Concussion success story of a college student
 

I got hit by a basketball tonight which might be a mild concussion and brought back memories and made me write this.
I had a terrible concussion 4.5 years ago when the guys on our dorm and I were drinking before going to a party. Some big guy maybe 200 pounds told me to punch him in the face and then he will punch me. I think he just wanted to punch me in the face. I was only 140 pounds. I had one or two beers. I said yes to him. I did not know about concussion and I thought everyone was friendly and didn't think that he is gonna put all his strength into the punch. My punch did nothing but his punch knocked me out. I woke up a different person, very confused. I still went to the house party and drank couple more beers. I was like a zombie. When I woke up the next day my muscles were twitching all over, and when I googled it the term fasciculation came up.I still have that to this day. When I went to class I could hear but not comprehend the words. I had been to the US for 8 months and was a very ambitious student wanting to go to medical school. I could not chew food easily and could hear the broken bones in my jaw when I chewed but I did not care about it because I thought I was a dead man. I was so ashamed and depressed by the way my own stupidity had caused this. A car accident would have been more respectable. That summer I took a MCAT ( medical college admission test) practice test and I did terrible. I was depressed throughout the following years because of the concussion but I pushed my way through. I could not fall sleep whenever I studied a lot as if my brain could not handle it. The good news is that I got my MCAT score back and I scored in the 99 percentile and I have held up my GPA at 3.66. If someone like me reads this one day I want to say never give up.

That's fantastic, hope your baskeball hit proves to be only a mild hit! I'm curious and others might want to know, what was the recovery like and did you do anything specific to help along the way? did you have to take time off school?

Thanks guitardude. my concussion happened 2 weeks before the summer so I had 3 months of rest. But after the school started I was sleep deprived most of the days. My professors did not work with me at all and I had to push through school. I avoided alcohol and any other drugs for the next three years. I would not run or do any sports that I thought might jerk my brain. I even walked slower than usual on campus. But the fasciculation never went away. I think the best thing to do is to accept that some of your symptoms would stay forever.But you can still do a lot despite those symptoms. I feel like focusing on my MCAT studying made me less depressed and my fasciculation actually was minimal during that time. So my advice would be to ignore your symptoms (but avoid anything that might cause another concussion or drugs) and focus on your goals. You can do it.
I have a headache today from the basketball hit but hopefully it goes away