All-Star Experience With Concussions

[CharlotteASMom]

Everything that @cheermeup said! We were always told that if there was ever a headache when following the concussion protocol then you go back to the previous step. Each stage has to be done headache free. What's frustrating about concussions is you don't see the injury but they take just as long if not longer to heal. Like the comparison to a broken leg or and a ACL tear, we wouldn't think twice about out child being out 6 months to a year but for some reason we think with a concussion it should be a quick heal.

 

[cheermeup]

Everything that @cheermeup said! We were always told that if there was ever a headache when following the concussion protocol then you go back to the previous step. Each stage has to be done headache free. What's frustrating about concussions is you don't see the injury but they take just as long if not longer to heal. Like the comparison to a broken leg or and a ACL tear, we wouldn't think twice about out child being out 6 months to a year but for some reason we think with a concussion it should be a quick heal.

To the original poster, it's vital that your daughter be evaluated by a physician trained in concussions before she is allowed at practice. Like I said, kids have no idea of how fragile they are during a concussion and may push themselves to get back to practice. I believe part of the reason my daughter didn't tell me about her first concussion was that she was point for everything in the routine, she didn't want to mess that up. Also, they will heal faster if they don't try to push themselves, just being alive in a dark room is a lot of work for the brain, a day of noise, light, and activity on top of that is a lot to expect from it. Back to our leg example, how could a broken leg heal if we walked on it and only rested it when it hurt a lot.

If you daughter were to return to practice before she was completely healed of this, she is at risk for another concussion and Second Impact Syndrome. Second Impact Syndrome | BrainAndSpinalCord.org Second Impact Syndrome is rare, but it happens and is preventable by not letting kids participate before they are healed. Thankfully my daughter didn't suffer from Second Impact Syndrome, she does have what is known as cumulative concussions and post conscussion syndrome. She had migraines before getting her concussions, our doctor said that this combined with cumulative concussions is why her recovery is taking so long.

Other symptoms my daughter had that I didn't realize were concussion symptoms were; headache, nausea, emotional lability, cranky, sneezing several times in a row, tired, and pale.

I'll never apologize for posting too much about this, it's extremely important that concussions are taken seriously. Make sure your doctor knows that the type of cheer your daughter does is all star, not sideline. We don't live in a big cheer state so I describe it to the doctor like college cheer with the stunts and tumbling and they knew what I was talking about.

I'll be glad to help you find a good concussion doctor in your area, I work at a children's hospital so I may be able to ask around. I have also just learned that there is insurance through the USASF if your child was injured at a USASF member gym to help with the medical costs. ***edited to add*** I'm not sure how this works, so it's something you'd need to look into, my daughter gets treated at a military base so we don't have to pay for anything.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

@cheermeup can always tell a fellow concussion mom....this becomes a passion to educate others

 

[cheermeup]

@cheermeup can always tell a fellow concussion mom....this becomes a passion to educate others

I believe it's because you don't know how serious it is until you go through it. I used to think it was no big deal until it happened to us.

I want to say that I'm extremely lucky that my kids haven't had any serious health issues. However, watching my daughter struggle through this has been painful and worrisome. The first 3-4 weeks, she didn't care about her phone, her friends, school, cheer, or anything... she just laid around the house half asleep.

The behavior change was alarming and it was so hard to watch my previously full of life child struggling so much. We are almost 2 months out from the first concussion and while she's feeling better, she can't go up more than 2-3 stairs at a time, she can't be in crowds, and she can't do higher level thinking (it confuses her). This has caused her to have anxiety attacks, she's afraid she will never be herself again and she's also afraid that she is going to never catch up in school.

She has an MRI of her brain and cerebral veins scheduled for tomorrow. I'm quite worried about what they will see in there. It's unreal to me that she is still struggling and I wouldn't believe it could be this way if I weren't living it.

I'll try to get off this soapbox.... but seriously, nothing is more important than your brain.

 

[CheerItFullOut]

I would also advise you to be aware of something called PCS: Post Concussion Sydrome. Something that can take quite some time to recover from. An athlete should not be allowed to return to even mild activity if they are showing symptoms of this as it can last for months. Please google PCS. It's something that can often occur with gradual to immediate signs after concussion diagnoses. It's one of the reasons why I have a personal policy that my athletes not return to activity for a week after doctor release of any diagnosed head trauma.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

I believe it's because you don't know how serious it is until you go through it. I used to think it was no big deal until it happened to us.

I want to say that I'm extremely lucky that my kids haven't had any serious health issues. However, watching my daughter struggle through this has been painful and worrisome. The first 3-4 weeks, she didn't care about her phone, her friends, school, cheer, or anything... she just laid around the house half asleep.

The behavior change was alarming and it was so hard to watch my previously full of life child struggling so much. We are almost 2 months out from the first concussion and while she's feeling better, she can't go up more than 2-3 stairs at a time, she can't be in crowds, and she can't do higher level thinking (it confuses her). This has caused her to have anxiety attacks, she's afraid she will never be herself again and she's also afraid that she is going to never catch up in school.

She has an MRI of her brain and cerebral veins scheduled for tomorrow. I'm quite worried about what they will see in there. It's unreal to me that she is still struggling and I wouldn't believe it could be this way if I weren't living it.

I'll try to get off this soapbox.... but seriously, nothing is more important than your brain.

