Marshall Update

Everyone asks about Marshall's condition. During a hockey game on Thursday, October 17th, Marshall was hit after a whistle. Because the play was over, Marshall had stood up and was not in position to absorb a check. The unexpected check knocked him head first into the boards. That night and for the next few days, Marshall felt dizziness and headaches. We skipped practices, and when the symptoms did not go away by the following Monday, we took him to the doctor.

The doctor's diagnosis was a mild concussion, and we were instructed to keep him out of hockey until his symptoms went away. The doctor did not expect the symptoms to last long. For the next two weeks, Marshall missed both hockey and school as he had a great deal of difficulty concentrating. The work of trying to concentrate made his headaches worse. After two weeks, we took him back to the doctor. The doctor said everything was normal and that some people heal more slowly than others. However, the time frame was not unusual.

Marshall's path back to playing consisted of a series of tests. The final two of those tests were to make it through a non-contact practice followed by a contact practice, both without the recurrence of any symptoms. On November 4th, he passed the first test by skating a non-contact practice with the Bantam team. Unfortunately, we never made it to the second test because the next day at school, Marshall was hit in the head at recess.

This time, the blow to the head caused short term memory loss in addition to the other symptoms. The doctor ordered a CT scan which came out normal and again said it was just a matter of waiting for healing to occur. For three more weeks, Marshall missed school and hockey. His mom and I talked to the school about how to get him caught up. After three weeks, Marshall started going to school for half days and that has lasted until Christmas break.

The doctor's original diagnosis was to keep him out until Dec. 1. However, he also took the information to a pediatric neurologist. The neurologist said that Marshall needs to go two weeks without symptoms and be released by another specialist.

At this point, he is still experiencing headaches, but the dizziness and short term memory loss has mostly gone away. With no way of predicting the end of symptoms, it is likely that he'll miss three full months of hockey this year. Given that there isn't much hockey left, it may make sense to simply hold him out the entire year.