Article on David Perron: recovering "inch by inch by inch"
 

Perron is a 23-year-old hockey player with the St. Louis Blues who has been out with a concussion for almost a year. He recently started skating again with the team.

“What’s it been like?” Perron is asked. “It’s tough to explain, mentally tough. I don’t know where to start. Unless you have it, it’s hard to understand.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...rticle2217769/

I hope people are not seeing these reports of hockey and football players returning to training and consider it encouraging of a full recovery.

These are pros whose lives and livelihoods have been built around their athletic endeavors. They have a different reason for returning to play. Most would not want to go on at all without their sport.

Their threshold of recovery is based on physical ability. They rarely consider the life long consequences of further injury. Since the medical 'experts', neuro-psychs (like Mickey Collins and Goia) and sports trainers are still afraid to speak strongly about the long term consequences of concussion, they are willing to risk their futures to play again.

There is a physiological condition that causes some to go overboard in pursuit of the dopamine effect they get from their intense and risky activity. This is similar to why our armed forces like to deploy 18 to 22 year olds to the front lines. They have this physiological ability to overcome fear to pursue this dopanimne high that older and/or wiser people do not have. It is the same with extreme sports participants.

I am not saying that things will not get better. But, life will never be the same. We will always be susceptible to further concussions that will cause even more damage and long term or permanent symptoms.

Adjusting the way we pursue life is the best way to get better and stay better. There is still plenty of opportunities to live a full life. It just make take a bit of reinventing ourselves.

I can't wait for the day that purposeful hits to the head in a sport result in assault charges. We have enough people suffering concussions without letting competitors try to give each other concussions.

Society loses when someone sustains a life changing concussion. There is a huge financial cost and emotional cost not to mention the loss of a fully productive member of society. Is cancer still plaguing the world because the person who had the intellect to find a cure was concussed and could not make the grade for med school? We'll never know.

Thank you for posting this article!

As a competitive cyclist, the challenges are the same. I haven't been on the road since about a month ago only to test my condition and form. While it's not been lost, moving my head about while riding during certain techniques jarred me enough to take it easier.

As the hockey players are doing their own no-impact training, I'm riding indoors to avoid metal/asphalt impact. Yes, it totally sucks and defeats the purpose of the sport, but there's always something better to strive for.

It's that feeling again of being 100%, even though it may not feel like it.

Thank you for posting this. That is how I try to describe it as well. Its so hard to explain, you just feel off, almost hungover, very out of it. I think its good that he is highlighting how important it is to take care and not rush. Still now with all of this understanding of head injuries and prevention, I feel that people still question whether PCS is real or not. Sometimes I wonder about my own symptoms and think 'am i really feeling this way, still? can i be crazy and just imagining it?' so I can't imagine for an elite athlete