Concussions just don't happen on the Football Field

Back in August of 2011 I wrote about my worries when my son plays football and how important it is to get a Baseline Concussion Test done.  You can read all about it here Baseline Impact testing.....a mom's football worries.

Last week we had a little scare and my son got a concussion, and he wasn't on the football field.  He was milking cows, yes you heard me right he was milking cows.  


My son works for a farmer who is a family friend. My brother in-law is the farmers best friend.  My Husband, brother in-law and son all work for this farmer.  I trust him with my family and would never, ever think that something would happen were one of them would have gotten hurt.  

Anyways back to my story.  My son works 2 days a week and then every other weekend, milking for the farmer and then doing field work.  Last Wednesday while my son was milking a fresh cow kicked him in the head. I know your probably thinking with its hoof but it was more like the cows legs to the side of my sons head, above his ear and on the side of his face by his cheek & temple.  He said that he saw stars and was a little shaken up.  He knew he was in the barn & he was milking but after he got to his feet he couldn't remember what day it was and what he had done during the day or anything during the week.  Then as his brain started to catch up with him everything came back to him.  He shook it off like it was no big deal, finished milking the cows, helped take a tractor to a field and then drove home.  (Later he remembered that he puked on his drive home.)  Like this was no big deal.  He was working late and came home around 11pm.  He knew it was late and not wanting to upset mom he went to bed without telling me what had happened.


The next morning, I went to wake him and he was very tired.  It took me three times to get him out of bed. Not knowing what had happened the night before I was a bit upset with him because I knew he had worked too late for a school night.  

Once he got upstairs, even before he said good morning he burst out "Mom I have a confession" this is what I thought he said and my reply was "What did you do now?" he said "No Mom not a confession a Concussion!" I went into immediate panic mode and was like why did you not not wake me last night and tell me what happened.  Do you not know that you might have not woken up this morning! I was wide awake and started looking over him and asked what happened and where he got kicked while he explained the entire story.  I asked him if he had a headache and he said he didn't.  I asked him if he thought he should go to the doctors and he said he was fine.  He said he has gotten hit harder in football and seen stars and was fine.  I went into OMG Mom Mode!  What?!? He got hit harder in football and didn't tell me either! AGG!!!! My heart sank and I just wanted him to crawl up into my lap and let me hold him and tell him everything was going to be ok and kiss his owie away.  I was so worried about him, my baby hurt and there was nothing I could do about it! I asked him if he wanted to stay home from school and he said that he was fine and if he got worse he would call me.


Two hours later I get a call from his Friend Blake (you might remember Blake from a previous post) Blake-"Mom, this is Blake. Tyler & I are in German and he's not himself. I poke him in the head and he keeps telling me it hurts. He's not fighting back. He got kicked in the head last night milking and you need to come and pick him up. I'll drive his car to my house and you can pick it up there. But you need to come and pick him up and take him to the Doctors." 


I told Blake that I knew what happened but Tyler said he was ok.  Blake said he was not and that he was going to kick him to the office & I was supposed to come and pick him up. So I called Ty and he didn't answer. I text Ty & he didn't respond.  So whats a mom to do but call the school.


I talked with Kathy the school secretary and told her what was going on.  She told me to hold on and that she was going to walk down to the German room and get Tyler.  Let me tell you that was the longest time I have ever been on hold.  


Tyler got on the phone and said that he did have a headache, but felt ok. I told him that Blake wouldn't call me if he wasn't worried about him and that I thought that I should take him in to make sure everything was ok.  He agreed and I told him I would call Kathy back with the details and would text him the time I would come and pick him up and to call me if things got worse!

The time that passed between me picking him up and taking him to the doctors seems like it took forever.  I was a wreak.  My mind was racing.  I remembered the concussion test. I searched my email to find the link to his results and called Gillett to see how I could get those results to our clinic.  I called the clinic back to see where they needed to be sent and they told me to hold off, to see first how he is.  No need for the test results now, they need to see how he is and how sever the concussion is before they do any comparison.  But just me knowing that I had made Tyler take the test last year gave me a peace of mind that if he did have a concussion we could tell how bad it was from his baseline test.  


So to make this long post not any longer, the result was that he did have a concussion, but they could not tell the level.  We are supposed to monitor him over the next couple of weeks and if anything changes we need to go back.  I'm glad to report this week has gone well. No other cows have kicked him in the head while milking and his headaches have gone away.  I think were in the clear  for now, its just a very scary thing.  


Here is a picture from my son's facebook wall joking about the situation, but he knows now how serious it can be and how concussion just don't happen on the Football field. 

Here is the link to the baseline concussion test at Gillette Children's Hospital. If you child plays sports or milks cows its important to get this done!