No I think sharing is important and prayers all goes well. With mine I remember her looking at me and not having a clue how to multiply when she got to where she was allowed to do a little school work. We had to rework a lot of things. It is 7 months out and I am starting to see my girl fully again as she was before. She was cleared at about 2 months and for the most part back cognitively to normal but I could still see the difference. I don't think people really get it until they get it. I think a lot of them go untreated and effect other aspects of kids life - quality care is vital for quality recovery.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

I would also advise you to be aware of something called PCS: Post Concussion Sydrome. Something that can take quite some time to recover from. An athlete should not be allowed to return to even mild activity if they are showing symptoms of this as it can last for months. Please google PCS. It's something that can often occur with gradual to immediate signs after concussion diagnoses. It's one of the reasons why I have a personal policy that my athletes not return to activity for a week after doctor release of any diagnosed head trauma.

Thanks I think on some minor level this was where my girl was for a while even after being cleared. It took a long time to see her fully as herself and I know other parents who expressed the same thing. Child cleared and able to function in school, the world, the gym but just not fully the same as before.

 

[MakeYourMark]

The behavior change was alarming and it was so hard to watch my previously full of life child struggling so much. We are almost 2 months out from the first concussion and while she's feeling better, she can't go up more than 2-3 stairs at a time, she can't be in crowds, and she can't do higher level thinking (it confuses her). This has caused her to have anxiety attacks, she's afraid she will never be herself again and she's also afraid that she is going to never catch up in school.

.

I am with your daughter on the higher level thinking/anxiety thing. Being in university and having a concussion has been a struggle. When i first started going to a specialist was at the end of summer (about 3 months after my accident) and I hadn't noticed and personality changes or difficulty with higher cognitive processes, other than some of the simple reading I was trying to do throughout the summer was difficult to stay focused on and gave me headaches. About a month into school is when it truly hit me how hard it was for me to get through school. My marks suffered and I was only suppose to be reading for 20 minutes a day. which we all know is impossible in university. It's been incredibly frustrating, and this is when I noticed a spike in anxiety and thoughts of "am I ever going to be able to do this again?!" as it has now been 8 months. I don't think people truly recognize the psychological effects concussions can have. That being said, I returned to cheer (not fully- minimal things) and even get anxiety at practice which is frustrating as cheer use to be my de-stressing thing!

 

[cheermeup]

I am with your daughter on the higher level thinking/anxiety thing. Being in university and having a concussion has been a struggle. When i first started going to a specialist was at the end of summer (about 3 months after my accident) and I hadn't noticed and personality changes or difficulty with higher cognitive processes, other than some of the simple reading I was trying to do throughout the summer was difficult to stay focused on and gave me headaches. About a month into school is when it truly hit me how hard it was for me to get through school. My marks suffered and I was only suppose to be reading for 20 minutes a day. which we all know is impossible in university. It's been incredibly frustrating, and this is when I noticed a spike in anxiety and thoughts of "am I ever going to be able to do this again?!" as it has now been 8 months. I don't think people truly recognize the psychological effects concussions can have. That being said, I returned to cheer (not fully- minimal things) and even get anxiety at practice which is frustrating as cheer use to be my de-stressing thing!

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. I hope that you will return to normal soon.

 

[cheerisloving]

Just suffered head injury Monday, huge knot on my forehead. I was cleared to continue at practice, but yesterday and today have been rough. What's difficult is that I'm not sure if my body is responding from academic stress (pre-finals week ) or from the hit.

 

[Official OWECheer]

Just suffered head injury Monday, huge knot on my forehead. I was cleared to continue at practice, but yesterday and today have been rough. What's difficult is that I'm not sure if my body is responding from academic stress (pre-finals week ) or from the hit.

Yikes! That sounds painful. I hope you feel better soon.

 

[cheerisloving]

Yikes! That sounds painful. I hope you feel better soon.

We had a game tonight, luckily I didn't have to tumble too much. I was fine. Accidentally scratched my for head and forgot about the bump...now my head hurts on that side again. I have a week-ish off so we shall see!

 

[cheermuse]

My CP (16) had her 1st concussion last year (Sept). It happened at cheer practice. She couldn't tell me how it happened, she didnt remember (it was closed practice so I wasn't there). The coach didn't know either :/. She is a base, she remembers basing stunt and the next thing she was on her back and everyone else was standing. She went to school next day woke up with a nasty black eye. One of her teachers who is soccer coach, noticed she she fell asleep in class and wasn't herself. She sent her to nurse who sent her to Athletic Trainer who told her she might have a concussion and needed to have her parents take her to local children's hospital who has dedicated Sports medicine department for athletes.

2 days later she was diagnosed with a concussion. She had serious short term-memory loss.She couldn't recite the months of the year backwards starting with current month (part of testing) . At the beginning of appt, Dr gave her 3 words to remember and 2 min later she asked her to tell her the 3 words, she couldn't remember any of them. (part of testing)

No cheer, no PE, no cell phone, limited tv/cell. In order for the brain to heal, stimulation has to be limited. They gave us note for school with a concussion order. All her notes for her classes had to be written out by the teacher and she was given minimum homework or had extra time to complete. Most of her teachers were accommodating. She had headaches, & dizziness especially if she got up from sleeping or sitting position to quick.

She had appointments with concussion Dr every 3 weeks. She went to practice but did not participate. Showcase came and went she was not cleared. Coaches giving her a hard time about it but I was not going to allow her to participate until she was cleared. You only get 1 brain!! 1st comp was in Nov, had appt that week. Dr did not clear her. We attended comp, she walked to warm-ups with her team and came out on stage with them but took her place next to coaches during their performance.

She was not cleared till week before Christmas. (almost 3 months later) She did not perform on the floor till Jan. Later found out her flyer kicked her in the face during the stunt. She still doesn't remember how it happened.

Concussions have to be taken seriously in young athletes (especially cheer)!