Hello Blog world! This is my first blog ever! So please bare with me if it is not any good haha. I am 16 years old. So as you can imagine my life can get crazy. The title of this blog is called "Not Your Typical Teenage Life" because I have had TWO traumatic brain injuries in this past year- also known as bad concussions. Now as a teenager, this was very hard and not normal. So I'm going to tell you about my journey!
My story begins on the first of January 2013 at 12:15 in the morning. I was in the kitchen with my friends and we had just gotten back from a church dance for the New Year. Out of no where I fainted. Now just to clarify, I do not drink nor do I ever plan on drinking or even doing drugs for that matter. (This was hard for my school nurse to grasp.) Anyways, on the way down I hit the side of my chin on the counter and then hit the back of my head on the tile floor. After a couple of minutes I "woke up." I was a bit confused at first but then I caught on that I had fainted. After a couple minutes laying on the cold tile floor, I stood up and was completely fine. The only thing that hurt was my chin. The back of my head felt completely fine so we didn't think to go to the hospital or anything like that. My friends on the other hand were scarred for life! haha But they were pretty good about it.
Two weeks later, my symptoms started coming. At this time, I was going to a high school (that shall remain unnamed) that is an arts school. I was going there for their Jazz Band program as a pianist. I was also co-captain on the JV basketball team for my zoned High school.
As a freshman I thought that things couldn't get any better but of coarse that changed quickly... I didn't know what was happening. All I knew was that I was really confused. Especially when I was playing basketball. My shooting was off, dribbling was difficult, and sometimes I couldn't remember the plays or anything. Keep in mind, I was co-caption of the team. So at this point I knew that something was wrong, but I didn't think it was anything that big. During this time I was also experiencing sharp shooting pains in my head, head pressure, not being able to concentrate, and some nausea. Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking how in the world did I not know that I had a concussion? Well, Idk. Before this I didn't really know what a concussion was. Also, when I fainted and woke up, I didn't feel ANY pain in my head. That came about two to three weeks later.
So my mom took me to see my doctor. She diagnosed me as having a sinus infection. Of coarse the medicine did not work. During this time, school seemed a little harder. Semester finals were coming up and I wanted to do well. So one night I legitimately studied for 6 hours and I felt pretty good about what I had studied. The next day, I couldn't remember a thing. This is when my parents and I knew that we were facing something bigger. I failed basically all of my finals. I remember crying so hard one night because I didn't know what was going on and all of my friends basically aced their finals. This was extremely difficult.
So my mom set up an appointment to see a neurologist on 2\14\13 (Valentines Day). When we went to see him, I was a mess. I told him everything that I was feeling. Nausea, headaches, head pressure, confusion, sensitivity to noise, and some light. Now I wasn't really feeling well enough to talk or to even comprehend the big words that he was saying. So as any kid would, I looked at my mom for help. My mom told him some of the symptoms that I was experiencing. Right away he said that I was having monster migraines. So he told me not to go to school for two weeks and to do nothing physical. At first I was thinking yay, no school! But then I realized that I wouldn't be able to do anything. I would basically be on bed rest and in pain. Not fun. He also said that I had Post-Concussion Syndrome as he walked out. That's where your symptoms are delayed from your accident. As you can imagine, this was challenging. So he prescribed some medicine and that was that. I wouldn't see him for another 6 weeks.
When the two week mark finally came to go back to school, I wasn't any better. In fact, I was worse. I knew that I could not go back to school. So my dad looked up concussion places online and came across a concussion clinic at the Orthopedics and Sports Medicine Center in Provo, Utah . My parents talked about it and came to an agreement that this is where I needed to go to get some better answers and help. So that day, 3\6\13, they called to get an appointment. The Concussion Clinic wanted to see me the very next day. We were very surprised that we were able to get in that soon.
