If you have active kids like I do, then you deal with injuries. Sometimes they are minor, sometimes they involve casts, and sometimes, they involve a concussion.

For the first time in a while, we finally had a good snowfall, yay! Even better, we found a kickbutt sledding spot in town we never knew about. I mean, this place had top-notch sledding — lots of hills and speed. Totally awesome!

Until, of course, my youngest lost control and hit a pole…oops. Poor path planning on her part. It hurt, but she didn’t cry, and only asked that her brother bring her back to me. She complained that it hurt and mentioned things being blurry for a few minutes, which raised a flag, but could also be from snow in her eyes, etc.

When she woke up this morning still complaining of headache and nausea, I knew she had a concussion. The pediatrician had us bring her in to the ER to be safe. Her exam was good but definitely indicative of concussion, but they opted not to give her a CT scan, stating it wouldn’t give us any extra info and would expose her to unnecessary radiation at this point.

It actually wasn’t until recently at Parents’ Night for sports at the high school that I learned more about how to care for concussions…even though we have dealt with them before when they were younger. Being especially vigilant to prevent reinjury is the most important — second impact syndrome, where you get a head injury while still recovering from one, is extremely serious and dangerous. Like, fatal dangerous. It’s super rare but no joke.

Basic Guidelines for Treating Concussion

Treatment of concussions includes bothy physical rest and mental rest. She will only do basic daily activities that are necessary, mostly rest, and extra physical activity. No running around and playing, no bike riding, no horseback riding (again…poor kid just got her cast off a month ago.) Any activity is all based on symptoms. Basically, anything that brings on a headache, etc is to be stopped immediately and avoided again. Whenever you advance to a stage and get a symptom again, you have to basically start over. Mentally, anything that causes brain stimulation is to be avoided at first, and trialed after, just like physical activity. So no video games, reading, school work, etc. Nothing that overstimulates the brain and causes discomfort.

Honestly, there’s not much fun about this kind of injury. Sure, they get out of school work — but it’s not like it’s replaced with something better. The time it takes to heal varies by each individual and their injuries, so there are no hardfast time rules. We’ll take this day by day and hope she heals quickly!

Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor and am in no way giving medical advice. If you suspect a concussion, consult a professional.