Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients
Ever leave the doctor’s office more confused than when you walked in? Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients is your health ally in a world full of fast appointments and even faster Google searches. Each week, a board certified family medicine physician and a pediatric nurse sit down to answer the questions your doctor didn’t have time to.
From understanding diabetes and depression to navigating obesity, high blood pressure, and everyday wellness—we make complex health topics simple, human, and actually useful. Whether you’re managing a condition, supporting a loved one, or just curious about your body, this podcast helps you get smart about your health without needing a medical degree.
Because better understanding leads to better care—and you deserve both.
Your Checkup: Health Conversations for Motivated Patients
81: Concussions: Raising Awareness for Student Athletes and Parents
Send us a message with this link, we would love to hear from you. Standard message rates may apply.
We unpack myths, the new stepwise approach, and why return to school should come before return to play.
• what a concussion is
• common and delayed symptoms including mood and sleep changes
• immediate sideline steps
• why “cocooning” is outdated and how light activity helps
• individualized recovery timelines and risk of returning too soon
• return-to-learn before return-to-play with simple accommodations
• a staircase model for activity and symptom thresholds
• helmets vs brain movement and the role of honest reporting
• practical tips for coaches, parents, and student athletes
Check out our website, send us an email, share this with a friend or young student athlete who is playing some sports and might get a concussion
References
- Broglio SP, Register-Mihalik JK, Guskiewicz KM, et al. National Athletic Trainers' Association Bridge Statement: Management of Sport-Related Concussion. Journal of Athletic Training. 2024;59(3):225-242. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-0046.22.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Guideline on the Diagnosis and Management of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Among Children. Lumba-Brown A, Yeates KO, Sarmiento K, et al. JAMA Pediatrics. 2018;172(11):e182853. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.2853.
- Feiss R, Lutz M, Reiche E, Moody J, Pangelinan M. A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness of Concussion Education Programs for Coaches and Parents of Youth Athletes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(8):E2665. doi:10.3390/ijerph17082665.
- Gereige RS, Gross T, Jastaniah E. Individual Medical Emergencies Occurring at School. Pediatrics. 2022;150(1):e2022057987. doi:10.1542/peds.2022-057987.
- Giza CC, Kutcher JS, Ashwal S, et al. Summary of Evidence-Based Guideline Update: Evaluation and Management of Concussion in Sports: Report of the Guideline Development Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology. 2013;80(24):2250-2257. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31828d57dd.
- Halstead ME. What's New With Pediatric Sport Concussions? Pediatrics. 2024;153(1):e2023063881. doi:10.1542/peds.2023-063881.
- Halstead ME, Walter KD, Moffatt K. Sport-Related Concussion in Children and Adolescents. Pediatrics. 2018;142(6):e20183074. doi:10.1542/peds.2018-3074.
- Leddy JJ. Sport-Related Concussion. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2025;392(5):483-493. doi:10.1056/NEJMcp2400691.
- McCrea M, Broglio S, McAllister T, et al. Return to Play and Risk of Repeat Concussion in Collegiate Football Players: Comparative Analysis From the NCAA Concussion Study (1999–2001) and CARE Consortium (2014–2017). British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54(2):102-109. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2019-100579.
- Scorza KA, Cole W. Current Concepts in Concussion: Initial Evaluation and Management. American Family Physician. 2019;99(7):426-434.
- Shirley E, Hudspeth LJ, Maynard JR. Managing Sports-Related Concussions From Time of Injury Through Return to Play. The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 2018;26(13):e279-e286. doi:10.5435/JAAOS-D-16-00684.
- Zhou H, Ledsky R, Sarmiento K, et al. Parent-Child Communication About Concuss
Production and Content: Edward Delesky, MD & Nicole Aruffo, RN
Artwork: Olivia Pawlowski
Hi, welcome to your checkup. We are the Patient Education Podcast, where we bring conversations from the doctor's office to your ears. On this podcast, we try to bring medicine closer to its patients. I'm Ed Delesky, a family medicine doctor in the Philadelphia area.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm Nicole Ruffo. I'm a nurse.
