This “throwback Thursday” thing is kinda cool for a guy that has a ton of stuff on this site that new people may have missed. With that I will attempt to drudge up some “oldies-but-goodies” for you the audience. I am certain I will re-read some of this and laugh at myself or have changed in the way of thinking but I will leave it as it was originally printed.
This weeks post comes from the very first month of this blog, September, 2010. Back then, when the concussion information on the world-wide web was hard to find I was blogging my experiences on the field as an athletic trainer. It is funny reading back on these as you can see my knowledge grow as well as how policies were set. Enjoy, including the REALLY horrible writing style (wow, it was bad).
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Lets just begin by saying we did not have to travel to an emergency department last friday. That being said there were some lost opportunities for the team to get an underdog victory. The kids played hard, in a hard-hitting game, so the bumps and bruises were quite substantial.
The main thing on my mind, however, was the concussion from Monday nights game, as I blogged about here. I was still running the entire thing over and over in my mind, and trying to make things better for all involved. I probably played out 10 different scenarios in the down time we had during the game, just in case we had a concussion.
We did not, during that game, only a player complaining of a headache after the game, which cleared upon return to the school. Follow up with this individual was swift and on target Monday as he had zero symptoms (reported of course) and no signs.
Then Tuesday we had our first practice incident. This time it was reported to me from another player. “Fink, you should look at ______ he took a hit in that drill over there and just does not look right.”
That was awesome, a player understanding the situation and being honest with me and reporting it. Good thing he did, because ________ was rocked, as reported by other players, but he said it was not anything big. He did not complain of anything (trying to be tough) but he had the “gaze”, and really was unsure after about 3 minutes of questioning.
I sent him to get a drink and report back to me, and in the time it took for him to do that he realized that he was hurt. He became forthright with me and reported a headache and slight vision disturbance. Needless to say he was removed from the practice.
This time, informational paperwork was sent home and contact was made with parents. I spent some time discussing the injury and my recommendations, including no school. Both parent and kid were resistant to that idea, but they made a decision to stay home the next day. And low-and-behold mom called to tell me that he was doing MUCH better, looked and acted normal, as opposed to the night before.
Now this week, tonight more specifically, I have a terrible feeling that we will be due for a concussion or two. This week’s practice has been heavy on the hitting side of things, but it was not abnormal, players trying to right the ship and practicing harder. There is a good chance there is a player or two out there that have concussive symptoms and have not reported them. I wish I had time to check every single one of them, every single day. But I, nor anyone else could do that or should be expected to do that.
Wish us luck tonight, and crossing our fingers once again we are injury free.
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