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>> Kristin: My name is Kristin. I am 16 and I live in Swampscott. I am a cheerleader for
football and basketball on the varsity team. This happened the football season of 2010.
We were stunting at a practice and it was towards the beginning of the season where
we were testing out new fliers and all that stuff, and I am a back spot, so I am under
the group. It was two hard blows. One was from a basket
toss which is when you just throw them up and wait for them to come down and the other
was when she was twisting out of a stunt. So, I got hit twice that night at practice.
I couldn't take it anymore and I was like, I'm done, and I started crying. The practice
was over so I walked out and I put my hands on my head and I was like I definitely have
a concussion. >>Joanne: When she told me, I said, oh that
doesn't sound good. So I left my meeting immediately and I said to my teacher friends, I am off
to Salem Hospital. >>Kristin: Immediately I got a really bad
headache which I knew that was a major sign if you right away get one.
And I felt really nauseous which was weird to me and I just felt out of it which is definitely
a different sensation for me. I am normally with it and feel good after practice and I
just felt really foggy and not myself. >> Joanne: There was nothing you could see.
There was no bruise, there was no blood, there was no swelling, there was nothing.
There was just the headache and the pain that she really complained about.
>>Kristin: They put me in touch with Dr. McAuliffe who specializes in that and he was really
helpful and real careful in diagnosing me and made sure I was really careful about not
doing anything. I was out of cheering for 6 weeks which was
a really big surprise, I thought it would just be one and I would be okay and school
was definitely really hard. Actually, it happened 2 days before her PSATs
and Dr. McAuliffe said there was no way. So, now as we head into the college process,
we don't have that grade to quite no where her SATs are going to be and that's blamed
onto a concussion. >> Kristin: I know I learned so much through
Dr. McAuliffe and the hospital and through actually experiencing a concussion, I feel
like you don't actually learn about them until you go through one.