Patrick Thompson, a Lifemark Physiotherapist, has spent his whole life educating himself about concussions and treating patients alike, and he says it all started when he played college hockey.
“It really broadened my perception of the athlete’s perspective. I wanted to learn more. Fast forward to now and concussions are nearly 50 percent of my daily caseload.”
Thompson says no matter which angle you take when looking at a concussion and treating a patient, it’s always going to be tough.
“Some things can be tested and measured, but really a lot of times there aren’t clear-cut objective findings. You’re just basing it off symptoms. It’s really vague and it can be super difficult to diagnose.”
Recognizing and suspecting it is the most important step to getting ahead of it, he said.
“The key element is that athletes train their whole life to fight through pain, they’re just used to always competing and fighting through it. If it’s mild pain, they probably won’t be paying much attention to it and they won’t expect anyone else to pay much attention to it either. It’s really vague, it’s super difficult,” he said.
“Generally, because concussions are based on symptoms and signs, you have to have a really low threshold. If there are any signs, you have to suspect it and then go through the proper assessment process.”
For the athletes, they must understand just what they’re dealing with and just what the consequences are if they don’t follow proper protocol and procedure, says Thompson, so communication is key to getting that message across, especially when it comes to younger patients.
“With the brain, it controls your body, thinking, vision, movement, etc. You need to take your time. Just making sure they understand that the brain controls everything and if that doesn’t heal, you open yourself up to many more problems.”
Thompson says it’s often different when dealing with young athletes. It often takes more communication and a longer recovery to get them back on the court.
“It can be really subtle and so kids don’t really recognize the subtlety of those symptoms, they’re less in tune with the reporting side of it,”
“Since the adolescent brain is still developing, it will often take more time for them to return, usually around 4 weeks. Whereas with older athletes, they could be back within 10-14 days.”
On top of that, athletes must deal with the anxieties that come along with invisible injuries, and Thompson says it’s something that needs to be taken seriously.
“Invisible injuries are really hard on people. It’s really hard because your friends don’t change their perception of you, but if you had a cast on, your friends would think ‘woah, they really got hurt, they have cast on’...so many kids have depression and anxiety from it”
With that said, Thompson has definitely seen an extreme growth in awareness and education from all aspects but he’s worried that fear will take over the minds of athletes and that’s something that professionals need to keep an eye on as more advancements are made.
“There’s definitely more awareness, more acceptance, but that comes with more fear as well. We have to tamper the fear a little bit,” he said.
“But it wasn’t long ago that people felt that if you didn’t lose consciousness, you didn’t suffer a concussion. That tells you how far things have come.”
