How did you get your concussion?
Sophomore McKenna Matthews: I got it playing soccer.
Junior Lana Hull: My freshmen year of high school, I was doing a round off backhandspring and instead of rebounding out of my roundoff, I shot myself back and slipped under myself. I landed directly on my head and I blacked out for a couple seconds, then I woke up and I couldn’t breathe and I fractured and compressed my spine.
What did it feel like in the moment?
Matthews: At the moment, it just hurt but it wasn’t that bad.
Hull: I felt like I couldn’t breathe and my head felt kind of fuzzy. It’s such a hard feeling to describe, like the wind got knocked out of me. I couldn’t see straight and I couldn’t really walk.
How did you manage school?
Matthews: Not very well because I got it during finals week. So a lot of the teachers were really nice and let me slowly get through things [as I was] having a hard time focusing.
Hull: I couldn’t lift over 10 pounds, so I had to have someone carry my backpack with me. I had a major concussion along with the spine fractures. So it was pretty hard to focus on school, but my teachers were really lenient and they helped me a lot.
Did you have to change anything you do on the daily?
Matthews: Yeah, I obviously couldn’t practice soccer for a while and I couldn’t do as much schoolwork and be online as much.
Hull: Yes, I couldn’t dress myself because my neck hurt, too. So I couldn’t really move a whole lot and I couldn’t read or see straight.
Did you learn anything new from having your concussion?
Matthews: I definitely learned the importance of resting during an injury because I got it on the first day of a three-day tournament, and I kept playing for three days, and it got a lot worse after that.
Hull: Yes, to not do it again. I will never throw a skill on wrestling, like dirty wrestling again.
What made you start learning about concussions?
Coach Drew Halvorson: So I learned about concussions as an athlete growing up in sports. I received a concussion in football. It was important for me to know about the injury, and then as I became a teacher and a health teacher, we learned about how brain injuries affect people and how they are important. I learned about the things we can avoid doing so that we don’t get brain injuries like concussions.
What scares you the most about concussions?
Halvorson: Brain injuries are scary because our brains don’t heal the way other body parts do. So a small bump on the head can cause an effect in a body movement or how a body functions. That can be scary. Our brain is an interesting organ, but damage to our brain can affect other parts of our body.
What is the most interesting thing you know about concussions?
Halvorson: You don’t have to get hit in the head to get a concussion. You can get a concussion through whiplash. There are other ways people have received a concussion or subconcussive blow in their life, and they don’t think of it as a big enough deal that they need to get their head checked out.
What is one thing you would tell someone who has or had a concussion?
Halvorson: I would say number one definitely get checked out by a medical professional. Teachers, coaches, even trainers don’t diagnose concussions. Doctors do, so if you want to find out whether or not you really have a concussion, get checked by a medical professional.
