The Wait Is Over

Testing The Waters

Abby enters the Cantu Concussion Center to continue with her therapy regimen. Patrick is working with her this morning on her balance, making sure she does not get dizzy when she's not grounded. She has one foot on the top of a wooden box and the other on a pylometric hurdle.

Patrick: Locate your center of gravity and then bend your knees. 

Abby does as her trainer asks and finds herself a little wobbly with the four-inch difference in height between the two objects.

Patrick: I'm going to move the two items closer and then ask you to do it again.

Patrick slides the box six inches closer to the hurdle, then asks Abby to step on both again and bend her knees. She does so and her balance is solid. Patrick begins moving the hurdle away from the box and asks Abby to adjust her stance as the gap between the items increases. She does well with maintaining her balance until the distance between them exceeds two feet.

Patrick: Good work. How did you feel as your stance was being stretched and adjusted?

Abby: It hurt a little in the groin.

Patrick: Were you dizzy at all?

Abby: A bit once the hurdle started being pulled forward.

Patrick: We'll start again and I want you to tell me the moment you start experiencing the spins.

Patrick moves the box and hurdle back to their original positions and has Abby step onto them again. Once her balance is solid, he moves the hurdle forward two inches at a time. When the two items are 14 inches apart, Abby tells Patrick she is getting the spins. He helps her down off the objects and has her sit down. He then does a quick eye-reflex test on her to check for tracking ability. It is fair, but becomes worse the closer his finger gets to her, improving as he moves it away. Her peripheral tracking is good, meaning that the problem is maintaining focus.

Patrick: Your mind and your body seem to be communicating well, your peripheral vision is good, but your ability to keep focus on a single object worsens as it draws closer to you, improving as it moves away.

Abby: How do I improve that?

Patrick: My suggestion is to post an object on one of the walls in your apartment, one that is relatively neutral in terms of patterning so that the object stands out against it. Mark a point ten feet from it and place markings in two-foot increments. Hopefully it will be in perfect focus when you start. If not, move forward or backward until you are able to gain that. From there, I want you to walk toward the object one step at a time and let your eyes re-focus. Keep doing that until you're unable to regain focus. If you get within two feet of the object and are still able to focus on it, start cutting down the distance in 3 inch increments. Eyes are supposed to be able to re-focus on an object as near as 3 inches from them. Do maybe 10 minutes a day on this and keep track of your progress. If we get your vision back to normal, it will hopefully eliminate the dizziness that occurs when you're not grounded.

Abby: Do I have to do it against a wall? Can I have my fiancee hold an object and have me walk to it?

Patrick: You can do that, but the object needs to be backed by something reasonably monochrome so your eyes don't start jumping from the object to other shapes or colors around it.

Following this, Patrick and Abby go to one of the treadmills to have her do 20 minutes of fairly intense running, as her fitness needs to be maintained and being able to withstand that level of training at this point will allow her to progress toward a full 45 without vision or cognitive problems, which is necessary to clear her for returning to play. Abby finishes the 20 minutes with very few noticeable signs of distress. Patrick does the vision test again and Abby is able to maintain focus on his finger as it moves near and farther and side-to-side.