First Concussion

James got his first concussion yesterday. Unfortunately, it wasn't caused by a rough and lively game of soccer. During advisory class yesteday, his class was throwing around a football when James was blindsided by a friend and tackled. He went down and hit his head very hard on the ground. James called me about an hour later and said he felt sick and could I come get him. So, I picked him up and took him home. He immediately threw up after walking in the door, and I gave him a bit of sympathy, some Tylanol and went back to work. When I got home after work, he still wasn't feeling well but I had to run out the door again 5 minutes later to take Kaylie to soccer practice. It wasn't until I was driving Kaylie that it hit me that maybe he had a concussion. I immediately called Lia and talked to her and she confirmed that the few symptons he had were signs of a concussion. Now, in my defense of not realizing this 6 hours earlier, he barely even mentioned anything about getting tackled and hitting his head so I didn't put 2 and 2 together. After talking with Lia, a round of phone calls to the pediatrician, to Mike and PRYING WITH A CROWBAR, more information out of James, we confirmed it. Not only was he nausous with an extreme headache, he had also temporarily lost his peripheral vision in his right eye! I immediately pulled Kaylie from soccer practice, drove home, picked up James and drove to Jordan Valley ER where we spent the next 4 hours! (ER is a very lively place where 2 other boys with SEVERE concussions came in, heart attacks, and a man who looked like he almost severed some fingers came in.) With nothing to do but lay there waiting to be seen and chat, James was reminded of the time Nik got a concussion several years ago. Almost proudly, he said that he gave it to him at the beginning of soccer practice when he crossed the ball to Nik and it hit him in the head. (what are best friend for! :) Anyway, James got a clean bill of health, CAT scan was great, and the Doc was okay with him playing his game on Friday until I told him it was high school/competative soccer. Doc immediately changed and said NO SOCCER for 3 days. (Doc was thinking rec soccer...) James wasn't very happy about that, but initially the doctor said no soccer for 2 weeks so having it whittled down to 3 days wasn't so bad! James still has a headache this morning and I'm feeling very guilty, though extremely grateful, that nothing more serious happened during the time we didn't realize he had a concussion. Luckily, he will be fine!