Daniel S. Transcript
Hello, my name is Daniel Sponseller, and currently I’m a ninth grade English teacher.
So, before my concussion I was really into soccer. I wanted to play soccer for my school. I was obsessed with the World Cup. So what I would do every day at recess is play soccer.
And one day I was going for a ball that I could headshot into the goal, and another guy at recess had the same exact idea. So, his head and the very like pointy corner part of your head right here went directly into my left temple, and I went unconscious.
I was unconscious for probably about a minute at most, but still I was unconscious for a period of time. I went right to the nurse’s office. It was pretty obvious that I had a concussion.
And then I went to my primary care doctor and I couldn’t walk in a straight line. I couldn’t—like normal light, normal volume was over-stimulating or it was too much for me. So he was like, okay, you have a concussion.
I was home from school for a week. That was my recovery time. I couldn’t watch TV. I couldn’t read. I wasn’t allowed to read. I had to have people read to me.
And strolls—I couldn’t even walk at a normal pace. I had to walk very slowly because if I walked too quickly, I would get a really bad headache. I couldn’t really go in cars.
So I eventually did get better, though. I got better in a week, which is actually a relatively short time for concussion recovery. So I was very fortunate.
Afterwards I was a lot more afraid to play soccer. It took me a while before I felt safe playing soccer again, and I actually played baseball for a bit and I was afraid of baseballs coming towards me too.
But yeah. That’s the only concussion that I’ve had, thankfully.
Question:
“What kind of support system did you have during your recovery, and how did it help you?”
Answer:
Um, my mom was home, so, you know, I had people taking care of me and, um, yeah, they were very concerned, especially since I was missing school.
But yeah, I was very fortunate that I was home. She was the person who was able to read to me because there was not really much else that I could do. So yes, I was fortunate in that I was at home.
And I think, you know, yeah, my parents were mildly concerned since I was missing school. But they knew, you know, with them being there, the situation was under control. And yeah, I think that gave them some peace of mind. And it definitely gave me some peace of mind too, because it’s really not—it, having a concussion makes everyday things so much harder to do. So you do kind of need people there for you, to help you out.
I mean, when getting out of bed is a challenge because you get a horrible headache just from doing that—that happens to a lot of people with concussions—and you know, you can’t be doing stuff by yourself if that’s what’s happening to you.
Advice to Others:
Do not rush your recovery. That’s my advice.
I only was out of school and in recovery for a week because that’s all I needed, but I feel like a lot of people feel the pressure to get back to normal life as quickly as possible.
A lot of times people get concussions from sports, and there’s a pressure, especially if they’re playing in D1 or a very competitive team, to get back into action as soon as possible. You know, I definitely had that pressure. I was like, oh, I’m missing stuff at school, I need to get back to school.
Rushing it—saying and sometimes convincing yourself that you’re okay when you’re actually not—is ultimately gonna do you a lot more harm than good in the long run. Because if your brain is not fully healed and you try to do what you’ve done on a fully functioning and healed brain, that’s gonna hurt your brain and it could really hurt you in the long run.
So my advice is definitely do not rush your recovery.