A Glimpse Back In time

After recently receiving a warning on facebook about private messages from 2009-2010 showing on your wall I went to my wall to check it out.  Nothing of the sort, but what I did find was a reminder of why I started this blog.

As I scrolled down my page this picture popped up on my screen.

 

 

This was taken in August 2010, a year after Jake's first two concussions.  My husband took it and emailed it to me as I was not home when it happened.  I came home!  Jake did not have any serious issues with the head injury, but it did add to his post concussion symptoms and lengthened his recovery.  Thank goodness it had been long enough since his last concussions to avoid 2nd impact syndrome.

Then I scrolled back to 2009 and found these posts.....

 

29 October 2009

Fingers crossed for Trick or Treating....fever fever go away!

 

 

23 November 2009 at 20:44 ·

oh, and I am sick of Jake being sick!!!!!! Poor guy.

•  he is going to school tomorrow, but was off today. He was diagnosed with a sinus infection last week and is on antibiotics....but he was still complaining of head ache, sore throat and chest pains last night....he had a chest Xray today, and everything is clear so I am pretty much stumped. It seems like he has never fully recovered since he first got sick around thanksgiving! Even when his friend was over yesterday Jake said he just did not feel quite right, thus the short playdate! 

    

   

  This was the start of it all, when Jake seemed to get sick and never recover!  It was hard to read that, as now I know the answers to my questions.

   And then I read thru my facebook posts until now and noticed a recurring theme- Jake's illness, medical questions, and my occassional ranting about my tweens overtly challenging behaviuours that did not seem quite normal.  Again, hard to read.

  
  

  And then this post.....

  
  

  10 July 2011

  I plan to be an advocate for preventing concussions and for recognizing the long term symptoms. So many professionals do not see the link between these symptoms and concussions. Kids - wear your helmet and rest your heads after a head injury!

   

   And that is why I do what I do! I wish I could do more.

   

A Fresh New Start

I cannot believe that the kids have been back in school now for almost 2 months!  Time is flying by way too fast for my liking.  But back to my first statement...."back in school".  And we are!  Jake is a full time, participating student again.  And I give him kudos for it because he is at school by 8 am every day and has rarely complained about it.  He is tired, I can see it is catching up to him a bit lately, he is taking himself to bed early more often than not.  I pleasantly surprised him last week one evening by telling him he did not have to get up for school the next morning, just to give him a day to recuperate (and to avoid him feeling so tired and overwhelmed that he may actually refuse to go).  And I am going to try and plan a few long weekends away so that he continues to get that occassional break. 

If there is one thing that I have learned over the last few years after these concussions, it is to REST when needed.  If we had given Jake the time off that he needed after his repeated concussions I am quite sure his recovery time would have been much less.  In the end it caught up to him and resulted in him being withdrawn from school for 4 months!

I still have to figure out what to call these days off when I call his absence into the school.....his term is "a day", in the past he would just say he needed "a day"....he could not describe it any other way at that time.  Now we know it meant his brain was overworked, and his body was telling him to take a break. 
That being said, we do have the understanding and cooperation of the school.  Jake is a student identified with post concussion syndrome and anxiety, both of which tend to interfere with his academic achievements. The school is working on finalizing an IEP for him but already have the accommodations in place, and the head of Special Ed happens to have a special interest in brain injury and anxiety!  She was actually the one who reminded me that chewing gum can help reduce anxiety as the act of chewing gives the brain something else to focus on.  So I am sure that when I do figure out what to call these odd days off she will understand.