Have you ever debated whether you should stop and take a rest break, or push through symptoms and finish what you’re doing? This is one of the most common concerns people who face post concussion syndrome (or any chronic illness or fatigue) deal with. And the results of your decision can definitely have an impact on how you feel going forward.
While this can seem like a very daunting question, there are tools to help in making that decision. The Gage System is one such tool that is extremely important and helpful. Essentially, a gage system is a system that you use to gage your symptoms and increase awareness so you can make decisions about what activities to move forward with.
It’s completely individualized, since every person’s symptom combinations are unique, but there are general principles that can be helpful in setting up your own gage system. I’ll give one tip here, and then encourage you to listen to the podcast episode that just dropped so you can hear more details about creating your own gage system.
As a general rule of thumb, if you are doing an activity and notice that your symptoms are increasing by 2-3 points on a 10-point scale, that’s a good indication that you should stop and take a rest break. This can be 2-3 points on one scale (for instance, a headache going up from a 2 to a 5 out of 10), or it can be 2-3 points total across multiple scales (for instance, 1 point higher for headache, and 2 points higher for dizziness). The gage system will help increase your awareness of how you’re doing and therefore give you valuable information in making decisions about the activities in which you choose to engage.
Listen to this conversation from the Post Concussion Success Coaches to hear how you can set up your own gage system to know how to pace your activities and know how to spend your limited energy resources.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/UIaHnhGOCxg