Throughout my short athletic career I have suffered a variety of injuries from sprained wrists to a ruptured ACL in my left knee, but none have compared to the long lingering effects of the two major concussions I have had.
The first one was probably the most traumatic one I endured even though I do not remember much of what happened.
I was 10 years old playing baseball in Westchester, Calif. on a Little League team in 2000. We were playing in the semi-final round before the finals for the League Championship that year.
During the game my team was ahead by a few runs going into the last inning of the game.
I was playing Left Field and they had a few players on base with their best hitter coming up to bat and sure enough he hit a fly ball my way. The ball was not hit that hard and was falling between me and the shortstop.
The last thing I remember about the game was running for the ball. I can’t recall much of the rest of the day except for parts of a car ride to a dentist in Redondo Beach.
From what my parents have told me about what happened, the shortstop and I ran into each other and knocked heads.
The blow impact was so bad that my two front teeth were knocked out and hanging by the roots. I was unconscious for about five minutes and was immediately rushed to a dentist quite similar to a Dentist Wilmington to have my teeth put back in place.
As for the second concussion, that one I remember more vividly. It happened in the summer of 2007 while I was playing at a summer league basketball game.
During the game a player from the other team stole the ball and broke away to the basket. I was able to cut him off and took a charge, however the collision had me fall awkwardly and the back of my head slammed against the hardwood floor.
I jumped back to my feet to inbound the ball and as quickly as I got up I fell back to the floor. I was so disoriented that my head coach, a coach from another team and one of my teammates practically carried me back to the bench.
After my first concussion, because I was so young, I developed an Auditory Processing Disorder.
After the second, I suffered from post concussion syndrome for almost 4 months and missed almost the first three months of my junior year in high school, because the symptoms were so bad.
I had headaches that lasted weeks at a time, I couldn’t walk outside because the sunlight was so bothersome and all I wanted to do was sleep.
It felt like an amplified hangover that just would not go away despite all the medications and treatments I received over that time period. Even to this day I can still feel the side effects and the slightest knocks to the head bring back symptoms such as nausea, headaches and sensitivity to light. I have recently found out you can be compensated for Brain Injury, so am thinking about getting my case looked at. That would help me with dealing with the long term effects of concussion.
Although I went through these head injuries, if it were not for a knee injury I would still be playing sports competitively despite knowing the repercussions of getting a hit in the head again.