Sarah Wuebbolt’s Transcript

I had my first concussion when I was in grade five.

Just normal growing-up-as-a-kid life. I had a great group of friends. I had been at my new school for a couple years at that point, and when I was in grade five, it was just before COVID. So none of the protocols that we kind of have today—it was more so just like, oh, you go to school.

I valued my friends, my family, just kind of having fun and getting to do random stuff as a kid. I remember always being very curious and very open, excited about my future and the world. But at the same time, nothing really—I felt strongly about lots of things, and I had, I guess, value systems, but there was nothing that I really felt super deeply compelled or driven to do at that point.

And I had never really dealt with anything kind of hard in my life up until then. So it was more so a typical child upbringing.

So yeah, I’ve had three concussions. My first one, I was in my gym class.

I served a volleyball, it hit the ceiling, came down, and hit my head. I fell over. Immediately after, I had a bit of nausea, dizziness, and a slight headache, but within 30 minutes it was gone, and I was kind of just told, like, oh, you’re fine, not a concussion.

It wasn’t until the following day—I was in my French class, and I fainted and fell off a chair—and then it was like, okay. I went to my pediatrician. It was like, you have a concussion.

Right after getting diagnosed, I had really never heard that term before. I was 12 years old, and even my parents, when they were younger, they’ve even said it themselves, we probably had multiple concussions and didn’t know, it just wasn’t really something that was diagnosed back then. So I didn’t know what I was going through. My parents didn’t know. No one really in my support system—even my doctor wasn’t really explaining what an actual concussion was in basic language.

It was a lot of navigating this uncertainty. I was told I’d probably get better within two weeks, and I was given these little return-to-learn and return-to-play strategy plans. Like, oh, if you follow this, you’ll be fine.

Then I started going through my recovery, and back then the research was just sit in a dark room, don’t do anything. No screens. You can’t even read a book. You don’t want to aggravate your symptoms whatsoever.

So I settled into a bit of a state of depression because I was just so isolated from my friends and even from my parents. They were all who I was around 24 hours a day, and I started to draw back from even them because they didn’t know how to help me, and I didn’t know how to help myself. That was really difficult.

And then when I was finally able to go back to school, even for just an hour or two at a time, it was still this recovery that was going on far past the two weeks that the doctors had said.

My doctor had told me those two weeks would almost be the longest you possibly see symptoms. They should be gone fairly fast. But it was like two weeks, and I’m still getting these headaches, nausea, dizziness, light sensitivity.

And then eventually, I recovered six weeks later. But it was a lot of figuring it out myself with that first concussion.

Then, yeah, my second and third ones—the recoveries were fairly different. In terms of, I kind of knew more so what I dealt with during my first concussion. I had a more positive outlook on life, and I knew how to deal with my symptoms.

But that first concussion was really a multitude of the research at the time telling you to isolate completely, and then also just me having to navigate this uncertainty all by myself.

I remember after my first concussion, it had been a week at that point, and I hadn’t talked to anyone other than my parents. I was just like, I’m never going to get better. These symptoms are never going to go away, it was just this downward spiral.

I had gone from this super positive outlook on life—I was curious, excited to learn new things at school—This school that I go to, It’s like very fostering this inquiry mindset being like risk takers and curious and just asking questions and always trying to learn more and global issues and stuff to now thinking, I can’t see a way out of these symptoms. I can’t see a way out of this spiral.

It was difficult. Even from what my parents have told me, it was like seeing a kid who had gone from being positive, excited to take on new challenges to not even wanting to leave their room.

I had this rocking chair in my room that I would just sit in for hours each day. So in the moment, I had a much more negative outlook on life.

And then when I did finally start to get better after those six weeks, it became a little more positive again. But unfortunately, right after that, it was COVID. 

And then we had our lockdown for a whole year, so now I went from being isolated from medical recommendations. And now again, I am just having to go through doing online school and figuring out how to navigate, like what are you going to, like, how are you still gonna get human connection with your, with people your age and stuff. 

So my values after that probably shifted slightly. I probably valued human connection a lot more after that first concussion. But I don’t think my real value shift—being an advocate and standing up for others—and really just caring for others and making sure no other kid felt the way I did didn’t happen until after my second concussion.

So that second concussion happened in another stupid way. One of my best friends, she slammed a metal door into my face. And the symptoms with that concussion didn’t really play a major role into it. It was just like I still had my normal dizziness, noise sensitivity, light sensitivity, headaches—all like the common stuff you get.

After that concussion, one thing I’m very grateful for is that I didn’t have was the real mental symptoms anymore. I think after going through all of the depressive cycle with my first concussion, I kind of knew in the back of my mind, okay, it might take a long time for these symptoms to go away, but at least you know that there is a way out.

Like, after that first concussion, I had many positive years until it was grade eight that I got my second concussion.

So anyways, shortly after my second concussion, I went through the whole process again—emailing teachers, being like, I can’t participate in this aspect of class, or I need this accommodation.

And one of my teachers I emailed was my gym teacher, because we were in our dance unit at the time, and I was like, obviously I have a concussion. I can’t do any fast spinning motions, and I probably won’t even be able to be around loud music. So I was asking for an alternate method of evaluation for that unit.

And instead of emailing me back, she cornered me in class and basically told me that because she’d seen other students fake their concussions before, I must be faking mine too, just to get out of this class and out of doing schoolwork.

And I was standing there, and I was like, what am I meant to say?