So my mom and I drove 6 hours the next day from Las Vegas to Utah to go and see this Concussion Clinic. The ride was dreadful, never ending, and full of suspense. Suspense because I wasn't getting better and I was thinking, "Man, I must have a brain tumor or something like that because nothing is working for me!" The long car ride wasn't helping, my head pressure was so intense. When we got there, they had me fill out this sheet that had basically all my symptoms on it that I was feeling. They had me rank my symptoms on a scale of one to ten. Symptoms on the sheet were:
- Headache/Head-Pressure
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Balance Problems
- Dizziness
- Visual Problems
- Fatigue
- Sensitivity to light and noise
- Numbness/tingling
- Feeling mentally foggy
- Feeling slowed down
- Difficulty concentrating
- Difficulty Remembering
- Drowsiness
- Sleeping less than usual
- More sleep than usual
- Trouble falling asleep
- Irritability
- Sadness
- Nervousness
- Feeling more emotional
I can't tell you how nice it was to know that I wasn't crazy. That these symptoms were not just all in my head. That they actually could all be something. My symptoms were: headache\head pressure, fatigue, balance problems, dizziness, sensitivity to light and noise, numbness and tingling, feeling mentally foggy, feeling slowed down, difficulty concentrating, difficulty remembering, drowsiness, trouble falling asleep, and feeling more emotional. They agreed that I had Post Concussion Syndrome.
The doctors I saw in Provo also told me to go to Physical Therapy when I got home. So when my mom and I finally got back from Provo, we went to see a physical therapist that Thursday. He evaluated me and told me that before he worked on me that I need to go to a Balance Center because my balance was horrible. When I would close my eyes, I would fall backwards and wouldn't be able stand still. Usually, you would be able to stand still. Haha try it! They also said to do no physical activity and to watch some romantic comedies. I had a problem with no physical activity but I had no problem with the romantic comedies. I LOVE cheesy romantic movies haha. Like the ones on hallmark!:D
Now during all of this, my mom was trying to work with my school. She had meetings with the counselor and nurse at my school and was hoping to set up a game plan for me. Unfortunately they could not understand that I really could not process the information. That I really was not able to do all that work. They were more worried about the work I needed to do for my classes and everything. Well, after a while they called my mom and basically said," She has missed to much school. If you don't withdraw your daughter then we will." So that took care of that. Because they were a magnet school, my grades weren't sufficient so they basically kicked me out. In a small way, that was an answer to our prays because I didn't have to worry about school. Haha my dad said, " I don't know what to do. I've never had a child with all F's who has gotten kicked out of a magnet school!" Haha I thought it was pretty funny to hear my dad say something like that because I had never gotten an F before that or get kicked out of school!
Weirdly, this is about when things started to look up. Twice a week I would go to the Balance Center and about 2 times a month I would go to the Concussion Clinic up in Provo. My parents and family were amazing through all of this. Haha one of my symptoms was short term memory difficulties. So my sisters, being sisters, would tell me the same joke every day and I would laugh just as hard the next day. Until I finally wrote the joke down on my hand so that I would remember it. haha.
Now this wasn't easy at all.For about four months I was in darkness. The light burned my eyes. Every blind was shut in my house. I was constantly nauseous. My headaches weren't your typical headaches. They felt like knives going in my head but it would only last for about 5 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the headache. They would be in a different place every time. I was also ALWAYS tired. It was a big accomplishment for me to walk up to a park in my neighborhood that was just right up the street. So that you can get an idea of how far this park is, If you were walking regularly is would take about 30 seconds. I remember the first day doing this and of how happy I was with myself for doing something.
Just so that you can get an idea, I was out with a concussion for about 6-7 months. Can you imagine that? Your whole life changed in one of the times in your life that you are trying to figure out who your really are and what difference you are going to make and having to almost stop and re-learn everything.
Now this wasn't easy at all.For about four months I was in darkness. The light burned my eyes. Every blind was shut in my house. I was constantly nauseous. My headaches weren't your typical headaches. They felt like knives going in my head but it would only last for about 5 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the headache. They would be in a different place every time. I was also ALWAYS tired. It was a big accomplishment for me to walk up to a park in my neighborhood that was just right up the street. So that you can get an idea of how far this park is, If you were walking regularly is would take about 30 seconds. I remember the first day doing this and of how happy I was with myself for doing something.
Just so that you can get an idea, I was out with a concussion for about 6-7 months. Can you imagine that? Your whole life changed in one of the times in your life that you are trying to figure out who your really are and what difference you are going to make and having to almost stop and re-learn everything.
This whole experience sure had it's ups and downs... mostly downs. But I've defiantly come out of it for the better. I was finally getting back to 100% during the 2nd quarter of this school year. I was on the JV Volleyball team and I was getting really good grades. I was really proud of myself. I put all my effort into getting better. This probably drained me. But I'm glad that I was able to become a regular teenager for a short time! It was so worth it!