SPEAKER_02:And we are so excited you were able to join us here again today. Well, I mean, I've heard last week was our like best opener. And it's hard to recreate that type of energy from the genuine anguish that I have from the Mets losing, the Giants having an awful day, and Malik Neighbors going down. As we record this on Sunday night, uh keeping us very busy. The Giants lost again. The Mets still aren't playing baseball, but at least the Phillies are having a tough time with the Dodgers. So, you know. It doesn't hurt that bad. It hurts a lot, though. And the Yankees are about to get swept. So I'm very full.
SPEAKER_01:Me too. We overeat. And he made white chicken chili again. And it was so good. And we just kept going back. Just can't going back.
SPEAKER_02:Can't stop. Can't stop, want to keep going. You love that dish.
SPEAKER_01:I do. It's so yummy.
SPEAKER_02:It's I it's a fair amount of ingredients, and I really like making it. And it's fun, it's easy. Um kind of simple. But I yeah, no, it's great. Let's see. We worked on our list here, and you wanted to talk about something that you didn't, but it was a really funny thing. The rock.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, the anthropology rock.
SPEAKER_02:What are you seeing?
SPEAKER_01:Oh my gosh. This is like one of the funniest things I've ever seen. So people, mainly girls, are doing this trick on their like boyfriends, husbands, dads, whatever, saying that they ordered a rock from the store Anthropology. And if you don't know, Anthropology, they have like clothes and stuff, and then other sorts of like house things, candles, those sorts of things. And they're pretty expensive. So the whole shtick is that the girl opens this box of a rock that she like got from the backyard. And then she's like, and usually like someone else is in on it, like a mom or a daughter or something, and it's kind of given as a gift. So she opens it up and they're like, Oh my god, no way. Is this an anthropology rock? Oh my god. And like then they're trying to talk to the guy, and they're like, No, you don't understand. Like, it's sourced from the earth. And then like the dad will be like, I'll go source of rock from the earth in the backyard for you. But what was even funnier was that this like prank TikTok got so popular that the anthropology, like marketing team, I guess, oh no, made these fake TikToks about the rock collection and how like it was 20% off. And there were, I think, like two or three TikToks of like a fake anthro setup like in the store. Oh my god. This these like deals that they were running on the rock collection. Stop. So then girls were like doing this prank at home, and then they would get out their TikTok and be like, no, look, like and they're on the anthropology website, and they're like, Look, they're 20% off. I got it for a steal.
SPEAKER_02:That's crazy. I know that was the thing that you were missing, and it was like so funny. Talk about this. And you showed me later that night, and I thought it was a hilarious thing. The anthropology rock.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Um, tell us about your adventures with your skin.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god. I gotta take a sip of water first. Adventures with my skin. Where do we start you were born? Well, I was born. Um, so I guess like Monday or Tuesday, I started having what I think is like an eczema flare. Like that's what it kind of looked like at first. Like flat, itchy, like whatever. Kind of looked like eczema. And I was like, oh, okay, whatever. Like this happens, it's like the change of the season, whatever. But then like over the next day or so, it evolved into these blister-looking bite things, kind of. Well, sorry, it like looked like a little red, like what would look like a bite, or so we thought. Um, and then it was blister, and it was like oozing, and like I looked like I was diseased, and it was kind of like my so then they would kind of evolve from these like bite-looking things to blisters, and it was on my thighs, kind of just like above my knees and behind my legs, and like I looked diseased, and then I was like covered in these blisters and are oozing, and it's gross. But when we first started noticing that they kind of just looked more like bites or like red little dots, the first like thing, I was like, Oh my god, we have bed bugs. Like, pop out. I was like, I have more. It's like spreading, I have more bites. We have bed bugs. So it's six in the morning, and I'm stripping the whole bed, and I'm like going around every single inch of it with my flashlight, like lifting up the mattress, looking in the box, right? Like doing all the things. There was not a bed bug to be found or like a dead carcass bug of any sort. Our bed was totally clean. I did vacuum it though, but bed was clean. So I wash the sheets. I'm like, okay, we don't have bed bugs. I feel I feel better. So then these like bite blister things start popping up more and kind of in like the same area, questionably in a line. And then we're like, oh my god, I have scabies.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. That was the part where it and like it hurt.