Because especially from a very young age, you’re taught that all people older than you are authority figures, and you can’t—like, don’t be rude and don’t talk back—and what they say goes. So having someone, like a teacher, an adult, tell you that what you know you’re experiencing is not real is very difficult.

But I was like, I don’t know what to do in this moment.

But shortly after that, I remember just coming home, because I went through the motions of actually participating in that dance class that day, which really was not smart. But I remember coming home being like, I can’t do this. I’m just going to get worse symptoms. I’m not going to get better.

So I did end up standing up for myself, and wrote countless emails. I looped in my parents, the heads of the grade, the health staff at my school, provided as much medical documentation as I possibly could, and eventually she did agree to let me do an alternate method of evaluation for that unit, complete an alternate assignment. But going through that is what truly shifted my values to now.

It’s not fair that a kid who is 14 years old has to go and stand up for themselves and really try to prove the fact—because it’s the hardest part about this injury, that no one can see it, that no one knows the exact symptoms that you’re going through on a daily basis.

And none of us should have to advocate for ourselves and explain our symptoms ten times a day just for someone to listen.

So yeah, that’s what shifted my values and really made it so that now I want to help be the voice, not make another kid have to figure it out all by themselves.

So for a while, that experience stuck with me, and it guided me. I’ve had countless more experiences like that with medical professionals and actually other teachers when I was going through my second and third concussion recoveries.

And then, a couple years ago—because now my last concussion was in December of 2023, and I now live with post-concussion syndrome—so I still do deal with the headaches and the symptoms and everything.

But yeah, I decided back in 2024 to make an Instagram account, really just sharing my experience and adding another voice to the community.

Because there’s so many amazing organizations out there, so many amazing people out there, doctors that are really sharing their knowledge and trying to add to the research base that already lacks so much with concussions and brain injuries. But there’s not a lot of teen voices out there.

And I figured, I was thinking one day, why isn’t there another teen voice in this space? Why isn’t there someone sharing their story? Kind of just letting other people know that they aren’t alone.

Because I can’t tell you the amount of times—thinking back, especially to that first concussion—I would have benefited from a support group, from someone just saying, I know what you’re going through.

Because all concussion recoveries are different, but the small similarities between each of them, and just knowing that even if someone got their injury in a very different way, they still have some shred of understanding of what you’re going through each day, the recovery that you’re going through…

So I just want to be that voice.

And that’s really the main reason why I created that account—so that some other kid who stumbles across it, who has a concussion or is recovering from one or lives with post-concussion syndrome like me, doesn’t feel alone.

They know that there’s someone else out there who is dealing with the same things, who probably has had some of the same experiences as them.

Honestly, if I had one wish, and I could do whatever I want at the government level for a day, I would implement an education program for teachers that really goes to the core of what brain injuries are and what concussions are.

Because there is stuff right now—in Canada, we have Rowan’s Law, Rowan’s Law Day, and everything. We do take a moment to recognize what brain injuries are, what concussions are, and the severity they can have if you have multiple repeated ones. But I think we talk so much about what the worst-case scenario is like and what can happen if you end up with a brain bleed. We talk about that, but we don’t talk about the other side of things.

It’s like, okay, I might not have immediate death staring at me in the face, but I do have these symptoms that are going to affect my everyday life—my ability to just go about being me.

And no one really talks about that enough.

So if I could say one thing to teachers, it would probably just be: take a moment, step back, not think before you say something but  I understand there are kids out there that are faking this injury. People fake things all the time. There’s so many people out there that would just fake being sick to get out of a test or something. 

Kids aren’t exactly the most believable, but just take one moment and let that kid validate what they’re saying before you immediately go and crush them down.

Because we might not be able to validate a concussion with a CT scan or MRI, but we can try to explain what we’re feeling in other ways.

And if we say we need help, if we’re trying to advocate for ourselves, just support us. Don’t work against us.

And I’d say a really similar thing to parents too.

When you’re a teenager, at basically any age of life, your parents are some of your closest support systems, your closest support networks. Whether it be just you’re walking home from school and you had a bad day and you wanna call your mom, or you just need someone like that shred of connection back to home when you’re away at like university for a while or something. Having a parent there is so important, but I think one thing that parents almost always want the best for us that sometimes there’s a lot of different ways that you can take steps to help manage your symptoms. 

A lot of different recovery strategies that you can use. My parents were amazing, researched the heck out of everything. But then there were just sometimes where I’m like, let me figure something out by myself. 

Concussion recovery is so unique of the fact that everything is trial and error. There is no one research paper that says, here’s the gold standard for what you should be doing to recover from a concussion if you wanna get rid of it in two weeks or faster than that. 

It’s so unique to each individual. Coming to terms with the fact that this is how I’m gonna live for this next period of time. What can I eat, do myself to help improve that quality of living?

Parents are instrumental in supporting that, but sometimes it’s just like take a step back and let your kid figure it out themselves while you still being there and just reminding them that you’re there as someone that they can come talk to. They can share anything too, that you’re there as a support when they need it. But at the same time, if they wanna figure something out themselves, you’re happy to let them do that.

To anyone listening, or anyone out there who is helping someone through recovery or going through recovery of their own, just remember that you’re not alone. There are so many people out here.

There are so many great support systems, support networks that are willing and wanna talk to you and hear your story.

It makes it a lot easier by sharing it, by not having to carry it all by yourself. Even if that’s in actual therapy or if you’re just talking to a friend, a parent, an adult, whatever it may be. 

Just tell someone. Makes it a lot easier.