<p>This thread caught my interest. My daughter had a concussion around age 10 or 11 while figure skating. She recovered with no problem. It never dawned on me to think about any repercussions down the line. There weren’t any. I suppose if a kid had some severe injury that had immediate issues while young, you might think about later on but many concussions have no effect down the line. I had forgotten all about it. She had a successful college career. </p>
<p>Actually, of much greater concern for us, was never the concussion, but rather in the spring of her application year, she was in a car accident and suffered serious injuries landing her in intensive care, surgery, long recovery, etc. She got her college acceptances in the hospital in fact. Not only did I worry about her making a full recovery, but one of her injuries, a fractured hip, required five metal screws in her hip and this kid was going to be majoring in musical theater, which involves lots of dance. Come to think of it, a few nights ago, I saw her in a professional production, and in the finale, she was showcased singing solo and dancing and did high kicks. I had forgotten how severely injured she was just nine years ago. </p>
<p>D2 had enough concussions to knock her out of a national athletic career. She was recruited and knew where she would be attending to play by junior year in HS. By the spring, she was no longer able to play. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say she’s having a brilliant college career. But she’s at a top state U in math and philosophy and doing quite well for someone who has no real interest in an academic career.</p>
<p>As others have said, follow all Doc advice. See a neurologist. Consider giving up the sport. Once you’ve been severely concussed, a recurrence is more likely than not. </p>
<p>I see some post-concussion Harvard kids mentioned here. Rather than making a snarky comment, I’ll throw in a Yale freshman showing all signs of having a successful college career. </p>
<p>He got a concussion during HS sophomore year, and was pretty much out of it for 6 weeks. Neurologist cleared him after 4 weeks, but I know my son better than someone who just met him, so I kept him out for another two weeks. An interesting side note about the old-school neurologist. DS had a pre-concussion ImPACT test done and also a post-concussion one; I showed them to the neurologist. He looked at them, said “interesting,” and then turned to DS and said, “so, kid, tell me, who’s the Secretary of State.” Doc later told me “your son got the answer right, but his eyeballs were rolling around in his head as he thought about it.”</p>
<p>Let me put in a plug for good, custom fit mouth guards. My kids have all used them in sports. When DS got braces, he had to have a new impression made for a special fixed orthodontia mouth guard, and he used a “store-bought” mouth guard in the interim. It was at that time that he got the concussion. I know an anecdote is not data, but I am convinced that it was the ill-fitting “one size fits no one” mouth guard that contributed to the concussion. </p>
<p>I want to thank everyone for these thoughtful, comforting answers. I can’t erase the past, but I can breathe a little easier knowing that, as long as there isn’t another concussion, he probably will be fine. I have to remember my own experience being knocked out on a cement floor at the age of 9, with NO follow-up medical care–and there have been no repercussions in the 39 years since (that I can tell). Thank you!!!</p>
<p>If your child recovered well, you shouldn’t worry. The two kids I know who had concussions in high school (lacrosse for the one, minor car accident for the other) and went on to have some issues in college did not really completely recover after their injury, for whatever reason. </p>
<p>My brother-in-law had a head injury that required surgery and he was given Last Rites, not expected to survive. He now has a PhD in Biochemical Engineering, done at ETH in German (grew up in the US not speaking German, took some classes in college). The doctor, when he was being released from the hospital, said the MRI showed lots of folds and convolutions in the brain, an important part of raw intellectual horsepower and pretty well already set in your son.</p>
<p>Core and neck strength are also important for preventing concussions.</p>
<p>My kids haven’t had concussions, but D1’s best friend got one playing soccer during her first month of freshman year in HS. It was not immediately diagnosed - she was hit on the head by a hard-kicked ball during practice and thought nothing of it at the time, although she had a headache and in retrospect all of her symptoms started immediately after that. The concussion was diagnosed about 4 weeks later after multiple doctor visits for a variety of strange symptoms. Once the concussion was diagnosed it was very clear to everyone involved that the symptoms had pointed that way from the beginning (had she told her parents she’d been hit in the head by a ball it would have been figured out a lot earlier), but I’m sure her recovery time was extended since the usual concussion protocol wasn’t followed and she didn’t “rest” her brain after the injury. She had a lot of difficulty her first semester of high school, and wasn’t back to normal until early sophomore year, but after a rough start to high school she did quite well. She never had a subsequent concussion. She is now a college junior at a top college, majoring in a STEM field and earning top grades.</p>