SPEAKER_01:Eddie like was at an Airbnb. So we're like, oh my god, this started happening around like Monday. You got home on a Sunday. I was like, you brought home scabies from there.
SPEAKER_02:Like, yeah, it's my fault.
SPEAKER_01:And to where like I like got prescribed like a scabies medicine because I was like so convinced that like this is what it was, even though like we really would have like no reason to have that.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:Um wouldn't have been a good reason. Ended up the pharmacy didn't have it, so didn't need it because I don't have scabies. So then on Sunday morning, we get back these beautiful pictures that we took after I had my like hair makeup trial. We decided to get some photos done from this photographer that I really have liked and like have wanted pictures from her. Wanted her to do her wedding, but she couldn't, blah, blah, blah. So in the photos, I'm wearing like a sweater dress like that kind of comes above my knee, and then I'm wearing knee-high boots. So the part of my leg that is exposed is that area on my thigh right above my knee.
SPEAKER_02:Wait, you don't have anything on your calves either?
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god. Even more.
SPEAKER_01:And oh, and then like there, there was like spots on the back of my leg that got infected. So we thought that was somehow like Oh yeah, don't forget that. It was like a cellulitis, like then we thought that was like, I don't know, whatever. We're like, what the heck is happening?
SPEAKER_02:So we get these photos back and we know too much, but to see it every single day.
SPEAKER_01:And we noticed that the part of my legs that are like blistering off are exposed. And the pictures were taken at this preserve, but we were like walking through like high grass, we were sitting in the grass, like she had us doing all like these crazy things that got beautiful photos. Like I would do it again, and then we're like, oh my god, because then you had this was one spot on your wrist where your sleeves are rolled up during the pictures, and then like a little spot on your ankle, and your ankles were kind of exposed. So we're like, oh my god, this is like poison ivy, or and it was like following the same like progression, like a poison ivy or sumac or you know, whatever, pick a poison leaf, and like that's what it was. And so got some steroids. I've been putting calamine on it to like dry it out and like do all the things, and it's working, it's working now, so of course, like all this being really critical. We're yeah, because like I were getting married in a week, so I was like, this needs to be wrapped up within a week. We really gotta make a move on this fast, but yeah, that was so crazy, and it's so funny because I feel like if I like lived still in Westchester and we were like outside a lot and we would like take Ollie to that one preserve and like walk him and stuff, I feel like, or even like at like my parents or anything where there's like woods in the backyard and stuff, like I feel like my first instinct would be like, oh, this is some sort of like plant thing. Right. But because like we live in the city, it didn't come and now like for like a couple years now, the outside like wildlife and grass, like hasn't been a part of our daily or like weekly life, and it like wasn't even a thought on the radar.
SPEAKER_02:No, it wasn't at all.
SPEAKER_01:But don't you feel like if you if we were like in Westchester or like in the suburbs and like going to those kinds of places more, we would think I would be like, Oh yeah, this is like I think it would have been a little bit more obvious.
SPEAKER_02:I well, on top of it, like we were just confused about what this was, yeah. And then the timeline didn't shake out because then I was like, Oh, is it triggers? And oh yeah, that was another one.
SPEAKER_01:Is it that I thought it was like a bug of some sort, right?
SPEAKER_02:But then once we started, then I was like, why do I have it? Because it can't just be a you thing, yeah. And then like we weren't there nothing to get bit, so then we were doing that, and like that locked it in for me. I was like, wow, that's and now it's getting better, which is which is even better. I mean, like huge.
