Concussion Essay Example

On September 3rd I was at practice for school cheer. We were practicing stunts for the upcoming home game. My flyer was doing a stunt where she does a front flip. My other base threw too fast and as I was stepping in catching my flyer her legs came down on my head and I landed on the floor.I got an instant headache. My coach made me go to our athletic trainer (Mr.Zirkle). I thought this was totally unnecessary considering that I felt fine. 

She still made me go though. He said that I needed to come back later that night to see if I was still showing symptoms. I had practice and assumed that everything was okay, so I went to three hours of my competitive cheer practice. I didn't find the need to tell my mom until later that night when she asked how practice went. I woke up completely fine the next morning. I had to take the concussion test that day. I was 100% sure that I would pass it. 

Mr. Zirkle asked me stuff that at the time sounded ridiculous. I got really frustrated because it was a hard test. After about 30 minutes he said that I didn't pass and that I needed to call my mom because I have a concussion. A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that causes the brain to move rapidly back and forth. I thought that he was wrong, and I was very upset with him because I didn't want anyone else to take my spot on both of my cheer teams.

I continued on with my day, sitting out of school cheer practice thinking that it was unnecessary the entire time. As I got home, I was straightening my hair.  After an hour the bright lights started to give me a headache. Whenever I was done with my hair  I was crying because my head hurt so bad. I went to bed at 8:00 that night because I felt so bad.

It wasn't until then that I was happy that I was going to the doctor the next day. At the concussion clinic  the doctor made me do a series of tests. These were very hard to do in general much less with a concussion. I told him what had happened and what Mr. Zirkle said. In one of the tests he made me follow his finger, he said that I have something called “wobbly vision” that occurs in about a quarter of concussions. Wobbly vision is whenever one of my eyes takes a few longer than the other eye. My one eye never really goes or looks at the finger or object that he is moving.

I have had another concussion that lasted for a while and was bad. I couldn't speak and had to have half days of school for a week and a half. My sentences wouldn't make sense and it took me long periods of time to say something. This has occurred only a little in this concussion, but not nearly as bad. Whenever I told the doctor that I have had another concussion in the past year and that I land on my head in tumbling and get kicked a lot. He told me It won't affect me mentally in the long run, but that I am a lot more prone to them now, and they can get more serious. 

I was so scared to go to the doctor before because I thought they would make me sit out for a month like they did last time. He told me this one wasn't as bad and that I needed to take about two weeks off. If I don't get better or it lasts more than three weeks then I will have to start taking medication and If my eyes don't correct themselves then I will have to go to therapy to fix them. Concussions are very frustrating and don't seem like big deals. I have always told myself that I was overreacting about crying about the light hurting my eyes or my school work bothering me and that I was fine and that I have to keep going. I never really want to take a break or rest because it's hard to do that whenever I can't see that something is actually wrong (like a broken bone)

My symptoms for these past two concussions have occurred around 24-48 hours later which is why I always go to cheer that night (accidentally making it worse than it already is). Looking back, I'm glad that zirkle made me take the concussion test, even though I thought at the time they were all being dramatic.