Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Concussion Story Time

This post is a chance for everyone who has had a concussion to share their story--okay, non-concussion head wounds will be permitted so long as they are sufficiently gruesome. I was reading about poor Holden smacking his noggin over at My Misadventures and began to reminisce about my own worst head wound.

I was in seventh grade and David McKinnon invited a bunch of guys up to his family's cabin for a sleepover. The merry band included such notables as Duerden, Daniel Ogden and Justin T? (can't remember last name). (You were there, right Duerden?) A bunch of the guys were trying out a rope swing near the cabin so I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, instead of hanging down from the bar I tried to hold myself up on it with elbows bent (can you picture it?). Apparently my hands completely lost their grip as I swung out over this small gully. The next thing I knew I was lying down in this leafy gully and Daniel Ogden was saying, "C'mon guys, we can't just let him lie here, help me get him up to the cabin!" Apparently I had hit my head on a log--but I couldn't even remember my hands slipping. A couple of guys helped me up the hill to the cabin.

I can't remember if we ate breakfast next or if we had already eaten, but they had me laying on the couch to rest. Suddenly, I had to hurl. I tried to make it through the kitchen to the bathroom but it was too late. I ralphed all over the kitchen floor. The rest is all a blur until I was safe at home. Safe at home, except that no one else was home so Sister Beckstrom had to come check on me and make sure I was okay. Apparently, my parents were gone somewhere but had found out and made arrangements. She gave me an orange creamsicle but I still couldn't hold it down. The worst part was that I was supposed to try and stay awake which was not easy.

I can't remember any more details so this is the end of the story. Perhaps you've had some head trauma you would like to share? Let's limit this to head trauma. We can do other wounds when Mat tells his story about getting crushed by Kirk. Remember, sharing IS caring.

11 comments:

  1. Technically I got a concussion wrestling my sophomore year. It was kind of a let down though. All I did was bleed out of one my ears while wrestling with Mark Brewer. That was just the first of several lame injuries I had my first year wrestling.

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  2. Umm, there was this one time that I smacked myself in the face, fell over and ended up bleeding from several pores on the bridge of my nose...while putting my pants on, but I don't like to talk about it.

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  3. oh that's a pretty terrible story Rob! Yikes!
    I have a good one but it's for Kris, not me. Last summer he was out riding his road bike (he races, so he's pretty fast) and he got his front wheel stuck in a really cruddy old bridge and went over his handlebars. Some lady found him writhing in the street. He had broken his collarbone and hit his head so hard that his nice helmet was totally cracked. The lady called me on the phone and I came as fast as I could to pick him up. When I got there I realized there was something really wrong, because he kept repeating himself over and over. He couldn't remember what he had said for more than like 30 seconds. It was really scary. I took him straight to the hospital. They were like "oh yeah, he'll get his head back, but sometimes it can take a few weeks." I was like WHAT?!?!?!!
    I was super scared. But he finally started to get back to normal at the end of the night--like 8 hours later.
    Scary and cruddy experience. I don't want to do that again!
    But no puking.

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  4. Ginna,
    That sounds horrible. I'm glad I follow my "no physical activity" rule pretty religiously, otherwise I might fall off a bike. And I learned yesterday that repeating oneself over and over again is called perseverating. Catchy phrase! Catchy phrase!

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  5. If we all had a dime for each time that Holmes almost killed himself (or someone else for that matter) trying some adventurous feat of awesomeness... ah that would be the life. I've seen some pretty bad stuff on the field, but (knock on wood) nothing to serious has happened to my noggin. As a first grader at Grandview El. I was thrown of the parking gate and knocked out. How that happened, I don't know. It's the only time I've been out cold.

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  6. When I first started practicing my goalie skills way back when I mis-judged the distance and smacked my head on the side bar of the goal on a totally awesome dive. Good news, I stopped the ball. Bad news, there was a little blood and a serious goose egg, some memory loss, but no puking.

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  7. Hey Cathy! Great to see you found us. Being goalie was rough business in the Grandview Soccer Club, aye?

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  8. Rob - are you kidding? Grandview Soccer Club was piece o' cake. This was from Provo City League in junior high, now that was some tuff competion.

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  9. What!?! You are saying that GV soccer was softer than the junior high girls' soccer league? Or are just saying you got injured more often in the junior high league? For the honor of GV soccer and all it stood for I hope it is the latter.

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  10. Rob, I remember that story but I completely forgot that was you who flew through the air...now all the pieces finally fit together...and it is true about Kirk flying through the air and smashing me flat at Angie Heaston's house. At least he was nice enough to drive me home and tell my mom that he was sorry for breaking my ribs.

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  11. I thought it was at Sara Sorensen's house? Am I wrong?

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