Hi, everyone. My name is Ash Kolstad. I'm currently an undergraduate student in the faculty of kinesiology at the University of Calgary. I want to thank you for this great honour of being invited to speak about my experiences with concussions from sport.
In 2009, I was 12 years old and received two concussions while playing ice hockey at the peewee level. This was when bodychecking was allowed. I recovered quickly from the first concussion, after following the return-to-play protocols, but three weeks later I received a second concussion from an illegal bodycheck from behind, an elbow to my neck. This resulted in severe whiplash and concussion symptoms.
This bodycheck ended my hockey playing career and has changed my life ever since. The player who bodychecked me only received a two-minute penalty for elbowing, while over nine years later I'm still affected by post-concussive symptoms. These included being extremely sensitive to light, which caused me to wear sunglasses every day for four months, along with sound sensitivity. I suffered from severe dizziness and lack of balance that caused me to fall when I walked every three steps, so I had to be guided everywhere I went.
Also, I had a throbbing headache, which hasn't stopped for the past nine years. This headache makes concentrating very difficult for me, and caused me to miss the full grade 8 year of school. I would go days without sleep due to the headache, and then would finally just crash due to exhaustion. Even then, that would be a few hours at a time.
The injury changed me as a person, and I'm still not back to who I was before the injury. I used to be a fun, super-athletic and overall happy person, but I became a very sad and irritable person who suffers from depression and anxiety daily. Giving up ice hockey and not being able to be at school further precipitated my depression. Ice hockey was such a large part of my life, and it's where I met most of my friends. I would spend hours each week practising and working on my skills. Also, missing school for a full year was hard for me. I was an honours student and I really enjoyed learning and just having that routine in my life. That was extremely difficult.
That year my days were either spent being at appointments, doing rehabilitation exercises or staying in a dark room, trying to rest. I never thought I was going to get better. I was taking medications that weren't helping, and it seemed like none of my doctors and the other health professionals I was seeing knew why my symptoms weren't going away. However, after almost a year, the majority of my symptoms did go away. Symptoms I still suffer from include a constant headache, difficulties concentrating, anxiety and depression.
My experiences with concussions are interesting because, back then, there was a lack of knowledge and awareness of what a concussion was. The injury was thought of as just a bump on the head rather than what it actually is, a type of brain injury.
I heard many negative comments from other parents and kids in my community, suggesting that I was faking or milking the injury to gain attention. One of my coaches told my mom, “The hit wasn't that bad. He shouldn't still be hurt.” These resulted in our not wanting to be around the hockey community anymore, and these negative comments also led me to try to cope with my headaches by just trying to forget about it, not talking about it, just trying to move on.
A couple of years after the concussion I felt like I needed to be part of ice hockey again, and this was when I was fortunate to have opportunities to be an assistant coach on teams at various age levels. This broadened my perspective of the sport and how coaches and parents perceived and talked about injuries such as concussions. Looking back now, I think my concussions likely could have been prevented if stricter policies were in place to limit concussion risk.
Suffering this injury has led me to being part of concussion research that also broadens my knowledge about concussions and how they can be prevented and managed. I want to make a difference by advocating for more awareness and more knowledge about this injury so that no one has to go through what I have.
I would like to thank the sport injury prevention research centre and the integrated concussion research program at the University of Calgary, as well as my supervisors and mentors, Drs. Carolyn Emery, Keith Yeates, Kathryn Schneider, Tyler Cluff and Brent Hagel, for giving me opportunities to do concussion research and to advocate for improving the prevention and care of this potential life-changing injury. I also want to thank Mr. Ken Dryden, Chairman Fonseca, Mr. Adam Larouche, Minister Duncan and the rest of this subcommittee for inviting me to speak here today and for taking an interest in reducing concussion in sport.
Thank you.