SPEAKER_01:Which I I don't also don't know why, like Eric has had poison ivy so many times, like he always had like an awful reaction. I think he was on steroids every summer for like eight summers in a row. Like he's a skinny legend, and mom's like, oh my god, this is literally exactly what would happen.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:So dumb.
SPEAKER_02:That was a big adventure.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, hopefully we'll be cleared up and not itchy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I hope you don't have to wake up in the middle of the night now.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Itchy.
SPEAKER_01:I don't have to go to Bali like this. Well, I'm like, what is this? Like, are we gonna have to cancel our trip? Like, this is only getting worse. I'm covered in blisters.
SPEAKER_02:No, I know. No, that's it didn't look good there for a second, but I think we got it under control.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you for the terribly interesting story. Um, the only things I have to add this week, um, because you've been carrying the show so far, are our show, watching our show, The Midnight Mass.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. Which like I love some Catholic trauma.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there's like some definitely like Catholic themes in there.
SPEAKER_01:And um it's my god, it's so funny because Eddie was an altar boy growing up, and I was also raised Catholic, but did not attend church nearly as you did, nearly as often as you did. And it's so funny because there's always like the same like songs and the whole like to-do and the things that they say in mass. So, like anyone who's bit like was like raised Catholic or has been to a Catholic mass like three times would like know all the words, but because Eddie was a little altar boy, so he thinks he's like this goody two shoes little Catholic boy.
SPEAKER_00:I am like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. This is exactly what happens. Did you know this is exactly what happens in Catholic Church? Like, it's just like this. They have it spot on. I'm like, oh my god.
SPEAKER_02:I was like, oh yeah, those bells are complaining about everything.
SPEAKER_00:Those bells, I used to ring those bells.
SPEAKER_02:Or like repeating the lines before they'd happen remote. Yeah, and they were like, oh no, because they were talking about like the the old, the old like uh translation, and then they like switched in like the 2010s and they were like, oh yeah, like the new translation's closer to the original Latin, but they like did this this bit, and uh and they were like, Oh, well, thank you, Father. Thank you for doing the old version. Oh and you're like, yep, wait, this now makes sense.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, because he's the coach.
SPEAKER_02:Well, all right, so spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_01:The show's been out for a couple years, so I feel like people.
SPEAKER_02:Spoiler alert for if you didn't want to watch it, three, two, one. That makes so much sense why he was saying the old one because he was old and that's when he was practicing. Wow. That just wasn't like uh Easter egg, bro.
SPEAKER_01:This is exactly how they do it. I'm like, yeah, bro, I know I've been to church.
SPEAKER_02:No, it's funny. Anic is getting spooky. Um, I normally I don't know whether it just like you know hits hits in the old quarter zone. Um, but it is it is spooky. And uh I'm in. I'm into it. Um this one for some reason is hitting different. We're saving love is blind for our flight. And so excited. This is to let you know that we're going to um our next couple episodes are gonna be up in the air a little bit. We're gonna have something for you to listen to, whether it's an old episode or something new. But we are, you know, getting married and then honeymoon, and we want to respect that.
SPEAKER_01:See you never. So that's what I'm telling everyone at work when I leave on Tuesday. See you never.
SPEAKER_02:We gotta go back.
SPEAKER_01:Never know.
SPEAKER_02:Not for a little while, but never know what'll happen. Let's see. And then um, it's kind of a little out of place, but I was cooking dinner tonight and just noticed that like the recipes are so hard to like on a phone, are so hard to follow along because I feel like there's a landmine of me like scrolling and then the screen flashes because an ad popped up on the screen.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god, that drives me crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Or like the there's the life story of the person who wrote the recipe, and then at the very end is like the tiniest little print of the ingredients.
SPEAKER_01:Well, usually there's like a print button at the top, and then it'll kind of open into like a document.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, well, nope, nope. I've been scrolling. I get you get the like, you know, it's a phone, but it's like one eighth the width of the phone of text down the middle. It's it's too much. It's too much. But that, yeah, I just wanted to share that to if anyone thought that was relatable. All right. So why don't we why don't we jump in? I mean, we've given the good people 15 minutes of crisp banter.
