{Editor’s note: In 2012, I was contacted by a then-sophomore in high school who was having trouble dealing with the rigors of PCS on top of trying to be a student. She asked me to help her work through things. What came out of that has been a wonderful friendship with a very resilient girl who is now a freshman in college and who still soldiers through some absolutely incredible symptoms. She always tells me how tough I am, but I think she’s tougher. It has also earned me a director on our board in the form of that very resilient girl. Who better to help me guide the trajectory of The Knockout Project? I am thankful that Alicia has such great parents who will go to such lengths in her search for good health. –Jay}
From left: Mike and Joy Jensen with their children Mike, Alicia, Sean, Ashley, and Matthew
By Mike Jensen
As any parent would agree, the most difficult and stressful job you could ever have is raising a child. You take all of your experiences that you learned in life, and use them to guide and teach your children to meet the challenges that life will throw at them, and hopefully they can build a better life for themselves and future generations. But, there is one thing you can never prepare for. That is if your child is sick or injured. When Alicia got her concussion in April 2012, I was concerned, but, with the little experience I had with concussions, I didn’t know what to expect. When I was in youth sports, if someone got hit in the head, or, as we used to call it “got his bell rung”, it was no big deal. Even if the word concussion was mentioned, the consensus for getting better was a few days rest.
I learned a lot since April 2012. Alicia was 15 at the time, been playing soccer since she was 6, never got too badly hurt. Not even a minor injury would set her back too far. On this day, she was defending a play when the opposing player attempted to kick the ball down into the offensive when it struck the side of Alicia’s head. She went down, got right up, slowly, and said she was fine. That was right at the end of the half, so there was no real question of removing her form the game, the half was over. After half time, she felt OK, went back out, and right at the end of the game, she got hit again. Hit twice the same way in the same game. After 10 years of soccer, she played her last game, and has had a debilitating headache ever since. Continue reading
