Lemont Girl Overcomes Back-to-Back Concussions to Win State Swim Title

A year ago, Allison Zych couldn't stay in a pool for more than 10 minutes at a time. In fact, her frequent blinding headaches made it difficult to even stay in school.

It started with a seemingly minor sledding injury on New Year's Eve, 2010. Zych, then 9, hit a bump as she went down a hill, causing her to fall back and hit her head on the icy snow.

"She came in complaining of a headache and was tired, but I had no idea what happened or how bad she hit her head," said Joan Zych, Allison's mother.

A couple of days later, Allison was at swim practice with the Romeoville-based Academy Bullets when she started to become dizzy during her drills. As she swam backward toward the end of the pool, she lost sight of the wall and hit her head.

"At that point we knew we had to take her to the hospital," Joan Zych said. "By the time she got to the locker room, she couldn't even get dressed. One of her pupils was bigger than the other, and she couldn't count backward from 100."

Doctors almost immediately diagnosed Allison with second impact syndrome, a sometimes life-threatening condition brought on by suffering back-to-back concussions in a short amount of time.

"She had a lot of the symptoms, but I didn't piece it together," Joan Zych said. "As her mom, I just felt awful because I didn't know the extent of what happened to her."

The concussions turned Allison's life upside down. She couldn't read, count backward or even remember her birthday. She missed three weeks of school as she dealt with blinding migraines and impaired cognitive functions.

"It was a slow, painful process," Joan Zych said. "Every concussion is different, so it could be three months or three years before the person returns to normal. Sometimes people don't fully recover."

Road to Recovery

After her diagnosis, Allison went from being an active fourth-grader to being limited in nearly everything she did. Another head injury would have likely put her at risk for severe brain damage or even death, doctors said.

Once she was able to make it through full days at school, Allison was not allowed to participate in gym class or recess. She was also unable to attend her friends' birthday parties, where loud noise would likely trigger a migraine.

Despite the long list of limitations, doctors did clear Allison to swim, since it's a non-contact sport. Because of her headaches, however, she was only able to be in the water for about 10 minutes at a time.

"She cried a lot and got really frustrated," Joan Zych said. "She went from being a carefree kid to not being able to do all the things she loved."

In an email to Patch, Allison described the difficult weeks she spent trying to recover:

"It was hard at school because I had a lot of catching up to do, and a I felt very alone because my friends would be able to go out for recess and I had to sit in the nurse's office," she wrote. "At swim practice, my friends were getting regional and state times while I could hardly reach the times I had before I got hurt. It was frustrating.

"I tried my hardest at each practice hoping that the headaches wouldn't come and that I would be able to complete a practice without getting a headache. Some girls at swim would say I would fake the headaches so I could finish practice early if the set was hard. They would also tell me that they were faster than me, even though I was hurt. They didn't ask how I was feeling or seem to care. At first it made me sad, but it made me want to try harder and want to get better faster."

Every practice, Allison tried to stay in the pool just a couple of minutes longer than the day before. She even started a journal to document her progress.

"She started to bounce back, and it was all on her own," Joan Zych said. "She was so determined to get back to normal. At her age, it was remarkable."

From Sidelines to State Meet

In order to get caught up on the school she missed in the spring, Allison spent the summer working with a tutor.

"She was going into fifth grade at last fall, so we were very nervous about getting her up to speed and putting her in a middle school environment," Joan Zych said. "She worked hard, and now she's a straight-A student."

Allison also pushed herself in the pool through the remainder of the year. She built up her time every day, and before long she was able to make it through significant portions of the 90-minute practices.

Last month, Allison's progress reached an all-time high when she posted eight qualifying times for the Illinois Swimming Age Group Championships, which were held March 9-11 at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The meet featured more than 1,300 youth swimmers from across the state participating in both individual and relay races.

The Academy Bullets took first place overall, and Allison was part of the winning short-course (200-yard) relay team in the 9-10 age group. She and her teammates—Kathryn Mueller, Lindsey Merk and Michaela Herwig—came from behind to win, with Allison posting a personal best (28.55 seconds) for her leg of the 50-freestyle.

Allison swam in six other individual events, as well as the medley relay, and posted several personal bests throughout the day.

"It was a great ending to a rough year and three months," Joan Zych said. "The road has been filled with ups and downs. However, we have a saying in our house: 'There is no such thing as impossible.' Allison has definitely shown us that."

Preventing and Recognizing Concussions

Despite Allison's remarkable recovery, she still suffers from debilitating headaches. 

"We see a neurologist at Children's Memorial Hospital," Joan Zych said. "They've been wonderful, but Allison may always suffer from headaches. We just try to make them manageable for her."

Joan Zych said the injury has made everyone in her family more sensitive to potential safety hazards, such as sledding or jumping on a trampoline.

"You can't save kids from everything. They're going to get hurt every once in a while," she said. "But you can take certain precautions sometimes, like wearing a helmet while sledding, for example. Our doctors said they recommend that for all kids."

Parents should also be thorough when asking their kids about injuries, Zych said.

"We have to be their advocates, because they don't always know what's going on," she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, symptoms of concussions fall into four categories:

• Thinking/remembering (difficulty thinking clearly, concentrating or remembering new information);
• Physical (headache, fuzzy vision, dizziness, nausea or vomiting, sensitivity to noise or light);
• Emotional/mood (irritability, sadness, nervousness or anxiety);
• Sleep (sleeping more or less than usual, or having trouble falling asleep).

Allison said she feels lucky to have overcome her injury.

"It took a really long time to finally get better, and I'm glad it's over," she said. "I am glad I didn't give up. It is so cool to think about how far I've come in a year."