head injury

I know lots of people get concussions.  You or someone you know probably has had at least one.  If you have not ever experienced the sensation of a head injury, you are lucky.  I have had two concussions in my lifetime, and possibly a third tonight.  It seems like the girls in my family "love" to get them.  Princess has had three in her short life.  They always come in the weirdest ways for us. 

I received my first one when I was really little and do not know the full details.  I received my second one three years ago while sitting at the park eating lunch with my church.  A friend was playing ball with some of the boys (including Prince) and ended up hitting a line drive, straight into my temple.  Now let me tell you, I have had medical training.  I KNOW the symptoms of a head injury, but at that moment, I was completely sure I was fine.  This was the concussion talking.  Immediately following, I was surrounded by friends asking me if I was okay and was very insistent that I was fine and did not need any ice.  I continued on with my lunch and really thought everything was fine. 

After lunch, we all walked across the street and started a kickball game.  As I was playing, I started to feel really bad, and in fact, started throwing up.  In my mind though, I was thinking that I had just ate lunch and now was running bases.  There was no connection to what was actually happening.  After the game, everyone wanted to play a second one, but I had had enough and drove the myself and the kids home.  (Brian was at drill with the National Guard that day, so he did not witness any of this.) 

Once home, I turned the tv on for the kids, turned off all the lights in the house, and fell asleep on the couch.  When Brian finally came home a couple hours later, he woke me up and asked what was wrong.  (Again, I still had not made any connection to a concussion.)  I just stated that I was getting a migraine (which I got frequently at the time) and wanted to sleep.  I slept until the next day.

When I woke up, my head hurt even worse than it had the day before.  I thought that was really weird, since my migraines usually go away after I sleep.  It was only then that I drew the connection to what had happened the day before, and that I had a concussion.  Brian had already left the house for work, so I asked a friend to drive me to the ER and had Brian meet us there. 

Guess what?  I had a concussion!  It was actually pretty bad.  I ended up losing 65% of my short term memory and affected my speech (temporarily thank goodness!).  I had a very hard time remembering words.  It was as if I knew the word, but just couldn't remember it.  Most people are usually okay within a few days of a concussion, but of course, not me!  I had to have "no cognitive thinking" for about four weeks.  That was so hard!  I had a lot of help from friends and neighbors.  Why didn't I recognize the signs of the concussion?  Because I had a concussion!  Unfortunately, it affected how I thought and processed information.   

Now back to today.  I was in the shower, and ended up slipping on the wet floor.  I thought I had caught myself before I fell, but then tried to straighten myself up and fell all the way to the ground.  At the back of our shower, there is a small, hard ledge where I hit the back of my head.  Immediately, the front of my head and my eyes started hurting really bad and I became dizzy.  I have not had nausea, so I don't think it is as bad as last time.  As I sit here, my head is slowly feeling better, but I am not taking any meds so I can monitor how it feels.  If it gets worse tomorrow I will see the doctor, but for now, I think I am fine at home.  Brian is watching over me, making sure I am okay :)