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In April of 2009 I was unexpectedly struck by a lacrosse ball from approximately a four-foot firing distance. Despite being hit in the temple at such close proximity, I did not lose consciousness and thus was advised by my general practitioner to continue to attend school and participate in contact sports. As a precautionary measure, I underwent an x-ray and MRI scan and both were clear of obvious deformity. As I returned to school, it became clear that my injury nonetheless presented longstanding detriment: I began to fail classes I had formerly excelled in, my vision was impaired, I had persistent nausea and dizziness, and my memory was clouded. It took until the following November for doctors at DuPont Nemours to recognize the serious cognitive deficits I faced and to place me on a mandatory leave from school which lasted for several weeks. During this period of time I was not allowed to read, write, or watch any type of screen, but was fortunate in that I was able to rest and distance myself from the stresses of school. I was thereby forced to reduce my course load, a measure which has since resulted in my participation in summer school during each summer of high school as well as requiring me to undergo a fifth year of high school. Additionally, I have been permanently barred from contact sports. Many of my symptoms were resolved upon attending Bryn Mawr Rehab, where I participated in an outpatient program which had both vesitbular and ocular therapies. While the synopsis of my experience is short, the road to recovery has been quite long and arduous; I have both lost and gained friendships along the way, broken and forged identities, and ultimately have discovered my passions and purpose. These most difficult moments have concurrently been those which have defined me. I hope that each person who reads these stories will be able to harbor sentiments of thankfulness and know that the prospects are brighter up ahead.
April, 2009 - Devon
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In September of 2009, I accidentally ran into a wall, banging my head against it. It was around midnight, one night a few weeks before my freshman year of high school started. I had a throbbing headache so I took some Advil and went to bed. Two big no-no's. I had many doctors appointments trying to figure out why I had persistent and intense headaches. They thought I had Lymes, but I tested negative. They thought that my eyes were messed up, so I got glasses but those didn't help either. Eventually, the doctors pieced together that my head aches were from my head injury about five months back. Afterwards, I saw a concussion specialist at the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania, located near the King of Prussia Mall, and a neurologist at the Lakeneu hospital. I went to the hosiptals many times, for various reasons. I went for an MRI and many "infusions", where the doctor would put the head ache medicines straight into my veins. This was only helpful for a few days and then the head aches would return. I was pulled out of school from Thanksgiving and did not fully return until spring break. I got tutors in all my subjects to help me learn and make up all the work that I had missed. When I had become symptom free for two months, I had to go to physical therapy because I had become very out of shape. I was finally ready to go back to my sport, horse back riding, in June.
After one week at the barn I got a second concussion. This time however, I lost consciousness and felt very nauseous, clear concussion signs. I was rushed to the ER, where the doctors took a CAT scan to make sure my bone structure was not hurt. I underwent a similar process as before. Complete and total bed rest: no reading, no tv, no computer, no nothing essentially. I found through many various types of treatments that acupuncture was quite helpful. After acupuncture treatment, twice a week for the entire summer my headaches were finally controllable. I entered my sophomore year with some headaches but ones that could be fixed by Advil, rest or acupuncture, or a combination.
Now, I get headaches under pressure or stress. They are no longer present 24/7 and I have returned to my full school capabilities.
September, 2009 - Sophie
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At the beginning of last summer I was playing soccer in a tournament at Fort Dix. It was the finals, and the game was getting really intense. The ball was kicked up and I went sprinting to the spot to get my head on it. When the ball was just about to hit my head I was blind sighted by an opponent with his elbow hitting my head at the temple. I never lost consciousness but I just laid on the ground with my eyes shut. There was a lot of pain but I continued to play. In soccer you bump your head very often so I figured I was fine. I played the last 5 minutes of the game with my headache and I felt a little out of it. The game finished as a tie and my team ended up winning in the penalty kick shootout. We celebrated took out pictures. People asked me how I was doing and I said I just had a small headache.
We left the fields and my family and I went out to dinner. While we waited for our food I started to feel unbearably drowsy to the point where I almost fell asleep right in the middle of a restaurant at about 8 P.M. I found it hard to concentrate and I could barely keep my eyes open. My family went home and I went to bed.
The next day I went to the first session of tennis that I play in the summer every year. During this time I had a slight headache, I felt a little dizzy, and it seemed like I kept on miss-hitting easy shots. I went home that day and talked to my mom and we scheduled an appointment later that day just to be careful about my head.
Once I got to my appointment they have you do so many different balance exercises and I passed most of them and some of them barely. They also do a thing where you follow the doctor's finger and this is where they verified my concussion. As I looked side to side and up and down my eyes would vibrate. I also found it hard to do this simple little action. I was told to really keep it easy and rest my head for at least 2 weeks. That meant no screens, no phones, no anything that would require me to use my head. I'm an athlete so I wanted to get back to my sport as soon as possible.
I was bummed by the news and once I got home I went to my room, shut the curtains, turned off the lights, and that's how I lived most of the days for the next week to week and a half. During this time the only thing I found that I could do was listen to books on tape. During that time I listened to close to maybe 100 hours of books on tape and I was growing tired of it. My headaches never subsided though. I soon was inching into doing regular things but still absolutely no screens or books and if I tried it would make me really dizzy.
This continued day by day with me having constant headaches all summer. In this time I saw a specialist who put me on a concussion diet which was a low sugar diet with tons and tons of water to be consumed. Also I was told to get 9 hours of sleep a night. I was back in school and reading was fine and I was ok to watch a little bit of TV. Thinking wise, I still had headaches though.
My school sport started and I tried at first to play but once again I got headaches. I love playing soccer and having to watch my team every day play killed me. Also knowing that I playing could really help the team as well killed me. Soon it seemed like everybody around me start to almost not believe me that I still had a concussion and I didn't blame them. I was doing fine in school and I was coming near 5 months since I had my concussion but I still had headaches.
After all of this time my concussion doctor decided to start weaning me into exercise again and during these soccer practices I began speed walking and slow jogging again. I saw another specialist as well and he told me to practically try the same thing. Once I started doing this my headaches weren't coming and two weeks before the end of the soccer season I was back playing soccer. The first game back I even got an assist. After that first game everybody seemed amazed how I had been out for so long and how I came back with so much strength. I played in semi finals and finals of our season but we did not win the finals disappointingly. I was just glad though that I was back playing the sport I love.
June, 2011 - Jeff
