Does my teen need to quit sports after three concussions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switch to the country club sports — golf and tennis.

Tennis has tons of injuries. I’ve had a coworker come in with a black eye and bruises from a tumble she took while playing tennis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. Well, I mean track & field or swimming would be great.

You can bang your head swimming colliding with a swimmer coming the other way or miscounting your backstroke strokes into the wall.

You do not know anything about swimming!! No swimmers are not getting concussions.

Um, I was an international swimming representative. And you?

NCAA division 1 swimmer then coach. Concussions don’t happen in swimming. Even a 5 year old knows how to use the flags in backstroke so they don’t hit their head on the wall. What on earth is an international swimming representative anyway?

I know kids who have had concussions and serious injuries with swimming. This isn't true.

[Anonymous]

I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

It’s very hard, but I know talented kids who have had to quit their sport because of concussions. It’s a thing, and very tough to go through, but the risks are real and serious and preserving function in adulthood is important There are sports that are lower risk the kid should explore.

[Anonymous]

If you want a good informed opinion, see Gerald Gioia at Childrens. I’m one of the previous posters with a son who had a bad concussion playing baseball years ago. We got lucky seeing him. He’s invested in helping athletes continue to play but is also very conservative with return to play protocols. As I recall, he works with professional athletes as well as student athletes. https://appointments.childrensnational.org/provider/Gerard+Anthony+Gioia/2360199

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

This is also your job and responsibility as a parent. Yes, a 15 year old might not like the decision. But as a parent I put his BRAIN above his want to do a specific sport. These are not anywhere close to equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

This is also your job and responsibility as a parent. Yes, a 15 year old might not like the decision. But as a parent I put his BRAIN above his want to do a specific sport. These are not anywhere close to equal.

Exactly. If you, your spouse and your teen don’t understand or care about the importance of preserving brain function, then so be it. But as a parent I WOULD NEVER tell my kid it’s okay yo keep doing something that I know could cause serious harm to them for the rest of their life. Teen sports just aren’t that deep, there are countless other activities they can get involved with if sports become too dangerous for them. They could even stay engaged with their sport but in a safer way, like:

team assistant, coach youth leagues, personal coaching, web blog or podcast, school newspaper sports writer, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s gross how attached American parents are to their kids sports, especially when the sport negatively impacts the child’s health and wellness.

I haven’t noticed this obsession in other countries. Is this strictly an American thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A concussion is a concussion. Absolutely he should be out of whatever sport is causing that rate of injury at only 15. Find a new sport.

+1

He should take up cross-country running, track, swimming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised by the poster who has had at least 2 TBIs from horseback riding. We have a friend who has had one and still deals with the impact quite a few years later; she must never get on a horse again.

TBIs are very serious.

That was me. TBIs have a range of seriousness. My two were very different (amnesia with the first, unconscious and seizures for 45 minutes with the second). I am still impacted and get residual headaches 20 years later.

I have had a very successful professional career in a mentally challenging field. I know many horse people who have done the same with similar injuries.

It’s just another sign of my drive and focus. I keep going through adversity, and that has served me well. I have no intentions of quitting, ever. But I am not scared of much, unlike most of DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised by the poster who has had at least 2 TBIs from horseback riding. We have a friend who has had one and still deals with the impact quite a few years later; she must never get on a horse again.

TBIs are very serious.

That was me. TBIs have a range of seriousness. My two were very different (amnesia with the first, unconscious and seizures for 45 minutes with the second). I am still impacted and get residual headaches 20 years later.

I have had a very successful professional career in a mentally challenging field. I know many horse people who have done the same with similar injuries.

It’s just another sign of my drive and focus. I keep going through adversity, and that has served me well. I have no intentions of quitting, ever. But I am not scared of much, unlike most of DCUM.

Or more a case of how you fell. Christopher Reeves had drive and focus, but never walked again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like a lot of people on this thread don't have a 15 year old. For a 15 year old who has committed to playing a sport like lacrosse, it is probably his/her whole world. I would get a second, more detailed opinion that just "no more sports". If it is verified by a second doctor, I would enforce quitting high contact sports, but I'd also be ready for a depressed kid who might act out.

Without the injury, he had at best two more years of lacrosse, unless he's talented enough for another few years at college. At 18, and high school graduation, his commitment would probably have gone to zero. By 25, how many of his team are going to be playing lacrosse on a weekly basis? Not many. Lots of kids are quitting sports at this age, particularly in high schools where you have to make varsity or junior varsity to keep playing, which is a small percentage of kids at high schools with 2000+ students.

Find out what the other kids who didn't make the cut are doing. He could write a college essay about how he pivoted from lacrosse to drama/band/robotics/coding/service/cross country/writing/video production or whatever when he faced an unexpected challenge.

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but lacrosse wasn't even a thing at my high school.

[Anonymous]

This is one of those frustrating threads where people are just talking over one another.

Of course the child should not play lacrosse if that’s deemed medically necessary for his brain health.

But people are also saying that sports can be so important to a person’s mental health and well-being that it warrants speaking with a concussion expert to understand all the options/parameters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m surprised by the poster who has had at least 2 TBIs from horseback riding. We have a friend who has had one and still deals with the impact quite a few years later; she must never get on a horse again.

TBIs are very serious.

That was me. TBIs have a range of seriousness. My two were very different (amnesia with the first, unconscious and seizures for 45 minutes with the second). I am still impacted and get residual headaches 20 years later.

I have had a very successful professional career in a mentally challenging field. I know many horse people who have done the same with similar injuries.

It’s just another sign of my drive and focus. I keep going through adversity, and that has served me well. I have no intentions of quitting, ever. But I am not scared of much, unlike most of DCUM.

Or more a case of how you fell. Christopher Reeves had drive and focus, but never walked again.

I literally said there is a wide range of severity. I only described that to inform PP that many people with a history of TBI can live a very successful, largely unaltered life. In fact, that is a much more common outcome than severe debilitation.

Also, a common issue post-injury is severe headache when focusing, particularly the first year. I went through that my first year of law school and it was hellish.

I am very glad I regained my ability to focus and have a successful career despite my injuries. And I am not going to give up my passion in life because I once took a nasty fall. It’s been 20 years and I haven’t had another TBI. 20 years of amazing horses I would have missed.