[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/09\/rachels-story-concussion\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/09\/rachels-story-concussion\/","headline":"Rachel\u2019s Story: How Concussion Treatment at UPMC Gave a Best-Selling Author Her Life Back","name":"Rachel\u2019s Story: How Concussion Treatment at UPMC Gave a Best-Selling Author Her Life Back","description":"

Best-selling author Rachel struggled with debilitating concussion symptoms for almost a year. UPMC\u2019s concussion team designed a program to help her recover.<\/p>","datePublished":"2025-09-18","dateModified":"2025-09-17","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/sports-medicine-regions","name":"Sports Medicine","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/sports-medicine-regions","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/sports-medicine\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2195924401-e1758142633720.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2195924401-e1758142633720.jpg","height":866,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/09\/rachels-story-concussion\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Sports Medicine"],"wordCount":1526,"articleBody":"Rachel Griffin took a photo of herself just after finishing her final appointment with Michael \u201cMicky\u201d Collins, PhD, the clinical and executive director of the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program.The New York Times and USA Today best-selling novelist describes it as a \u201cbittersweet moment\u201d because of what Dr. Collins meant to her.Eleven months after suffering a devastating concussion, Rachel visited Dr. Collins and the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program team. They developed a plan to help Rachel overcome the symptoms that had upended her life.\u201cIt was so emotional for me because Dr. Collins completely gave me my life back when I had lost all hope,\u201d says Rachel, 40, of Seattle. \u201cI just wanted him to know what he had meant to me, what this team had meant to me. Because UPMC gave me my life back.\u201dA Concussion Without Hitting Her HeadRachel had been playing tennis in December 2023 when she fell.\u201cI had this very, very severe pain that ricocheted through my head,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cI remember thinking I\u2019d done something really, really bad. When I stood up, I was very disoriented and confused, which probably just added to things.\u201dHowever, Rachel’s coach told her she hadn’t hit her head. Rachel didn’t realize at the time that concussions could occur even without a hit to the head, so she assumed she was OK.Over the next several days, she developed what she calls \u201can entire onslaught of debilitating symptoms.\u201dShe had severe headaches, sensitivity to light and noise, balance problems, memory problems, and mood changes. She developed a stutter, couldn’t sleep through the night, and couldn’t read, write, or look at a computer.Soon after, Rachel saw her sister, who\u2019d had a concussion before. Her sister told Rachel to call her doctor.\u201cThey got me in that day and immediately diagnosed me with a concussion,\u201d Rachel says. \u201c(They) told me to go home and rest and hang out in a quiet, dark room until I felt better. I assumed that I would be back to normal within a week or two.\u201dInstead, the debilitating symptoms continued for months. Rachel started to feel helpless and hopeless.\u201cThe thing about a brain injury is that your brain is who you are as a person,\u201d she says. \u201cIn my case, when I injured it, I no longer felt like myself. I didn\u2019t recognize myself. I felt farther away from myself than I ever have before.\u201cIt\u2019s a very lonely, vulnerable injury to sustain. And that’s on top of all the other symptoms.\u201dRachel visited specialist after specialist, looking for answers and relief. She was put on \u201ca whole host of brutal medications, with horrifying side effects.\u201d But nothing helped her concussion symptoms.\u201cIt was months of feeling absolutely hopeless,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it’s a roller coaster. You see a new provider, and you feel this hope, like, \u2018Maybe this is the person who is going to help me.\u2019 And then it crashes and burns.\u201dA Journey to UPMCWhile battling her concussion symptoms, Rachel talked to a friend who had struggled with a concussion for years. Her friend mentioned that she had seen Dr. Collins at UPMC and had good results.Rachel had seen Dr. Collins\u2019 name surface in her own concussion research. Despite the 2,500-mile journey from Seattle to Pittsburgh, Rachel booked an appointment.\u201cHe had just come up a lot in my research as a world-renowned expert on concussion,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cBut also, it’s all he does. It is a concussion program, which was so different from seeing other neurologists, where they don’t have that kind of specialty or expertise.\u201dRachel also heard an interview with Dr. Collins in which he said concussions are treatable.\u201cHe was so confident, and at that point, I needed someone who felt that confident,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause so many of the providers I had seen did not have that, and it starts to feel very helpless when the doctors you’re seeing don’t believe that they can get you better.