Tell me about caring for a child with a concussion
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Anonymous
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My child suffered a concussion this weekend. Doctor diagnosed on Monday after symptoms persisted Sunday and Monday at school. Child is home now for the week, avoiding screens, reading, lights, etc. Child is bored, of course.
Doctor says maybe introduce school for half-days next week. The timing sucks, obviously, since school is nearly out. Unsure about making up classes, final grades, etc. Child seems in better spirits -- was exceptionally cranky the first two days and slept a lot, which is good. But wonder if anyone has BTDT and when you can tell child has turned corner? Lots of year-end activities I hate for child to miss. Thanks. |
Anonymous
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Ask the doctor.
Not an anonymous message board. Glad your child is doing better. |
Anonymous
Gee, thanks for that. I did ask my doctor. I'm asking for people's experiences who've BTDT as every child is different. Doc thinks a week should be enough recovery but I've heard about people having extended issues. |
Anonymous
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What age/grade? What school system?
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Anonymous
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My DD got a concussion last year when she was five. Honestly, it took a good two weeks until she recovered. She was sleepy, fussy, confused and just spacey for the first couple weeks. Then another week or two of slightly more tired and sensitive.
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Anonymous
tween. rather not say. public. |
Anonymous
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It's hard when it's so boring. I'm sorry, OP. I know. It's great that the doc thinks a half day of school is OK, and I'm glad folks have gotten smarter about treating concussions.
Try podcasts (mellow ones) and an eye mask or soft bandana blindfold in bed. |
Anonymous
| PP here. Yes, it can take a couple weeks to totally recover. You'll know. The tail end can be like a PP described. Just a little sensitive. As an adult, I thought I was fully recovered until a doctor had me try and balance on one foot. I wasn't quite there yet. |
Anonymous
Thanks. Tween is doing that actually, only with books on tape -- books she already knows, so not so much cognitive effort. |
Anonymous
| Stay vigilant. Don't keep them in a bubble but take all possible precautions when it comes to risky activities. I don't just mean organized sports, I mean any activity that puts your child at risk for future concussions. I know one who died due to a history of concussions (always active and into skiing,p zip lining and mountain biking. Didn't always tell parents when he'd take a bad spill). Educate your kids about the risks. |
Anonymous
My DD had a serious concussion in MS. We thought she was recovered and sent her back to school, but we missed the subtle signs that she was not fully recovered -- difficulty with attention, mood lability, sensitivity to light and sound, trouble following multi-speaker conversations, and subtly difficulties with language. Balance was also a major clue. IMO, you are doing the right thing by insisting on rest. This is the general medical advice. It was also our personal experience that doing too much cognitive work too early set back recovery. Thus, your doctor's advice to go back for half days at first. There is some research supporting cognitive rest, but there was a recent paper by DeGioia (from the Children's Hospital SCORE clinic) that strict rest for more than a couple days maybe wasn't so helpful. See here -- http://childrensnational.org/news-and-events/childrens-newsroom/2015/concussion-expert-weighs-in-on-study That said, I'd go with whatever your doctor is telling you because he knows your child and your child's facts/symptoms. Based on our experience in MCPS, I'd say some schools are more cooperative than others on concussions. Some schools will just waive as much work as they can and let your child move on whenever they're ready to return. Other schools really don't get it and can make life miserable (we were at the latter). Get the doctor to write a medical note detailing the recovery (week off gradual return after that, advises that since it's the end of the year, as much work be cut as possible). It's middle school, so there's not much that's too important. If you're happy with your child's grades, I'd ask the school if they can just waive any remaining work and give him/her whatever grade they currently have. If you're not happy, then ask for an extension to make up the work. At a minimum, your child is entitled to 1 make up day for each day that they are not able to be in class. If your child takes any HS classes in MS (like math at Algebra or above level or any foreign language) then the school might give you a harder time. The bottom line here is that any work at the school level (unit tests, quizzes) can be waived at the discretion of the teacher or school. The final exam can also be waived, but that might require someone higher than the principal to approve. Or, you can ask for any necessary accommodations -- extra time, a scribe, more frequent breaks, etc. rather than just waiving requirements. Teachers might recognize the idea of "teaching to core objectives," which means cutting as much unnecessary work as possible and just getting the kid to demonstrate once that they have the concept. This means a teacher could cut a unit test, if the child already took quizzes covering the same material or vice versa, doing just a couple of each problem type rather than a whole page, etc. For our child, we really wanted to avoid extending school, so we tried to get the school to waive as much work as possible. If your school is really uncooperative, you might have to take the doctor's note and make a formal request for a 504 plan, which frankly will take a lot more time and energy than is necessary at the end of the year holding meetings, etc. Frankly, our experience was a nightmare and we had to call in an advocate and attorney, because DC's concussion happened in the first half of the school year. If you live in MCPS and you have any problems, I urge you to contact the county-wide 504 supervisor ( a federally-mandated position) and complain that accommodations for medical disability are not being made. Once we did that our problems were solved overnight. FWIW, I think our concussion experience was not the norm -- many kids we know have recovered just fine in a few days or a week -- but it was also DC's 3rd concussion. Our school was also not the norm. |
Anonymous
| The Diane Rheme show just finishing up is about concussions. http://thedianerehmshow.org |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| Thanks, pp. Fortunately our school seems to be in the "cooperative" side. We haven't asked about waiving work yet -- we'll see if we can get there. Most of the things she'll miss are social anyway, which is a bummer. |
Anonymous
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Could she attend some of the social events? Those that are just social and not doing strenuous activities should be okay.
A warning here. I don't think this happens very often but you should be on the alert for sudden personality changes and changes in behavior. My teen had a concussion (was unconscious for ten minutes) not all that long ago, but long enough ago that no one seemed to care (and yes, I'm talking about you Childrens!) about concussions unless there was bleeding in the brain. Within two weeks, my DC went from no use of bad language to swearing at me with the f word. Within a month, there was huge erratic behavior like going from going out on weekend nights with reasonable constraints that were not questioned to suddenly staying out all night with me clueless as to where DC was. There was much more, and I was at my wits end--found a psychiatrist who tried various meds none of which did much but no one put two and two together with the concussion. Hope you don't encounter this, but if you do be insistent that the concussion be considered as an underlying cause. |