Hello everyone, my name is Christopher.
In 2013 I was hit with a metal bar while doing summer baseball. It was a serious coaching supervision blunder, which happened to get incredibly ugly.
After a few minutes I realized I was having issues speaking and saying coherent sentences. It was like a slow build up to more and more symptoms. As I stayed home and inside I started to notice headaches, vision issues, memory issues, and realizing I couldn’t think the way I was used to to. Even things like running hurt my head. Screens made me dizzy, and I would see spots and such all over my line of sight.
As we battered with the school, considering it was an incident on their property and they were in violation of propped concussion documentation along with it, we figured it wouldn't be such a heartless attack from them. I couldnt read or physically write for around 4 months. I had many classes get ruined, and schedule changes followed. They accused me at times of simply not trying to do my school work, and even put me in a special ed class because of the TBI, in a way to try and shove me to the side and let my education sink. They didn’t take those other children seriously at all either, and they were trying to get me out of their way by putting me there. Incredibly disturbing on many levels.
I would go to a lot of different “expert” doctors, telling me I was fine or because I didnt have a cracked skull or brain bleeding that I was fine. Even though my impact test scores were very much problematic and my symptoms were very real. I was told to forget about high school and college and just get a GED to get it over with. I pieced together a high school transcript of 7 schools, in about 7 years. During this time we moved, had other illnesses, extended family health issues, and much more. I had had so many doctoral mess ups on thinfs I had dealt with, that I began to not only not trust them, but expect them to get it wrong and I became obsessed and scared of returning to the hospital. Of having more misdiagnosis’s, and at many times really thinking my life was going to be thrown away and wasted. That I was never going to be able to do anything worth while.
I continued to fight through very many hard years, school changes, moves, bankruptcy, other health issues, and more only because of God. He gave me the strength to get through all of that, and still does give me the strength I need every day!
I was told I wouldn’t go to a real college. I had wanted to go to a big time school since I was a little kid with big sports, and work in the sports industry if I couldn’t play in it. With all the health issues that ship sailed, but other opportunities showed up. I fought the system to stay in school and be allowed to graduate high school at 20. Then got into the University of Arizona!
I was able to do so many incredible things in college, graduate from a current top 50 public university, work for a power 5 football team, an NCAA sanctioned bowl game, reinstalled a national club chapter, I won a perseverance award from the college, made the Dean’s list (never made honor roll in high school) became a high school football coach, and was able to see that for now, my goal of being a football coach had to be put to the side because I have more important goals.
Today, I find myself as a production coordinator for one of the fastest growing sports companies in the USA, in Gainesville Florida, working to make events happen with the Florida Gators, FSU, USF and UCF.
I remind myself daily not to over do it, because I get so motivated to continue to write a story of perseverance. All because of the Glory of God. Survivors, we have to keep fighting!
Thank you TBI One Love for the opportunity to share and help out.