SPEAKER_01:Let's jump in.
SPEAKER_02:When we get to work, uh, what are we gonna talk about today, Nick?
SPEAKER_01:Today we're talking about concussions.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so it's turns out that I've seen this. I mean, I think a lot of people see this when they are talking about sports, we're in football season, but that doesn't mean just for professionals, that means for student athletes at well as well. And I have seen a few, I have had a few experiences. One was covering a game and talking to the athletic trainer, and he said, Yeah, you know, like some kids aren't aware of what a concussion looks like, so they don't know. So they like feel that headache after they get a hit, and they just keep going. And I was like, wow, that seems like a huge opportunity for like education and engagement like outside of like their health class if they aren't learning it there. And then on the other side, I get like them back in the office, and they're coming in and they're like, Oh, like I got hit in the head. Either A, do I have a concussion, or B, I know I have a concussion. Can I go back? So it prompted me to think like we should do an episode about this because I think it would be a useful tool to have, and why not raise a little bit of awareness about like concussions and where we're at? So that's what we're up to. Um, we'll include all of our resources, um, references that we use. We have a boatload today. Um, you can find them in the show notes. But why don't we just dive in? So you've probably heard the word concussion tossed around after um, like we talked about on a football field or maybe like a fail in gym class. I definitely had that. I was on the on the copes course and I fell from a wire. And it's a miracle that it was like a foot off the ground, but um, I'm tall, and it's a miracle the amount of times on a basketball court or in that situation that I haven't had a concussion that I could tell. So I guess what I really want to talk about is what happens to the brain when we have a concussion. So a concussion is a type of mild brain injury that happens when a bump, a blow, or a jolt to the head, or the body causes the brain to kind of quickly move around in the skull, which is like almost like a sloshing around in water. One of the most important things to know when it comes to a concussion is that you don't necessarily have to lose consciousness. And the vast majority of them, um, in fact, about 80, like 90% of them, happen without anyone being knocked out. So that kind of invites a lot of opportunity for not securing the diagnosis early on. And that's a big reason about why they can be missed, because they aren't always really dramatic. Sometimes people can just look a little dazed, they feel a little off after a fall. So it's something important to think about in that way. Nikki, um can you take us through a little bit? We talked about like what a concussion is. Um can you take us through what some of the what to think about some of the signs and symptoms?
SPEAKER_01:I can. Um first sign is most commonly a headache, but then other clues can include um being like dizzy or kind of like feeling like hazy or foggy, um, blurry vision, confusion, and nausea.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, lots of different vague symptoms there.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and with like younger kids and like teenager, you might notice that they're kind of like irritable or having like a mood change.
SPEAKER_02:And another thing to think about is that the concussion symptoms either can show up right away or sometimes not until hours later, which is something to keep in mind. So in the literature that we were reviewing for you today, we found that there's some evidence that about one in five high school athletes that play contact sports like football or soccer will experience a concussion at some point during their season or their career, which is really common. I mean, you look out on the field, there are more than five kids out there, so one of them will probably get it. Those are the signs. Um, the next thing we wanted to talk about is what immediately to do in the moment. Um, say you are listening to this and you play a contact sport, or maybe you're a coach or you're a parent who's watching their kid participate in a sport. These are the things that you can immediately do. Take them out of the game, leave the game. And now I'm speaking directly to the student athlete. Like, this is so much more about the greater arc of your life than it is being in that competitive moment. So I think it's a tough thing when you like are in there and you're with your your teammates out on the field in that competitive spirit. But the most important thing to do, if you took a hit to the head and you feel those symptoms, or you feel a headache, this isn't about the game anymore. This is about health. And anyone listening to that, the first thing, easy, don't go back in the game. In fact, they shouldn't return to the game in the same day, even if they feel fine. It's actually a law in 50 states, all 50 of them, that a healthcare professional must clear an athlete before returning to play after a concussion. And yet, despite all of this, which is something we're trying to improve on today, there is some evidence that up to half of all concussions go unreported by athletes, often because they don't recognize the symptoms or they don't want to lose their playing time. So that is very significant to think about. Did you ever have a concussion from jumping in the water too hard?
