14 year old daughter diagnosed with concussion
 

My 14 year old daughter was playing softball and suffered a concussion (she was not diagnosed until two weeks after the incident) while playing softball. A player from the opposing team slid into her and struck her extremley hard with an elbow to her forehead. The force of the impact drove her head back causing whiplash to her neck. We did not see the actual impact, but my daughter relayed the insident to us after the game. During the game we did notice she did nto seem herself. She just seemed "off" a little.

Unfortunately after the game, as indicated above, she told us about the incident, that she had a slight headache and her neck hurt. We thought the incident hurt her neck and since she was seeing a chiropractor for a back issue we would just let the chiroprator take a look at it during the next appointment. I did not notice anything mentally wrong with her but she complained she was extremely sore.

Over the course of the next two weeks she continued in school, but she was getting headaches in her PE class. Almost two weeks later from the day of the injury I came home in the afternoon and she was laying on the floor with a migraine type headache and cognitive issues-sensitive to sound and light. I immediately suspected a concussion.

We were able to get her into a doctor who is the local specialist on concussions. He diagnosed her with a concussion. Her symptoms were so bad that she could not attend school, so she missed the last 9 days of school. Other than going to Dr. Appointments she is not up to leaving the house. Two days ago her neck hurt bad enough we took her to the emergency room where they gave her a CT scan. It came back clean. However they said even though soft tissue is difficult to see there was possible inflammation at C-5.

The chiropractor and massage therapist both believe she suffered whiplash during the incident. Ever since the first headache three weeks ago she has had a headache and the cognitive issues (light and sound sensitivity) non stop. Her stomach hurts quite frequently, although she has never vomited. Additionally she does not fall to sleep easily but when she does fall a sleep she sleeps 10 to 11 hours.

When do these symptoms stop? She has never has a concussion before. Is it possible the whiplash is making the concussion worse? To say this condition is not frustrating is an uderstatement!

Hello, and welcome to the community! Some days things are a little slower here than others, but folks WILL be along that can give you some support and share information! If you haven't seen it yet, here is one of our forums that you might find helpful:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html

My dear, as one mother to another, here's a gentle hug. What you must be going through. All the worries, probably not sleeping. You have been given the correct forum. Keep posting, keep reading and you will get your answers.

Might take some time, but the people here know what they are talking about.

I am praying for your daughter and I am praying for you.

Thank God the body is capable of healing. It just takes time. And good medical care which you are obviously seeing that your daughter gets.

Sending good energy your way.

Take care and please know you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Melody

Greetings!!
 

Thanks for the replys so far. She just had a two week check up with her doctor. He administered the impact test that she took at the start of the school year. The first time she took this (post concussion) she failed it miserably (as expected). Yesterday she did substantially better than the last time.

However she is still expereincing the symptoms and today the headache is worse as is the sensitivity to sound and light. She went through this two weeks ago as well when she took the impact test for the first time, again test was post concussion.

I was hoping for some examples/reply's of kids with similiar circumstances she is about one month with these symptoms and there has been no relief with the headache. I realize concussions are different but there seems to be a common theme of: 7 to 10 days with some people or 4 to 6 weeks and 1 to 3 months before the symptoms usually subside.

She has just begun to take .25 mg noratriptaline...........hopefully it will help?