Until October 11, Bridget was a happy, sweet and driven 10-year old. A straight-A student, and a model balance of optimism, kindness and compassion to others. Even her big brother would tell you that she was the closest you could get to an angel on earth.

Bridget also loved sports: basketball, swimming and Irish dance were her side sports, but her true love was soccer. Her bright, dimpled smile would shine mischievously whenever she was on that soccer field trying to get the ball from someone. She was an aggressive player who never sat out when she was injured. She would keep on playing with tears in her eyes if the coach didn‘t notice. At the beginning of October, she had taken two significant blows to the head, but kept on playing and only admitted her dizziness after the game. The game on October 11th was no different. When she slipped on the wet field by the goal, the crush of players kept anyone from seeing the ball land next to Bridget’s head. When the girl playing forward tried to kick the ball to the other end of the field, she missed and kicked Bridget in the back of the head. Bridget tried to continue to play but complained of a mild headache. We put her on the bench and we had her take it easy. That seemed to be the worst of it until 36 hours after the concussion. Suddenly, the concussion symptoms started all coming out at once. We rushed her to the emergency room. The CT came out clean and the doctor told her to just to take it easy.

It was the next day that all the real trouble began. She woke up feeling horrible. Worse than ever. Every day for two weeks, Bridget would wake up with incrementally more pain. Every day the pain was worse than the day before. The pain was incapacitating. Every sound, even the ticking of the clock, caused waves of pain. She felt nauseous, things tasted strange, and her mind would play tricks on her. She would get up when she needed to, but her head hurt so much so would lie in bed in a half fetal position. She began to get mysterious muscle spasms throughout her body. Then came the day that her legs suddenly felt so weak that she couldn’t walk anymore. None of the doctors we saw could figure out why. The girl who never sat out when she was injured couldn’t get out of bed unassisted.

Six months went by. The pain never lessened but we encouraged Bridget to try to move on with her life: to live life with chronic pain. She couldn’t do any real schoolwork: reading and writing, or even listening to a book or music increased the horrible headaches. She was tired all the time, but had a hard time falling asleep at night and waking up the next morning. We started physical therapy, chiropractic, cranial sacral and acupuncture. We had limited success in decreasing the muscle spasms but the concussion flared on. We saw some of the top neurologists and neurophysiologists in the area and they all said that there was nothing to do but wait.

The worst part of her brain injury was her anxiety. My friendly, outgoing girl was hiding from her friends and even our neighbors. She would crawl away crying “I can’t!” if I even asked her to set the table. She would cry and have anxiety attacks at least once a day, especially at night. Many nights I would sleep near her so that she would know that we loved her. I had to have her friends surprise her with visits and we tried very hard to make her life as close to normal as possible. It was our “new normal“. We started to see a play therapist for help on living life with chronic pain.

We met many people who were kind to give us advice but my new rule of thumb was that I wasn’t going to waste any more money or emotional hope on a doctor unless I had two, unrelated, first-hand accounts of success from any kind of treatment.

In February, I suddenly heard four success stories within a short period of time about EEG stimulation therapy and Dr. Mary Lee Esty. We scheduled an appointment right away. Bridget was so happy to see the strange results of her EEG and have a picture of her concussion in her hands. She wanted to make it into a t-shirt so that people wouldn’t think that all her pain and suffering was made up. Many of her anxiety attacks centered around the belief that people thought she was faking it.

During her first treatment, Bridget didn’t feel anything remarkable. She was convinced that it wasn’t working and was afraid we were wasting our money. However, I began to notice changes. After two visits, she started sleeping better and the nighttime anxiety attacks stopped. After three visits, more anxiety issues dropped. She started to set the table, try some schoolwork and was able to walk with a cane instead of a walker. After four visits, she dropped the cane and was able to walk again. She even did a little Irish jig for me. With each visit, I saw new hope of healing, but Bridget refused to believe it. If I mentioned that she was getting better, she would launch into a n anxiety attack and scream , “I’m not getting better!”

The next four-minute treatment changed it all. At treatment number nine, Bridget walked in refusing to believe this could heal her, and walked out whispering that she was healed. I thought she was just joking. She wasn’t. She was completely healed.

She said that this time, while sitting in the chair with the computer running and her eyes closed, “everything went instantly clear.” When she opened her eyes, her six-month headache was completely gone. She could read pages without any pain. She could listen to music, and watch TV… and all of her anxieties were gone! We celebrated by going to a loud Kid’s Night at one of the restaurants nearby. The girl who couldn’t tolerate a clock ticking, had no headache, even if a lot of the adults in the room left with one from all the noise. Feeling incredibly lucky, we bought 7 lottery tickets and won only $4.00.

The real prize is that three months later Bridget is still completely healed of her concussion. The girl who couldn’t write a few sentences a few months ago finished all of her schoolwork for the last eight months of fifth grade in eight weeks. She also learned eight months of Irish dance steps in two nights and learned them well enough to place top of her division at an Irish dance competition in June.

As Bridget nears her 11th birthday, we all rejoice, almost daily, that we can now listen to the radio, books-on-tape and watch TV again. There are absolutely no more anxieties, no more panic attacks, and no more lingering effects of the concussion that we can see.

BWB © 2010