Mary Rose Genova

Mary Rose Genova is a Sophomore at the University of Scranton and is planning to major in business and minor in accounting. Before attending college, she endured three concussions during high school.  In this interview, Mary Rose shares her recovery experience as a student who dealt with these serious brain injuries in addition to the pressure of school expectations. 

Let's talk about the general background of your concussions. How did they occur?

I had two officially, but I'm also convinced I had three. The first one that I had is the one that I'm not sure actually happened. It was freshman year. I was playing softball, and I took a foul ball to the head. I was wearing my catcher's equipment, but the impact of the ball hitting my mask threw me for a loop. We don't have any athletic trainer at my high school, so it was like, “oh, are you okay?” And I was like, “Yeah, I'm fine” and I just kept playing. But that's when my memory loss started to get worse. We kind of just avoided it, but now that I've been through two of them, I'm convinced that that was also a concussion. And that's the reason why my first official concussion was bad.

“I FEEL LIKE SOME OF THEM WERE CONVICED I WAS FAKING IT, BUT I REALLY WASN’T”

My first official concussion was sophomore year. It was February. My high school had a basketball game after school, so I decided to stay and watch it. And I was sitting in the front row. This one girl made a bad pass and it hit me straight in the head. So I had to stay home from school for about a week, but catching up on schoolwork was a mess. Just reading for more than 15 minutes gave me the worst headaches ever. All the teachers were pretty good about it, but it was also so hard because it was not an injury that you could see. So it was kind of hard for them to understand what I was actually going through. I feel like some of them were convinced that I was faking it, but I really wasn't.

My most recent one was senior year. I was playing kickball in gym class. This one girl was trying to get me out at second base and instead of throwing it to the second baseman, she threw it straight at my head, which was also in February in the same gym. For this one, I was actually out of school for two months straight. Like I was in and out and in and out for March, and then April and May I was pretty much out of school for the entire time. I only finished the classes that I needed to graduate but again reading for a long period of time gave me the worst headaches ever. It was kind of a nightmare, but they were better about it because they obviously watched me suffer during the first one sophomore year. And this one was a lot worse since it was my second/third. 

It wasn't ideal timing, because I literally went back to school for three days and then graduated, and then had to get ready for college. I was so scared to go to school, because I had just barely finished high school. I only took three classes that second semester and then I had to go to college. 

What was your experience with the diagnosis? Did your school nurses handle it? Did you go to other doctors? 

I've had multiple concussions specialists. The first one that I had sophomore year, he was alright, but I feel like he definitely wasn't as good or hopeful as the one that I had senior year. It was devastating hearing that I had a concussion. 

“I GREW UP THINKING CONCUSSIONS AREN’T THAT BAD”

I grew up thinking concussions aren't that bad, like they don't really affect you. And then I got one and I thought, “This is the worst. I never want to have one of these ever again.” And then I got two more. But I remember when I was diagnosed in senior year that was the worst because I knew that it was going to be like sophomore year but a lot worse. And my doctor said, “No more softball.” Obviously, it wasn't my biggest concern but, I just wanted to finish my senior year and have fun. 

In sophomore year, though, the nurse at school was helpful. She would always check up on me. But the teachers just didn't get it. They'd be like, “why can't you do this?” And I'd feel like, “I don't know. It hurts.” So it was just frustrating. I was just trying to heal and relax and give my brain a little break, and they were just adding so much stress to my life.

In senior year, especially, everybody thought I was faking it. And I was like, “Do you really think I would stay home for two months for fun?” And even my dad thought I was faking it for a while. I literally had to get approved by a doctor to go back to school. It wasn’t my choice. 

There was no set timeline. My one doctor explained, “Here's a door and here's all your symptoms or whatever. Don't push back the door because it's only going to make things worse. Do what you can and don't make your symptoms worse because that's just going to make it worse in the long run.”

What was your support system while you were recovering? 

I would say my mom was my biggest support system by coming with me to school and taking me to all my doctor appointments. My dad was not convinced that I had anything going on. And I would say that the first nurse that I had sophomore year was also another one because she would always stop me and ask me how I'm doing. 

Did you feel supported by the medical community? 

“THERE’S SUCH A WEIRD DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CONCUSSION HEADACHE AND A REGULAR HEADACHE. I COULD FEEL THE DIFFERENCE”

I think the medical community definitely was way more supportive, especially for the second concussion. But I think it was because I had that really good doctor. They were way more supportive than my high school teachers. They understood what I was going through and how bad the headaches were. You can't really help the headaches. You kind of have to wait for them to pass. Taking Advil or anything like that just doesn't help. There's such a weird difference between a concussion headache, and a regular headache. I could feel the difference. 

How has living with this brain injury affected your daily life?

I have definitely noticed a difference in my education. Learning and studying now is so much harder than it used to be, like having motivation to do work or paying attention. I also couldn’t look at screens that much while I was recovering. So, during my sophomore year, I was in the crochet club. So that's what I did all day, every day, just crochet. And then I would take it all apart and be like, “This stinks!” And then I'd redo it. During my senior year, I made friendship bracelets during the day, so I have this huge bag of friendship bracelets for no reason. But then just staring at that for such a long period of time would hurt my eyes. So then I would take a break. There was a lot of napping. Obviously, I couldn’t watch Netflix. I couldn’t even do homework on my computer. I feel like I kind of reverted back to a child because I couldn’t really do much. 

Did anything positive come from this experience?

During this whole thing, I was also diagnosed with ADD which I was told got a lot worse because of my concussions. That's how we were able to diagnose it, because before I was able to compensate. And then I was also diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder. So, I never would have known about those things. 

Also, I never thought concussions were that big of an issue. If I didn't have one, I'd probably be like my teachers thinking that I'm just faking it and that it's not really a big deal. But now that I've experienced it I understand it more. I try to advocate for it. Like if somebody else has a concussion, I'm like, “I get what you're going through. And it's the worst.”

Do you have any advice for people who have concussions? 

Don't push yourself to do more than you should. Definitely listen to your doctors because it's going to help in the long run, even though not looking at your phone for a while is going to stink because we're all attached to our phones, TV and all that.