reproduce symptoms.
My sports medicine doctors don’t want to definitively label this as a concussion yet and are now referring me to a \*\*neurologist to rule out other possible causes\*\*.
Depending on what the neurologist says, they may refer me to someone who specializes in persistent/chronic concussion symptoms.
At this point, I am still completely out of Muay Thai training and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to fight again.
\*\*What I’m wondering\*\*
I’ve been trying to understand what happened, but I’m obviously not qualified to diagnose myself.
One possibility I’ve wondered about is whether I had an initial concussion or mild brain injury that wasn’t obvious at first, continued training and taking impacts while sleep deprived, and then eventually developed more persistent symptoms.
Another possibility is that some of my early symptoms were being influenced by the combination of sleep deprivation, physical exertion, heat and repeated impacts, and that something else is contributing to the symptoms I’m experiencing now.
I genuinely don’t know.
The fact that my symptoms were inconsistent early on is one of the reasons I find this so difficult to understand. I could sometimes train, run or spar without symptoms, while other times relatively minor exertion would cause a headache or dizziness.
I’m also wondering whether anyone has experienced something similar where:
\\-The initial symptoms were mostly headache/head pressure and exertion intolerance
\\-Symptoms were inconsistent at first
\\-They were able to exercise sometimes without symptoms, which made them question whether they had a concussion
\\-They continued training for a period because they weren’t convinced it was a concussion
\\-Symptoms later became more vestibular/visual after stopping activity
\\-Driving and scrolling became difficult
\\-Eye-tracking or visual exercises reproduced symptoms
\\-Balance became noticeably worse
\\-Symptoms came in waves rather than being constant
\\-A normal MRI was reassuring but didn’t explain the symptoms
\\-Vestibular PT became part of treatment
\\-Symptoms persisted for more than a month
\\-A neurologist or concussion specialist eventually became involved
I’m especially interested in hearing from \*\*Muay Thai fighters, boxers, MMA athletes, or other combat-sport athletes\*\* who have experienced something similar.
I’m not looking for someone to tell me “you definitely have a concussion” or “you definitely don’t.” I’m already being evaluated medically. I’m mostly trying to understand whether anyone else has gone through a similar recovery pattern and what ended up helping them.
Thanks to anyone who made it through this entire thing.