Grace's Dad,
What a terrible thing it must be for a child to deal with post-concussion symptoms. If she is frustrated and angry, I don't blame her one bit. That reaction is completely understandable.
I hope that you get a pediatric neurologist who can help. Don't be afraid to shop around. Neurologists have different expertise and experiences. Some, sadly, will not understand.
On the positive side: I did have a playground accident when I was a child. I hit my head after falling from the top of a slide. I was concussed and my vision was really messed up, to the point that I couldn't see. I was off school for quite a while, but the positive thing is that I did make a complete recovery from that episode and I was not aware of any long- term effects. (My present symptoms are due to a subsequent trauma that I had as an adult.) So, children can make a complete recovery, and perhaps children have more plastic brains which helps their healing take place.
Another positive, is that Grace does seem to have recovered to the point of being symptom free until she went back to school. Would it be possible to try to recreate the conditions that allowed her to be symptom free? Perhaps she went back to school too soon and she needs to recovery completely before giving her brain too much stress.
My guess is that you might be guided to some extend by how Grace feels about it, and if she is showing that she is angry and frustrated, she clearly isn't happy about the present situation. You do need a long time to heal, even children, and that is far more important than any school that she might miss. When I had the concussion as a child, I missed a lot of school in one year. I think that I was off school for about 16 weeks. I think that the school year is only about twice that, so basically I was off for half the year. Did it make any difference to me? Well, I still ended up doing the best academically of anyone in the class, so I would say that I didn't miss anything important, but I did need time for the concussion to heal, that was more important.
I would say that making sure that Grace is in a relaxed, stress-free environment, stays off school if necessary, eats well, gets a good night's sleep if she can, these are some of the most important things that will aid her recovery, which hopefully will happen given enough time.
Probably the neurologist isn't going to sort everything out for you. Let's hope that the neurologist does at least help.
Good luck and I let's all hope that Grace gets better soon.
CS
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grace's Dad
Hello Folks:
My daughter, Grace, was thrown from a playground swing when the chain let go as she reached the highest point. She was slammed to the ground, landing on her shoulder and head. She broke 3 ribs, and sustained a C7 fracture which, thankfully, missed the spinal column. She was diagnosed with a concussion, and went to the emergency room with the usual concussive symptoms; nausea, vertigo, etc. This was on April 30th.
After starting High School, these symptoms, which had pretty much gone away, have returned full force, along with other classic indicators of 'PCS' - fatigue, temper outbursts, mood swings, low frustration threshold, inability to control impulses, dizziness, impaired balance, etc. I'm not sure if the condition has worsened due to the stress of starting in a new school environment, etc, but she is becoming increasingly unable to keep up and do the work assigned to her.
We have an appointment this morning with a pediatric neurologist, and I feel that a proper and accurate diagnosis may be the key to resolving her problems.
Does anybody have any suggestions about what to tell the doctor that may help him figure all of this out?
Thank You.
-Grace's Dad
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