Good Morning everyone! I've missed all of my Smeared Ink companions. I was participating in the 31days of Halloween Hop as a Wicked Blogger and then I just disappeared. No note...nothing. I do apologize for that but here is what happened.
My son sustained a 3rd concussion. If' you've been following me long you know about 2 years ago we had a very rough year with my son...he sustained 2 concussions within 6 months of each other and had a very difficult time coming back from them. I've arted and written about that experience
here. Since then I've become an advocate for parents dealing with this issue and my door is ALWAYS open to anyone having to go through concussions with their kids.
Then there is my kid--age 14...he's a spazz...I love him...he now looms at 6'½" and is not aware of his height. He was at the UIL Area Finals with my husband for the marching band. They rode charter buses down to the even rather than the old "yellow dogs" and he was not aware that the cubbies above the seats were so close. He stood up quick and knocked his head pretty hard. After several excuses by ALL of us as to why he had a headache, why he was dizzy, why he was nauseous...it became apparent that he had a 3rd concussion. We immediately went into complete cognitive rest--that means NO NO NO electronics, no computers, no phone, no videos, no tv...no no no...No Band, No shop, no noise...no no no. Poor kid. He wanted to so to be better he started giving us less than accurate symptom levels when we'd do the symptom test on him in hopes of getting to get into action sooner. It's always one step forward and three back with this. Today, we are on day 4 of staying at home with complete cognitive rest as we over did on Friday when he had said he was much better.
How this applies to the theme of Transparency....I wish the skull [a Smeared Ink digi image printed on a transparency] was transparent so we could look inside his brain and see where the hurt is and fix it. A concussion occurs when the brain giggles around inside the skull [which seems very hard and opaque] and it hits the sides of the skull. The brain is injured. Something so HARD can be so delicate. To look inside and take away the fear and the depression and the anxiety and the fogginess and the ache and the dizziness...I wish for that. I would give anything to make it better for him--for any dealing with concussions. In retrospect I supposed my airing my personal life today also makes ME transparent. I hope this brings a bit of awareness to those who come in contact with people dealing with concussions...just because their injury is NOT transparent--they're not bleeding or broken or obviously hurt--they are still injured...it's a traumatic brain injury, it's real, it's serious.
Black Dragon | Evil Edna | Jessica |Karen
LeslieRahye | Nanette | Kim | Sarah N
Keren | Susan | Sarah S
