{"id":455,"date":"2014-04-13T21:11:10","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T02:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/?p=455"},"modified":"2014-04-13T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T02:11:10","slug":"concussions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/2014\/04\/concussions\/","title":{"rendered":"Concussions"},"content":{"rendered":"

I will never forget May 3rd<\/sup>, 2011; but I can barely remember anything that happened.\u00a0 My life was turned upside down: no activity, no music, no computer, and tons of mandatory sleep.\u00a0 I received my 6th<\/sup> concussion on May 3, 2011, to be followed by my 7th<\/sup> a week later.\u00a0 I had constant headaches for over two years as a result of post concussion syndrome, yet managed to learn many valuable life lessons from an otherwise awful experience.\u00a0 Here is how the last three years of my life have been:<\/p>\n

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Day 1: May 3rd<\/sup>, 2011 Lacrosse State Quarterfinals<\/p>\n

Junior year.\u00a0 Starting in the biggest game of the season, college coaches in the stands, and playing our biggest rivals for a chance at the state semi-finals. All I can remember is getting the ball in the first quarter, then blacking-in with a few teammates around me.\u00a0 Apparently I scored.\u00a0 Apparently I had 2 goals and an assist and apparently our team won the game.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n

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Day 7: May 10th<\/sup>, 2011 Lacrosse State Championship<\/p>\n

Something was different. No, it wasn\u2019t; I told myself I was fine.\u00a0 I\u2019d had headaches before, and this was nothing new. \u00a0The athletic trainer had me sit out of practice for a couple days, but we were playing for the state-championship; and winning is everything.\u00a0 So obviously I told my athletic trainers my head was fine.\u00a0 And obviously my coach wanted me to play.\u00a0 So, as any other athlete would, I played. BAM. Concussion number 7.<\/p>\n

Day 127: September 7th<\/sup>, 2011<\/p>\n

Beginning of my senior year.\u00a0 The year that every single kid looks forward to, where the hard work from junior year pays off.\u00a0 But instead of the best year of high school, my senior year was plagued by terrible headaches, Every. Single. Day. Everything I had looked foreword to as a senior: gone.\u00a0 It only took two weeks of school before I was removed and homeschooled because I couldn\u2019t handle all the academic work; let alone the noise and light.\u00a0 If I were feeling GREAT, I mean truly AMAZING, then I would try and go on a 10-minute walk.\u00a0 Other than that the only time I left my house was for the countless doctor appointments.\u00a0 But lets fast-forward a bit\u2026<\/p>\n

Day 1,076: Today<\/p>\n

Yes, today is day number one thousand and seventy six.\u00a0 In other words, that is 15% of my life up to this point, every day affected by my one decision made three years ago.\u00a0 While I stopped getting daily headaches summer of 2013, it is not uncommon for me to get severe headaches 4 or 5 days of the week to this day.\u00a0 On the bright side, I gained a superpower as I can now tell when it is going to rain because the change in pressure gives me a headache that barely lets me get out of bed.<\/p>\n

While this brief narrative of the past three years of my life may seem depressing, there are several lessons to be gained from my experience. Most importantly: if you get hit in the head, no matter what, stop what you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try and be the tough person and ignore a headache.\u00a0 It\u2019s as simple as that. I personally put all the blame on myself for trying to play so soon after a concussion and knowing that I still had headaches.\u00a0 But I was a young high school kid.\u00a0 How was I\u2014 or anyone else\u2014 supposed to know what could happen to me?\u00a0 Athletic trainers as well as coaches also have an obligation to realize that there are bigger things at stake than winning a game.\u00a0 Also, as much as coaches want to trust players, we are just kids who will lie and do what ever it takes to play because it is often harder to see the bigger picture of health issues as a kid.<\/p>\n

I am not a very religious person by nature, but sometime during my homeschooled senior year my dad showed me this saying, \u201cGive me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can.\u201d\u00a0 This really spoke to me, as I was constantly getting angry and depressed when homeschooled.\u00a0 However, I now realize that there are many things in life that are simply out of our control, and as clich\u00e9 as it may sound, there really is no point in stressing over them.\u00a0 Beyond the importance of spreading the word of head injuries, I believe that this is one of the most important lessons I can share from my experience.<\/p>\n

At one point, I thought that my concussion was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.\u00a0 But I hope that through my experiences I am able to help other people that go through similar experiences as me.\u00a0 One of the scariest parts of having post concussion syndrome is that very few people understand what is happening to them.\u00a0 Further, with a concussion there are no visible injuries such as with a broken arm.\u00a0 Because of this, nobody can really see what is wrong with you and thinks you are making symptoms up.\u00a0 I found that nobody except others going through similar experiences could understand what it is like to have to sit in a dark room for hours to try and feel normal.\u00a0 I now meet with anyone I hear of going through similar experiences to me, as the most therapeutic and comforting medicine I have discovered is knowing you are not alone.\u00a0 Spreading awareness of post concussion syndrome will help people in knowing they are not alone, rather there are many other people just as lost and confused looking for the same medical solutions that unfortunately don\u2019t exist yet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I will never forget May 3rd, 2011; but I can barely remember anything that happened.\u00a0 My life was turned upside down: no activity, no music, no computer, and tons of mandatory sleep.\u00a0 I received my 6th concussion on May 3, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/theartoftheessay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}