No timetable for Farris' return from concussion

IN has quotes from Josh's coach Christy Krall:

No timetable for Farris' return from concussion
U.S. bronze medalist suffered injury on hard fall during summer practice

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Hope Josh knows that he has the strong support of many GS fans.

His tweets from yesterday are posted in the U.S. Men thread.
@joshDfarris, if anyone wants to reply or tweet at him.

Terribly sad to see one of my favorites (both skate-wise & off the ice) have to go through another hurdle. Especially after his 'breakout' performances last season.

If it was in the middle of July, trying to get back on the ice 3 weeks later would be a week or so into August, so roughly 6-7 weeks of no skating at all. I really respect him for not pushing himself, but it still makes me sad to hear he hasn't skated at all for such a length of time. NHK is 2 months away & since that's a no-go for him, I'm concerned if we'll see him at all this season.

eta: And this description :hopelessness:

"snapped his neck back, like whiplash."

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NOOOO!! WHY?? Seriouly best wishes for Josh. It's so unlucky.

That's It!

He really needs to stay away from the ice for a while or he will end up like one of those football players who can barely complete a full sentence. I know it must be frustrating for him however, if he's going to have a life after skating he needs to stop many parts of his training. No spinning or turning on or off the ice. No weight training either. Pick up your guitar and sing your favorite songs, Joshua. Don't let the frustration get to you or it will spill into other parts of your young life.

Poor guy. He can't catch a break.
I am very upset by concussions - first Papadakis, now Farris.

Take your time to heal fully.

So bummed for Josh but so glad that he and his team are taking the concussion seriously. Given how the technical ante is being upped across all 4 disciplines it is a miracle we aren't seeing more head injuries.

mrrice said:

He really needs to stay away from the ice for a while or he will end up like one of those football players who can barely complete a full sentence. I know it must be frustrating for him however, if he's going to have a life after skating he needs to stop many parts of his training. No spinning or turning on or off the ice. No weight training either. Pick up your guitar and sing your favorite songs, Joshua. Don't let the frustration get to you or it will spill into other parts of your young life.

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^^^This!:thumbsup: for the sentiment. It amazes me how many folks online think that some medal from some skating comp (even OGM) is worth painful, debilitating injuries or even God forbid brain injuries later in life, because it's "their choice". And all the folks here who made nothing but perfect choices when they were 20 please raise their hands.

Josh and his team have made a great choice. Heal well, Josh, and heal completely! We can wait.

Trying to find the positive in all of this. On the bright side, I'm glad we finally know what happened and no more speculating whether it's something other than his concussion. I had no idea he had already suffered one as a child, so that could also be one reason for the extended recovery time needed.

I would love to see him at Worlds in Boston, but his health comes first. I guess we'll know more by the end of the year if he'll be going to Nationals or will sit out the rest of the season.

I am actually VERY glad he and his team have chose to treat this with the seriousness that it deserves. Head injuries are /can be extremely serious and he needs to make sure to take all the time off that he needs to fully recover. I hope we'll see him this season of course but his brain and future, both in and out of skating, is most important.

Josh, take all the time you need to recover completely!

This doesn't seem to be "only" a concussion he does seem to have the whiplash syndrome also. It's a injury of the neck. As far as I know this can take a longer time to fully heal than a concussion. It's very probable that the concussion is already healed (it happened two months ago), but that he has still problems because of the whiplash. Anyway, I'm only speculating.
I hope he'll be well soon!

Poor Josh he has dealt with so many injuries in his young career.
Best of luck to Josh for a full recovery. He will be missed on the GP circuit.

I feel so bad for Josh--so many injuries. I'm very pleased to hear how seriously his team is taking the concussion, however. Get well, Josh, no matter how long it takes. Your fans will wait patiently!

Get well soon, Josh! Health should be a top priority and I wish certain other coaches would take it as seriously.

Best wishes to him.

psusanne said:

This doesn't seem to be "only" a concussion he does seem to have the whiplash syndrome also. It's a injury of the neck. As far as I know this can take a longer time to fully heal than a concussion. It's very probable that the concussion is already healed (it happened two months ago), but that he has still problems because of the whiplash. Anyway, I'm only speculating.
I hope he'll be well soon!

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To clear up confusion. "Whiplash" is a misnomer and I really hate the term because it implies a simple muscle injury. When people talk about a whiplash incident the more technical name for the injury is an acceleration-decceleration injury. The most common way to end up with this type of injury is a car accident but it can happen from a variety of reasons, like falls. Basically the initial force causes the head to accelerate and then the secondary "stopping" force, forces the head back the other way. This can cause injury to muscle, tendon, joints and can be associated with concurrent brain injury (you don't have to have actual trauma to have a concussion). Could Farris have some sort of whiplash injury? Maybe, but none of us saw his fall and cannot really do anything more than speculate.

There is no such thing as "just" a concussion. Certainly there are cases where a whiplash injury may take longer than a concussion to heal but this depends on the severity of injury. Concussions are serious on their own and very, very bad. It is not 'very probable' that the concussion has already healed. Two months is nothing. I am a physical therapist and see patients with both concussion and whiplash associated disorder all the time and concussion injuries can take months and months and even longer. A family member suffered a concussion at work and it was almost a year and a half before they could go back to work and they have permanent problems because of it. There is so much we don't know about the brain. If I had to choose (and I don't say this lightly having treated both of these conditions), I would choose basically any other injury before a concussion.

I don't want to go into this any more because I feel like I'm just rehashing the concussion threat but basically concussions are scary serious and it is not wise to downplay them especially because the physiology of the brain is so complicated. Either way, the important thing is that he and his team are doing whats right to get back to good health safely.

I feel so bad for Farris. It must be horrific if he dropped out of both Grand prix. Hope he makes a full recovery.

What are his chances of coming back from this? This sounds very serious, especially if his neck/spine is also injured.

sses1 said:

What are his chances of coming back from this? This sounds very serious, especially if his neck/spine is also injured.

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At this point, I am being optimistic about either this season or next season. But I would be surprised if we got any updates on this for a month or two. We have no idea what he is able to do right now - even whatever conditioning/cardio/pilates/yoga stuff that he usually does. Even if he came back to the ice in October, I'm assuming they are going to carefully work up his spinning and jumping.

I've been avoiding this thread because .

It's great that his team is taking the concussion seriously. I'm still heartbroken we won't get to see his new LP until Nationals (if then) and I'll really miss seeing my favorite skater on the GP.