Ellie’s College Concussion Recovery

Ellie is SPARCC’s Comeback Athlete for November!

It has been over a year since Ellie suffered her concussion. During finals week of her junior year at Georgetown University, Ellie was at the gym to relive some stress. She got dizzy while jogging on the treadmill and pressed pause to take a 30 second break. Next thing she knew, she was on the floor. She was laying there for 5 minutes before she regained consciousness. Even after a trip to the ER, she was able to finish her finals week and head home to Tucson.

In the summer of 2016, Ellie took her ImPACT test at SPARCC but did not have the time to commit to a full recovery process due to an internship that she had in Washington DC. She left for the summer and continued to work hard and keep busy. It was not until her internship came to an end and her life slowed down that she came to notice her symptoms. She was getting light headed and nauseous months after her concussion. Being so far away from home and with her senior year to finish, Ellie decided to manage her symptoms the best that she could and take advantage of her summer break to really focus on her recovery.

Ellie was able to come to clinic on a regular schedule over this past summer as well as go to physical therapy multiple times a week. She said that even though it was hard work, it was totally worth it. After going through a semester of school basically being symptomatic every day, she only had two symptomatic days this summer!

Ellie cannot pinpoint the exact moment when she could see herself getting better but she knows she was improving every day.

Ellie’s advice for other concussion patients is to do not underestimate the eye exercises and people should try to set time aside to do them every day. She said that Dr. Mo was really positive and gave her reasonable expectations and homework that helped her recover. She is so grateful that she got to dedicate the time after graduation and can now pursue a career. She starts working in commodities this fall. We are all very proud of you, Ellie!