When it comes to disabilities, some are more temporary than others. There is the obvious broken bone or torn muscle, which heals with time, but then there are the disabilities that people are born with that usually last a lifetime. The type of disability that I deal with on a daily basis does not fall under either of these categories. Throughout my teenage years, I have managed to obtain five concussions and possibly one more. Having one minor concussion is one story, but having five is something completely different.
Most of my concussions were minor, however, with each one they became harder and harder to handle because of the increasing healing time. With each obtained concussion, the possibility of getting another only increases. Between sports, clumsiness, and sheer bad luck, I have managed to make my memory something that is struggling to be what it used to. When I got my fifth diagnosed concussion, I was in worse shape than I had ever been before. I had blacked out, gotten sick, and got rushed to the hospital to ensure that nothing was seriously wrong.
After that day, a lot of things in my life changed. Some things were temporary, however I knew that some were not. The temporary side effects of my fifth concussion led me to a rehabilitation center for a few months to work on my memory, motor skills, and hand-eye coordination again. I would go two to three times a week, as well as working around my already crazy senior work schedule, and being there helped me heal a lot.
I do not know that I was fully prepared for the side effects that were very long term, but with time I have found my ways to accept them and work with them. A lot of days, I still deal with migraines in the afternoon or early evening, as well as dealing with the memory loss. I still have the ability to remember most necessary things in my life, but it does not come near as easy as it used to. Things in math that I knew like the back of my hand became foreign to me, and suddenly I found myself learning a lot slower than I used to.
The worst part, for me anyway, was the lack of sports in my life. I can still do archery, but my days of skateboarding, boxing, and karate are all over. Another hit to my head at any point in my life could be really dangerous, so I have to live a different and more careful life now. A lot of people do not see concussions as a permanent problem or disability, but having enough of them definitely can be. It has been over a year and I still struggle with my memory, but other than that, I have gotten used to most of the other aspects of the new found disability.
