I am a mother to a 14 yr old boy who suffered a concussion in September 2012. It happened at school during football film review. The situation that happened was strange in itself and I'm still not 100% positive if what I understand is the truth.

Apparently what happened was the players were released from film review in the schools library and as he and 2 of his friends were walking down the hallway playing around "shadow boxing" his leaned into a punch or something was hit in his cheekbone/temple area pretty hard. He stumbled a little and his friends asked if he ok and he said yes then his eyes rolled in the back of his head and he fell face first into the cement floor. When he hit the floor he was already unconscious. He remained unconscious for over a minute they believe. His friends while he was unconscious started to shake him and trying to pick him up off the floor. They dragged him into the bathroom where he regained consciousness but mentally wasn't with it. At that time his coaches came in the bathroom and took him to the head coaches office where the paramedic that is an asst coach evaluated him and determined he had a concussion and they called me to take him to the ER.

While at the ER he would repeat the same 10 questions for about 6 hours. He was very emotional about people knowing he was ok and complained of a headache but just kept asking the same 10 questions. Over and Over and having no knowledge that he had asked them previously. They reluctantly performed a CT scan and XRay which both came back good and eventually sent him home. We monitored him for the evening and the next day. He continued to have issues so Monday we followed up with the pediatrician and she referred him to a sports medicine doctor.

They removed him from football, obviously, and also school for 2 weeks. Once he regained who he was he was instantly a different person. He moodier, agitated quickly, really rude when he was responding and couldn't concentrate. We continued to see the sports medicine doctor who allowed him to go back to school however he couldn't use his phone, play video games, play sports, no test taking, no homework, no computers and no reading. Bascially as the Dr. said he was there to socialize and still be apart of his original group but do nothing that would tax his brain. We also went to see the neurologist and when we did they make him take a bunch of test to see where he was at. He did well on all the test and we were told by the neurologist to monitor him. The sports med Dr slowly brought him back into school and eventually in the end of October he ok'd him to return to playing football.

I have always believed that my son was dishonest because his passion to play was more persistent than his concern for his future. He had problems when he returned to football because of the sounds and lights at the stadium. He was a more aggressive player than he was before the accident. And where I had never heard his name announced for a big play I heard it often now. He almost had no fear. I came to find out he would try to fight everyone who he got ruffled at. Which is not how he was before. He got a knee injury the championship game which he continued to play through until the next day we got it looked at and he was to start PT.

In our town when middle school football ends you get to start wrestling for the high school immediately. So it was now time for wrestling which he had done a year previously. We as a family decided it was best he wait out this season because of his concussion and knee injury and he could start condition for football in January.

All the while since his concussion my son is just a different person. He is moodier, more smart alec, back talks more, seems a little distant, can't remember to tie his shoes most of the time, gets agitated quickly, still believes he could win a fight, and goes from zero to ****** with a quickness. Now to top it all off he is failing school. We grounded him over grades (he previously is a procrastinator but never been to the point of failing). And we have taken away everything that requires electricity for the most part but it always lingers in the back of my head that it could be an issue with his concussion. In our most recent convo with him he admitted the downtime between football and condition (about 2 months) he was really depressed. And even thought about what it would be like if he wasn't around anymore. This came as a total shock to me! Now he is back into conditioning and happier but I just don't know what to do.

Can someone please let me know if all this seems like a normal 14 yr old boy or if I should be concerned. I don't want to be that parent that says I wish I would have seen the warning signs and they were right here all along. Sorry about the length and thanks for reading.