SPEAKER_01:No.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_02:Your brothers?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Eric had one. And he's playing football. And my dad called me. He's like, Yeah, I think I don't know if he was out of game or practice, but they like had to go pick him up because he like fell or whatever, or they like took him home because he like went down or like hit his head. And my dad called me and I was at work. And he's like, Oh yeah, they think Eric has a concussion. I don't know. He says he like might throw up, and I was like, You need to bring him here. Oh my god. Oh my god. Yeah, he was like out of it. My mom even said the like ED attending was like worried about him, and I was like, Oh man. Okay, he was fine though.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, well, that's good. He's fine now, which is usually how it goes. People usually have symptoms for maybe about a week, two weeks, and it goes away. We can get into the little bit of that later. So this next section I think is important because the management or thought processes about concussions have changed over time. And that's something we wanted to bring a magnifying glass to today. So let's talk about what's changed because it's very different. So do you want to go back and forth or go one at a time? Old thinking, new evidence.
SPEAKER_01:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Nick, what was the old thinking?
SPEAKER_01:The old thinking is that you need complete rest in a dark room until every symptom disappears. So the uh And isn't there I don't think this is down here lower. Wasn't it a concussion that people used to say, like, don't let the person fall asleep?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That used to be a thing too.
SPEAKER_01:But new evidence, um, so regarding the complete rest is that too much rest can actually slow your recovery. Um and that gentle movement, even going for like a short walk outside, can help the brain heal faster. Which makes sense. Because any sort of like and I like currently work on a brain injury floor, like sleep is critical for your brain to heal.
SPEAKER_02:Totally.
SPEAKER_01:If you have had any sort of like injury to your brain. And yeah, you don't need to be in a dark room. I mean, we have like a like special therapy dedicated to like cognitive therapy so like stimulate your brain still.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Um, that's so the moving, like putting everyone in a like dark room and on strict rest strict rest was called cocooning, and that was the predominant idea. But now things have changed a little bit, um where they are recommending a short period of rest, one to two days, followed by what you mentioned, the light activity that doesn't make symptoms worse. So the old way of thinking was if you feel okay, you can play again. And there's now a lot of new evidence that's saying there's now a lot of new evidence that says that feeling fine doesn't always mean that the brain is ready. And so returning too soon can double or even quadruple the risk of another concussion or prolonged symptoms of that concussion thereafter. So even if a player feels ready and back to normal, reiterating that gradual step-by-step return to play is what keeps them safe. So, what's the fourth myth?
SPEAKER_01:The fourth one is that all concussions are the same and they are treated the same way.
SPEAKER_02:Is that true?
SPEAKER_01:That is not true. Um, every concussion is different. Recovery times and even the symptoms can vary from person to person, and your treatment should be individualized. Um athletes should be monitored closely. And you know, if two kids get a concussion in the same football game, like one might be cleared sooner than the other. It just depends on how they're recovering.