<p>Not my kids, thankfully, but me. Six documented (and probably several more undocumented) sports-related concussions during high school and college sports, and one from a mugging. I’m a subject in the large longitudinal study of chronic traumatic encephalitis at Boston University. Occasional word-finding and memory problems, but didn’t stop me from earning a doctorate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and now (allegedly, as I’m uncomfortable saying that about myself) one of the top researchers in my field. So, not without effects, but they’re not debilitating.</p>
<p>To add about my niece, who had a sports-related concussion in college: Besides being in med school, she has passed her first round of medical boards.</p>
<p>When I was younger than 2, I climbed out of my crib, and landed on my head, on the concrete floor in the house my parents were renting at the time. From what I have heard, I developed a bump on my forehead the size of a goose egg. I have a Ph.D. in quantum mechanics, and have held a faculty position for many years. The restorative and adaptive powers of the human brain are truly amazing.</p>
<p>As I understand it, the chief danger comes from repeat concussions. Even if a person does not lose consciousness, if they are knocked in the head and experience any neurological symptoms (e.g. they say they “got their bell rung”), they should be out of the sport for a while and be watched. </p>
<p>I’m reading this thread with interest as my own D had a concussion last spring.</p>
<p>I want to emphasize this: “Core and neck strength are also important for preventing concussions.”</p>
<p>This is particularly true for young women who tend to have less neck strength than their male peers. My D has had to miss her fall sports season not from the concussion, which has healed, but from associated occipital nerve issues. she is currently in physical therapy and much of that therapy focuses on strengthening her neck so she is less vulnerable the next time.</p>
<p>My husband had a pretty bad concussion when he was a kid–bleeding, unconsciousness, etc. He went on to get a PhD in physics from a Top10 Public. He seems pretty accomplished to me.</p>
Well, he’s done it again. Another concussion a year after the first. No major symptoms, just feeling “off” and really could not focus in school this morning. Took him home after first period. Now that he’s home he feels a lot better but the doc said to keep him out of school for a few more days, just in case. I am ready to kill this kid for his carelessness and am seriously worried that his future academic career (not to mention his basic cognitive abilities) is at stake. The only solace I have is that he has learned his lesson and has vowed to always wear a helmet when sledding. Maybe Mom really does know best.
The sport was sledding! Some of us might be concussion prone, but please don’t worry too much. Concussions, post concussion syndrome and chronic traumatic encephalopathy are all serious issues that need to be dealt with appropriately, but don’t extrapolate backwards from the human battering rams about whose CTE is made much of in the press to your child who sounds like he’s doing pretty normal stuff. These stories which are a popular topic in mainstream press inform, but they also create an availability bias that really blows a lot of folks fears out of proportion. There’s a multitude of stories earlier in this thread of really bright kids who’ve suffered far worse than your son. I understand where you’re coming from with this and I hope I can give a little perspective and peace of mind on the issue.
Thanks, @doubtful. Interestingly, my son has never suffered a concussion from his sports (soccer and skiing), but only from fooling around in the snow. I told him to wear the helmet; he didn’t wear the helmet. I wish I could turn back time, but I can’t. He is home with me now, listening to music and playing cards. He does not seem cognitively fuzzy in the least–we just had an interesting discussion about biology and genetics–but he’s staying away from screens, TV, and even reading. I just wish I could calm MY anxieties about this and know that he will okay in the future.
My kid had a pretty bad concussion – flipped off bike wearing helmet, 40 stitches in face --just before his high school junior year, following his sophomore year in France (with no math). He told me he didn’t feel himself academically until April. I think he does not have the math ability he should – but is it the concussion? the messed up maths sequence? or just this kid? At any rate, he graduated from an Ivy with a significant amount of math in his program (but not engineering or physics) this past spring.
I enjoyed reading this thread because this is exactly the type of stuff that worries me and has me crabbing at my kids (teenage girls) to be more careful. Maybe I should chill a little, heh.
