I was in seventh grade. I was doing track. And I was going up
for the high jump and I had jumped over the bar and the mat,
hit my head on the back of the asphalt. (Jordan) One morning I
woke up and got out of bed and I felt really dizzy and then I
passed out. They said I probably had a concussion. So we were
going down the mountain, messing around, a couple teenagers. And
we were probably going too fast. I was wearing a helmet, and I
caught my heel edge, kind of flipped back and landed on my
head. (Brianna) I did a header and a girl wiped me out. I was
on the floor. All I remember is blacking out and when I got up I
was really dizzy and cold. We had cement floors at school, so
I'm running down the hallway, really late for class and I
slipped on something. They say it was a toothpick just kind of
as a joke. And I fell head-first into the ground, hit my head.
That next weekend I was hanging out with some friends. Tom fell
over and hit his head against mine and it was really hard. And
I started feeling all woozy and nauseated and started having a
lot more symptoms after that. Concussions are types of brain
injuries. (Dr. Pamela Wilson) We think that there's this release
of chemicals. And it's this imbalance of these chemicals in
the brain that make kids feel bad. (Dr. Aaron Provance) More
common symptoms after a concussion of course would be
like, confusion immediately after the injury, fatigue,
troubles with sleeping, headaches are extremely common,
sensitivity to light, sensitivity to noise.
(Gregg Brueck) Never feel weak for being evaluated for a head
injury. We only have one brain, and we need to make sure that
we're taking care of it properly It can be something as simple as
you see an injury happen or you see somebody maybe take some
sort of blow to their head. You monitor them, you keep an eye on
them, and if they just don't seem themselves, maybe they
shake their head, there could be various little subtle signs and
then we would certainly alert the coach to remove that person
from participation. I had a lot of memory loss, I couldn't
remember things very well. I ended up being out of school for
a week. "Bueller? Bueller?" I like to run and be really
active, stay fit, and it was really frustrating when I wasn't
able to do that. You just had to be there and just kind of wait
for your brain to heal. They told me that I needed to relax
and take a while off of soccer so that I can recover. Keep it
on the down low. I was kind of scared that I didn't know what
would happen exactly. I was afraid that like, I was gonna be
kind of slowed down permanently. (Dr. Michael Kirkwood) Usually
kids have those problems for a matter of a few days, or maybe a
few weeks, but then the problems slowly go away. I was feeling
very down. They would talk to me about the things that would
happen, and kind of getting back on track. The fears kind of went
away. When they told me I had a concussion, I was scared that I
wouldn't be able to play soccer. Or that I wouldn't be able to do
any kind of athletics. It was kind of scary that all this
could happen from just getting hit in the head. If you have a
friend who has a concussion, even if you haven't experienced
it yourself, you can still give them support. Keep fighting
through it. Entertain yourself somehow with toys. Like, from
your childhood or something. "New Toys!" (toys cheering)
"Buzz Lightyear at your service!" The quicker you get checked out, the
better. This is a temporary problem and it can be quite
stressful when somebody is having headaches or trouble
concentrating or difficulty with memory. Think of it as money you
have to spend each day.
(song in cartoon)
On a normal day, you have like, $10. But when you have a concussion,
you only have, say, like $1.50. Like, just waking up, taking a
shower and all that costs you like, 25 cents. And running
costs you like, $2.00. As soon as you pass that threshold is
when you start to get symptoms. And you push yourself back in
the recovery period. The more I did to push, my body would
actually, I guess hold back the recovery period for the
concussion and hurt my brain. You have one brain so always
take care of it. The quicker you get checked out the better.
There is really no cure for a concussion. Most people recover
pretty well after a concussion, but it's even more important
that we try to prevent injuries from happening in the first
place.