\u201dRachel came to Pittsburgh in November 2024, nearly a year after the fall that had caused her concussion.\u201cHe was just fantastic,\u201d she says of Dr. Collins. \u201cI felt like I clicked with him instantly. He came across so confident.\u201dRachel says Dr. Collins also understood all her symptoms \u2014 even the stutter, which had stumped other providers.\u201cI told Dr. Collins, \u2018I’m having speech problems,\u2019 and he said, \u2018A stutter?\u2019\u201d Rachel says. \u201cBecause he sees it all the time. It honestly feels like he’s in a league of his own.\u201cWithin five minutes of talking to him, I could tell that he thought that he could get me better.\u201dDr. Collins ran tests and diagnosed Rachel with a vestibular concussion, which affects the balance center of the brain.That day, Rachel also met with vestibular therapist Anne Mucha, DPT, and exertion therapist Sarah Ostop, DPT. Together, they developed a plan for Rachel’s recovery.\u201cThat’s what I love about UPMC \u2014 it’s a team,\u201d Rachel says. \u201cI met with Dr. Collins, then I met with Sarah, then I met with Anne. They all do their own exercises, their own assessments. They all meet together, come up with a plan for you, and send you home with that plan.\u201cIt was so thorough and very personalized to me and the problems I was having.\u201dThe Road to RecoveryRachel flew back home to Seattle feeling much more confident than she had when she arrived in Pittsburgh.The recovery program that Dr. Collins, Anne, and Sarah developed was far different from sitting in a dark room. It involved cardio, balance, and vision exercises, as well as activities like going outdoors and visiting busy environments. Rachel had avoided those environments while dealing with her concussion symptoms.It also involved a strict sleep schedule that only allowed for seven hours in bed per night, far less than what Rachel was used to.\u201cThey sent me home with all of these exercises that were basically meant to aggravate my symptoms so that my brain could reacclimate to them,” Rachel says.Rachel says that the program seemed overwhelming at first, but she turned recovery into her full-time job. She and her husband had recently converted one of their rooms into a home gym \u2014 ideal timing.The first few weeks of recovery were difficult, Rachel says. But then the symptoms began to go away.\u201cI never had those big a-ha moments of, \u2018I feel like I don’t have a concussion anymore,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIt was basically one by one, my symptoms started falling away.\u201cLike, I would realize, \u2018Oh, my head doesn’t hurt as much as it normally does.\u2019 Or, \u2018I haven’t been nauseous for several days now.\u2019 Or, \u2018I feel like I can be outside, and the sun isn’t bothering me as much as it normally would.\u2019\u201dShe also noticed that she could do the balance exercises her team had given her. Early on, the same exercises had caused her to fall over.Rachel came back to Pittsburgh for a follow-up with Dr. Collins about two months after her initial appointment. Her team increased the intensity of her regimen to continue her recovery.Feeling Like HerselfAfter suffering her concussion, Rachel says she stopped feeling like herself. She started avoiding activities she usually enjoyed and social gatherings with the people she loved. She lost confidence and hope.Working with Dr. Collins, Anne, and Sarah helped restore that confidence and hope. The recovery program helped her regain the elements of her life that she’d been missing.\u201cStarting to move my body and seeing my progress and symptoms, I felt like I started coming alive again,\u201d she says. \u201cI was excited to see the people that I love. I felt like I was strong enough to do these things I was avoiding.\u201cI just feel like I slowly started coming back to myself and recognizing myself again.\u201dRachel still has lingering headaches, but they\u2019re not as severe or frequent as before. Dr. Collins discharged her from the concussion program in July 2025.\u201cDr. Collins felt like, \u2018You’re getting better \u2014 you need to go out there and feel you’re getting better and have the confidence to live your life,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThat ended up being true for me. The moment he discharged me, I do feel like I have even more of this confidence that, \u2018Oh, I’m better. I’m back to normal.\u2019\u201dRachel’s fourth novel, The Sun and the Starmaker, is scheduled for release in February. She\u2019s thankful to Dr. Collins and the rest of her team for helping her recover.She says she would tell other people struggling with a concussion not to lose hope.\u201cDr. Collins told me, point blank: \u2018Concussion is treatable,\u2019\u201d Rachel says. \u201cIf you are being told to rest in your quiet, dark room and that isn’t giving you the results you want, there are other options. There are other treatment options. You don’t have to accept this as your new normal.\u201dSources"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2025","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"09","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/\/09\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rachel\u2019s Story: How Concussion Treatment at UPMC Gave a Best-Selling Author Her Life Back","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/09\/rachels-story-concussion\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]