Parents Concussion recovery

[GymnastMomX2]

Talk to me about concussion recovery timelines? How long did it take your kiddos to come back fully after a concussion?
My daughter is about 11 days out from a fall onto her head/neck off the high bar (she peeled off backwards warming up tap swings of all things, she’s a level 8 so not a skill anyone would have worried about) , she’s still having symptoms (dizziness/headache) if she gets her heart rate elevated, or tries to go upside down. Luckily light/sound and school starting this week doesn’t seem to bother her. She really feels totally fine, until she puts her head down/upside down and then she said all the blood rushes to her head and she gets a headache/ dizzy.

Not looking for medical advice, she’s been seen by ER, Pediatritian, PT and we have an appointment in a week at a concussion clinic. And of course they’ve all said it could be as short as a couple weeks or months, no way to really know.

Just looking to hear others experiences? This injury has me a little freaked out, I had a bad concussion 3ish years ago and I’m still not 100% ok from it memory-wise.

 

[gym_dad32608]

All I can say is that these things are very specific to the individual. My daughter had one too peeling off the high bar. The medical advice we received was that most folks clear up symptoms in 3 weeks. But sometimes it can last up to 6 months. Mine was mainly with the headaches, and some nausea in the first week post-accident but after that, it was mainly headaches and difficulty concentrating. She suffered a broken nose and a tiny bit of internal bleeding. She really could not do any exercise for about 5 weeks without suffering headaches. But then it was like a sudden switch changed and at about the 6-week mark everything stopped and she was totally back to normal with no obvious or lingering effects.

I think the good thing is that, unlike us old folks, children are pretty resilient in recovery and odds are they will be totally fine after something like this. The bad thing is that they have experienced something like this at a young age, and obviously as we are all aware, multiple concussions are not something one wants to mess around with. Hope yours has a speedy recovery and don't fret, she will be fine.

 

[Caesarea]

Hi! My cousin (15F) recently suffered a concussion at cheerleading practice as well. She is better at around 10 days. It is totally normal for concussion recovery to take from 7-14 days.

Your daughter should be doing a gradual Return to Play and avoiding what causes symptoms to re-appear or worsen. She should not be upside down quite yet. Check with your doctor or an athletic trainer on what your area's protocol is.

USA Gymnastics has a nice, published Return to Sport strategy.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Please heed the advice of a doctor or other qualified medical professional.

 

[JPC13]

Honestly, I don’t think traumatic brain injuries are understood well enough to make any sort of definitive statement. I think your best bet is to consult with a couple specialists and then be even more conservative than recommended.

 

[raenndrops]

It is totally unique to each individual. We had a gymnast a few years back that got a concussion playing dodgeball in gym class the first week of school (so late August). Our season starts in November and is mostly over in March. She missed the entire season.
They strictly followed concussion protocol. She couldn't even go back to school for 3 weeks because of symptoms. When she did go back, she was only there for 1-2 hours a day through November. In December, she was allowed to stay for 2-2.5 hours a day. She was allowed to come to the team Christmas party, but had to leave after an hour due to dizziness (she had not been doing anything but sitting and talking). She wasn't cleared to return to even modified practice until May. She came back slowly, but was ready for the next season.

I have had "a few" concussions myself. I have to say that #22 (or 23 ... I lost count) was the worst. I knew I had a concussion, so I started following concussion protocol (except for the whole "getting checked out" part). A month later, I was still having issues.
Example: I needed to tell my sister that something she was looking for was on top of the refrigerator. I couldn't think of the word refrigerator, so I was explaining that it was on top of the thing in the kitchen where we keep the cold stuff. Explaining it to her gave me a horrible headache and made me dizzy.
I went to the ER. Tried to get into a neuro for follow-up after a week as directed. The ER sent the referral 4x - the final one being HAND DELIVERED by the nurse that had sent the first 3. In the meantime, I saw my PCP and she thought it might be migraines so she gave me migraine meds. They helped a little, but not with the memory or aphasia.
Finally got into the neuro and she was all about the dizziness I complained of at the ER ... 6 weeks earlier. The dizziness was gone. I told her my main problems now were memory, aphasia, and headaches. She wanted to recreate the dizziness. No matter how hard she slammed me down to one side or the other, I didn't get dizzy.
She said I hadn't had a concussion. It was migraines and she tripled my dose of the med my doctor put me on (because it would help me lose weight). When I needed a follow-up, I went to a different neuro - one who ACTUALLY LISTENED to me! He realized that I had actually had micro-tears in the muscle on the side of the head that goes up and over the head. When it healed, that muscle healed all knotted up. It explained all of my symptoms. We did dry needling into the knot to help it loosen up. It worked.

Most of my concussions weren't nearly that bad. I was usually back to normal in 2-3 weeks. But I was a kid in the 70s when nobody really worried about things like that. Kindergarten school pictures were a few days (2-3) after my first concussion. This photo was left in a cardboard box in an old garage for 8 years ... so there is some damage that I did my best to fix once it was uploaded. If you look closely, you can see 2 marks/scabs between my eyes that the baseball caused when it hit me. My mother was able to cover the black eyes with make-up, but she couldn't cover the marks.

 

[Smiley00]

Talk to me about concussion recovery timelines? How long did it take your kiddos to come back fully after a concussion?
My daughter is about 11 days out from a fall onto her head/neck off the high bar (she peeled off backwards warming up tap swings of all things, she’s a level 8 so not a skill anyone would have worried about) , she’s still having symptoms (dizziness/headache) if she gets her heart rate elevated, or tries to go upside down. Luckily light/sound and school starting this week doesn’t seem to bother her. She really feels totally fine, until she puts her head down/upside down and then she said all the blood rushes to her head and she gets a headache/ dizzy.

Not looking for medical advice, she’s been seen by ER, Pediatritian, PT and we have an appointment in a week at a concussion clinic. And of course they’ve all said it could be as short as a couple weeks or months, no way to really know.

Just looking to hear others experiences? This injury has me a little freaked out, I had a bad concussion 3ish years ago and I’m still not 100% ok from it memory-wise.

 

[Smiley00]

It's all so individual. The best thing I think we did was see the concussion clinic. They followed a slow progression bc every time symptoms were triggered it was a step back for us.

It was a few days of complete brain rest and out of school, then school as tolerated (just attending as long as comfortable, not taking notes or studying). I know it was 2-3 weeks before any light walking was allowed for him. It was 3 months before full activity was allowed. It's hard keeping a physically active kid to take it easy. I was surprised how much his balance and perception was affected when the dr showed us the exercises to work on at home and he struggled with some simple things.
I hope she feels recovers quickly.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, such a frustrating injury.