Tracey Mayer

Parent Advocate: Tracey Mayer

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Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!  I thought I would pass along this note from Tracey Mayer she sent me the other day:

It’s been a bit over four years since Drew’s injury.  Last night I was thinking holy crap; it was me against the world when I refused to let him return to the field.  Honestly, there was no one on my side—not even my husband.

Clearly, concussion awareness was in its infancy stage at that time.  Back then, I rarely recall seeing any media coverage on concussions, and now I read at least 8-10 articles per day.  I was flipping through the mail yesterday and came across a newsletter from Rush with an article about resting the brain after a concussion – how it is necessary to take at least 2 weeks off from school, etc.   I cannot imagine what things would have been like if there had been even a smidge of academic support when Drew was hurt.  Even more, I can only imagine what might have happened to him had I not dug my heels in and held firm about him not returning to football.

Parents, you know your children better than anyone.  If something doesn’t seem right, most likely it isn’t.  Trust your gut – it costs nothing and generally holds value.  Your child has one brain—the vital organ that runs his or her body.  Protect it at any cost.

Tracey is right, we have come a long way in a very short time, alas we are only scratching the surface on the issue.

New Doctor, Different Results: Tracey Mayer

Dustin Fink39 Comments

Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!

My son, Drew, suffered a severe concussion during a freshman high school football game in September, 2008, and has not played football since.   He would have stepped back on the field the next week and would still do so if he was allowed to.   It was not his first concussion, but it was clearly the most severe.  My earlier posts on here explain the details of what he has gone through.  Clearly, he has made tremendous progress, but he still has some cognitive difficulties.  He also suffers from migraines, which are typically provoked by intense focusing or from being hit on the head.  It does not happen often, but there have been a handful of incidents over the past 2 years.  Two weeks ago, he was elbowed in the head very hard during a basketball game, which resulted in a migraine with major fatigue that lasted for 4 days.

Drew saw a leading neuropsychologist out of Loyola who is an expert in concussive injury last week.   I chose to not reveal his name Continue reading →

School Policy Update: Tracey Mayer

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Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!

I recently met with one of the Vice Principals at Drew’s high school for a non-concussion related matter.  During our conversation, the topic of concussions came up because he is aware of what Drew has gone through, and he was asking how he is doing.  He told me about two female athletes who both suffered fairly significant concussions recently.  He said they were really struggling academically, which was such a perfect opportunity for me to enlighten him about the policies put in place in Prince William County, Virginia.  I sent these policies to the Superintendent Continue reading →

A Concussion Survivor

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Drew is the son of Tracey Mayer – one of our Parent Advocates – and like John Gonoude a person that has overcome the stigma of concussion.  Not only is it a real brain injury, not treating it correctly can have life long effects for more people than we care to admit.  As Drew finds time he will send us updates, we hope this avenue will help him as well.

When my mom asked me to write for the blog, I knew instantly that I was interested but the first few times I sat down to write about it, things became tougher for me than I had thought.  Although I have had so much support and worked on moving forward from my freshman incident, this whole situation continues to be a sensitive topic for me to talk about.

As my senior year progresses, everything has been moving more smoothly than ever.  Starting off the year I still continued to set my standards high; to keep improving in my classes.  Just in case I needed a little GPA boost, I had taken a couple AP classes for the first time in my 4 years of high school – unlike many of my friends who decided to have a blow off schedule.  This was more of something that would just Continue reading →

Getting Closer To College: Tracey Mayer

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Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!

Although Drew knows the university setting is challenging, I think he sees it as a fresh start.  Now that he is 18, he will have to advocate for himself even more, so it is very important that he fully understands his disability and what his needs will be.  The strategies that have worked for him in high school may or may not work in college.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Drew’s original plan of study at ISU was the College of Business.  Post-concussion, he can no longer Continue reading →

My Son Is Going To College

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Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she (and possibly her son Drew) will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!

Drew was accepted into his first college of choice, Illinois State University –  the only school he wanted to apply to.  This is wonderful news.  We were all holding our breath with anticipation, after all, Drew’s freshman and sophomore year transcripts held quite a few C’s.

I called our school psychologist, hoping for some guidance on how to approach the college in regard to accommodations for Drew.  Unfortunately, she more or less told me that we are on our own, and I will have to contact the disabilities office at ISU and find out what services they offer.  I can’t say that I am surprised to hear that, although it is disappointing.

I am going to make that call tomorrow, and there are so many thoughts in my head.  How do I approach this?  How do I organize the information so it’s as clear as possible?  Do I even have the right or enough information?  Are they even going to understand what I’m talking about?  Or will they care?  College is very different from high school, so is extra time on tests going to be what he needs?  Will he need breaks on tests, tutoring, etc.?  Who will help us determine this?  So begins another search for answers and based upon my previous work, you can see where I might be a bit concerned.

When I applied for extended time on the ACT for Drew, Continue reading →

Another Mom Lends A Hand To TCB

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As The Concussion Blog enters into its second year of existence many have given their opinion of our work here; some negative but a great majority has been positive.  Along with the critiques (always welcome) has come an urge for people to write and share experiences.  This has mainly been accomplished in the comment section of the posts, but others like Michelle Trenum have given time to write and send information. 

Today I would like to introduce another Parent Advocate, Tracey Mayer.  She will be offering up her writings to The Concussion Blog as a resource to the readers, especially the parents out there.  As time allows she (and possibly her son Drew) will be submitting posts for you to read.  I truly hope that everyone gets a chance to read about concussions from yet another perspective.  Thank you Tracey!

TRACEY MAYER — Thursday, September 14, was the three-year mark from the date my son, Drew, sustained a concussion during a freshman high school football game.  My heart was heavy that day, as it is to some extent every day, but I also felt energized on the anniversary; based upon all that has been accomplished in the areas of concussion awareness, education and research since his injury.

Drew attended a day of training for a leadership program at his high school on the anniversary.  One of the topics the students will be presenting to underclassmen is depression.  The leadership group was looking to find someone Continue reading →