My fourteen year old son fell down the stairs New Years Eve just before 1:00 a.m. on the 1st. I was in bed and I heard a lot of thumping on the stairs. I figured he was just running up and down while getting ready for bed. I sent my daughter to investigate. She came back in a bit worried, and told me she thought he had fallen down the stairs as he was laying at the bottom not moving.

They are steep stairs and not the widest. They are also just bare wood stairs. No carpeting.

Anyway, I sat with him on the floor for an hour while he sorted himself out. We got an ice pack for his forehead, propped him up with a pillow after I ruled out a spinal injury, and I just kept talking to him and feeling different bones and joints to make sure he hadn't broken anything.

He finally sat up and managed to get upstairs into my bed. I set my alarm to go off hourly and I kept waking him to ensure he hadn't gone into a coma or anything.

We took him to the walk-in clinic the next day (word to the wise, if your kid falls down the stairs and takes a long time to get up, just go to the nearest children's hospital...at least you'll be seen quickly and have X-rays done immediately) and it was determined based on his symptoms (bump on the head, unconsciousness, amnesia, headache, vomiting) that he had suffered a concussion. We were advised to come back the next day for X-rays as the radiology at the walk-in was closed as it was New Years Day.

So another trip on Monday was made. No dice. Radiology was closed. We called the hospital. Nope. They were closed as well (again, just go to the hospital to be seen...they will do X-rays on in-patients). So Tuesday he went in. No broken head.

We were advised no physical activity until 48 hours after headache disappears.

No dice.

Kid has been suffering with headaches since it happened and has only been given extra strength ibuprofen to help.

We went back to see our primary care physician yesterday and she advised at least another two weeks from physical activity but gave us the go ahead for starting the concussion protocol with the school.

She did advise if headaches aren't better in two weeks to come back.

We are going to meet with the school counsellor tomorrow to get an idea of how this concussion protocol will work. He's slept the past two days away because the headaches were so bad he didn't want to be awake.

This is also his second concussion. The first was about 2.5 years ago. Our doctor said it will take longer for this one to heal because of the history of the first. Both were blackout/amnesia ones.

So...I don't really have any questions...advice would be good, what I can expect, when to push him, when not to, that kind of thing.

He swims competitively, and he's been out of the pool now for three weeks (Xmas holidays included). He's been scratched from his next competition. I'm wondering when to pull the plug on the season so at least I'm not spending my money for no reason.

Thanks for listening.




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