SPEAKER_02:So, in summary, the the old way of thinking seemed to be like really lock people up, don't let them sleep, keep them in a dark room away from everything for a long time, and then after maybe X amount of time, toss them back out there and see how things go, which is very different than how things are going these days. All right, so the next segment that we have is talking about returning to school and sports. So what we have here is that most students recover in about one to two weeks. But there is the chance that we have estimations of about one in four may have symptoms lasting longer than a month. And while that's not great, obviously that stinks to feel that it ends up being okay. And if it's longer than a month or it gets around there, we get into a different definition of something called post-concussion syndrome, which we won't talk so much about right now. But to stay in line with returning to school, a return to school should come before a return to sport. Arguably education is more important, but some kids, while they're doing that, may need shorter days or more breaks for a while, which should be okay. Should be okay. I don't know what this accent was. Should be okay. Um, so you could think of it like a staircase. Each step adds a little bit more activity when you're going up the staircase, and if the symptoms come back, you step down and then you rest and try again. It's called the rule of two. Another thing would be thinking on a scale of one to ten. If you're doing an activity and your symptoms go from a two to a four, maybe you kind of take that as the upper limit and then dial it back if you need to. Um needing accommodations at school is something that is pretty regular. About one in three students recovering from a concussion needs temporary academic accommodations. So teachers and school nurses can really make a difference in supporting students as they get back to what they were doing before. Nikki, um, our next segment is talking about emotional and cognitive recovery. And I mentioned this because you mentioned that a teenager who may get a headache may find to be a little irritable. Um, what sorts of things can we think about here?
SPEAKER_01:So we know that concussions don't just affect coordination and balance, but they can change your mood, sleep, concentration. So it's normal for like a teenager student to feel frustrated or down, if you know, they're frustrated, if they are having trouble concentrating, they're not sleeping well. Um so they can get kind of irritable if they can't kind of keep up with the rest of their class or like you know, yeah, it's kind of stink what they were doing before.
SPEAKER_02:Like this thing that you weren't planning on having to get, and then all of a sudden it's impacting so many parts of your life. I think in that way support can be really helpful. Um, family, coaches, teachers, everyone's kind of staying positive while the brain gets back to what it was doing before. Yeah, that's a big one. Um, so moving on to our next segment, we're talking about prevention and kind of just creating awareness. So obviously, like, you know, there are a lot of high-impact sports. I think of boxing, I think of rugby, I think of soccer, I think of football. Football, especially. I feel like people probably look at that and they say, Oh, why wouldn't the helmet totally prevent the concussion? And football, like they have the helmets because they're great for skull fractures, but sometimes they can't like they don't fully prevent concussions. And so that's why like things like proper tackling form, awareness are super important because you can't always see the symptom, like someone needs to declare it. And that's why when me and this like athletic trainer were talking, he was like, Oh yeah, like some of the young guys, there's like a it's like a bimodal distribution where some of the young guys may get symptoms and they don't recognize it because they just haven't been taught it. But then he said, Some of the hyper competitive older ones recognize the symptom, and then they say, Oh, I want to keep playing, so I'm just gonna kind of not mention anything because I know they're gonna take me out if I need to.
SPEAKER_01:Yikes. Yeah, don't do that.
SPEAKER_02:So I'm not gonna get back up on the soap, the soapbox again, but that's what he mentioned, and I was like, wow, that's not great. But I guess you see it after so many years. So, concussion management is focused on safe, gradual return to activity, and it's not isolation or extreme rest. And be patient. I think it takes a long time for things to happen once they do happen, and do the best we can to avoid getting concussions the best you can. Um, but if it does happen, know that there's something to do about it. So, thank you for coming back to another episode of your checked up. Hopefully, you were able to learn something for yourself, a loved one, or a neighbor. Check out check us out, send us an email, find us on our website, share this with a friend or young student athlete who is playing some sports and might get a concussion. Uh, but most importantly, stay healthy, my friends. Until next time, I'm Ed Delesky.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Nicola Rufo.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you, goodbye.
SPEAKER_01:Bye.
SPEAKER_02:This information may provide a brief overview of. Diagnosis, Treatment, and Medications. It's not exhaustive and is a tool to help you understand potential options about your health. It doesn't cover all details about conditions, treatments, or medications for a specific person. This is not medical advice or an attempt to substitute medical advice. You should contact a healthcare provider for personalized guidance based on your unique circumstances. We explicitly disclaim any liability relating to the information given or its use. This content doesn't endorse any treatments or medications for a specific patient. Always talk to your healthcare provider for a complete information tailored to you. In short, I'm not your doctor.
SPEAKER_01:I am not your nurse.
SPEAKER_02:And make sure you go get your own checkup with your own personal doctor.
