On a particularly slippery evening this past winter, I lost my footing and fell. “It’s OK. I didn’t hit my head,” I told my partner as I felt around my head for a nonexistent goose egg. I was about to learn first-hand what Plymouth nurse practitioner Mandi Dickey later reiterated during our April interview—you don’t need to lose consciousness in order to have a concussion, nor do you need to hit your head. “Only about half really do,” Dickey says. “The other half are from a whiplash type of injury, and only 10 percent of people lose consciousness.”
I chalked up my soreness to neck strain. My pupils could dilate, and my memory of the incident was intact. The persistent headache? It gave me pause, but I’d had friends growing up in sports who were laid up in bed for weeks when they sustained concussions, unable to use screens or read. It wasn’t until a sudden bout of nausea a few days after the fall that I reconsidered my self-diagnosed clean bill of health. The nurse line advised I visit urgent care, and I was informed I had a (still admittedly minor) concussion.
Dickey’s interest in concussion education stems from her own experience with a traumatic brain injury. After two years of recovery and therapy, she’s now developing a concussion clinic at Minneapolis Clinic of Neurology in Coon Rapids as one of only six concussion providers in the Twin Cities. Many of Dickey’s patients experience symptoms for months, if not years. “People historically have thought that there’s nothing to be done,” she says in explanation as to why it can take so long to start on the road to recovery. “When we finally do address it, they still can get better; we start treatments, and they still see improvement.” Read more about her story on page 12.
Our annual education issue is an excellent opportunity to learn something new, but it also features the return of our much-anticipated Senior Spotlight, which highlights a few of Plymouth’s highly accomplished high school seniors (page 14). Do you know of a local student who is making a difference in their school community or Plymouth at large? Let me know at madeline@localmedia.co.
Until next time,
—Madeline Kopiecki
