Courtney Kwasnica is trying to get her life back to normal.
The 16-year-old suffered a concussion at her high school wrestling practice last month in Saskatoon.
“I got really dizzy right away,” Kwasnica said. “It was a weird feeling because I knew where I was but I didn’t know what was really going on.”
She spent about a month rehabbing and resting, and only recently was given the OK to return to action by trainers with Craven Sport Services.
“It was scary because I had never had a concussion before,” she said.
Concussion management and rehabilitation was an aspect of sport training mostly foreign to Saskatoon just a few short years ago, but with concussion awareness rising across the globe recently, treating head and brain injuries is now big business in the city.
Lee Stevens, with Craven, helps athletes return to competition after concussions.
“People know they exist, and they recognize that they’re happening, but they don’t know what to do next,” Stevens said. “That’s the role we try to fill with people, is to help guide them through the process and provide them with the resources and the support that they need.”
Kwasnica said the rehabilitation process was tough.
“It was hard, because I’m usually very active,” she said.
Rhonda Schiskin, a head therapist for Huskie Athletics at the University of Saskatchewan, said proper care after concussions is especially important for young athletes whose brains are still developing.
“Their symptoms tend to stick around longer, so they take a little longer to heal,” Schiskin said.
“We know there’s a period of vulnerability where we don’t want another insult to the brain — those first one to three or five days — and that’s why it’s so important that if we think there may be a concussion, that we remove them from play, get them diagnosed and go through the return-to-play process.”
The best ways to prevent concussions are to use proper equipment and to learn proper hitting or contact techniques, according to Brian Guebert, Saskatoon Minor Football’s commissioner. Kids should also be encouraged to communicate when they’re not feeling well after a hit.
“Talking about how you are feeling in terms of your own physical health is changing the way we approach amateur sports,” Guebert said.
--- based on a report by Pat McKay
