Concussion

[Hobbit]

Anybody else here ever have one. I do right now (hoping it goes away soon) and it's...interesting. I'm a little foggy headed, not unlike being sleepy, but not entirely like it, either. I have trouble walking a straight line or standing up straight with my eyes closed. I also sometimes have trouble forming complete sentences or otherwise engaging in comprehensible verbal communication. Just wondering what anyone else went through. Doc told me I should be fine in a week or else I should see a neurologist.

 

[Said1]

Anybody else here ever have one. I do right now (hoping it goes away soon) and it's...interesting. I'm a little foggy headed, not unlike being sleepy, but not entirely like it, either. I have trouble walking a straight line or standing up straight with my eyes closed. I also sometimes have trouble forming complete sentences or otherwise engaging in comprehensible verbal communication. Just wondering what anyone else went through. Doc told me I should be fine in a week or else I should see a neurologist.

I hit my head on the frame of my waterbed one Saturday night, and didn't leave my room until Monday morning, still barely able to walk or see straight. I was halucinating and at one point I woke up choking on vomit. It was a blast, took two weeks to recover.

My mother was out of town and my ever concerned step-father didn't check to see if I was alive since it wasn't unusal for me NOT to come out of my room for long periods of time.

 

[Annie]

Anybody else here ever have one. I do right now (hoping it goes away soon) and it's...interesting. I'm a little foggy headed, not unlike being sleepy, but not entirely like it, either. I have trouble walking a straight line or standing up straight with my eyes closed. I also sometimes have trouble forming complete sentences or otherwise engaging in comprehensible verbal communication. Just wondering what anyone else went through. Doc told me I should be fine in a week or else I should see a neurologist.

I fell out of a bunk bed at age 7. I walked in my sleep, so must have decided to stroll. In this case, head first.

In hospital 2 nights. Took about 3 weeks till I was ok, figure has to be a lot harder as an adult.

 

[nosarcasm]

I also sometimes have trouble forming complete sentences or otherwise engaging in comprehensible verbal communication.

Maybe a family related genetic defect :teeth:

If it doesnt get better try this :spank3: works for my tv.

PS: Hope you are getting better soon.

 

[dmp]

have you been to the hospital??? if not, GO.

I've had 2 or 3 actually.

 

[IControlThePast]

I got one through sports, and it wasn't a light one either. I didn't recognize my own father. I felt like I was floating too. My mental state was similar to my heatstroke, in that the scary part was I didn't realize how bad it was at first, or notice anything particularly wrong, but then all of a sudden you notice something was way out of place and screwed up. Fortunately, my mom is a Neurologist. In the long term, it gave me memory problems, and some speech difficulties, gave me a shorter attention span, and generally everything was much harder to do. But I think the experience helped me too. I got a great work ethic because the basics were hard, which helped prevent me from slacking off once I regained my previous intelligence. I did 20 minutes of meditation and focus each night, fading into sleep, and still do it several times a week. This has really helped rehabilitate me and corrected the long term problems, and is something you might want to try. My memory now is even better than it was before the concussion. It took me about half a year with the meditation to fully recover.

 

[MyName]

Concussions are nothing to play with. One of the dumbest statements that I have EVER heard uttered is as follows.....'Oh, its JUST a concussion'.


Any type of head injury is nothing to mess with - trust me on this. See a qualified medical professional and let THEM be the judge over whether it is serious or not.

Imagine 2 tupperware bowls that are 2 different sizes. One is 9 inches across and the other is 8 (meaning that one can fit inside the other).
Imagine making jello in the smaller of the two and then once it has set, taking that molded jello and placing it in the larger of the 2 bowls and then snapping the lid on it. The jello mold is nearly the same size as the bowl but not quite.
Now imagine dropping or shaking that bowl. The jello would be slamming into the side of the bowl and such. That is the analogy that we got in nursing school about what a concussion does to the brain. SImple, but true.

Good luck and let us all know what the doc says.

 

[Hobbit]

Oh, I went to the doctor twice. Once because it had been quite some time since I hit my head and I still felt woozy, and again two days ago because my symptoms suddenly got worse. Doc says the CAT scan is normal, so there's nothing major enough to be visual, but in case it doesn't get better, he gave me the number of a good neurologist.

At least I'm talking fairly normal (well, as normal as I usually talk) and the nausea has gone away, but my balance is still impaired.

 

[waltky]

New test to diagnose concussions...

Study: High-speed eye tests aid in diagnosis of concussion
April 18, 2014 — In studies relevant to the gridiron and other kinds of battlefields, researchers hope to use a new test based on eye movements to bring increased accuracy to the diagnosis of concussions.

The research, by Allegheny Health Network and corporate partner Neuro Kinetics Inc., involves the use of high-speed digital photography and other technology to analyze a patient’s tracking of dots of light or other visual stimuli, which are projected against a light or dark background. In an initial study of high school football players, those with concussions had more difficulty tracking the images than a control group without brain injury. Results of the study will be among the promising developments in orthopedic medicine to be highlighted this month on the website of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. With the Allegheny Health Network’s involvement, O’Hara-based Neuro Kinetics now is exploring a potential military application with trials at Naval Medical Center San Diego and Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash. Mounting concern about the long-term effects of concussions has spawned a flurry of new studies — including other research at Allegheny Health and at the University of Pittsburgh and its medical center — on how to better detect and manage concussions.

Gazette J. Howison Schroeder, CEO of Neuro Kinetics Inc., hopes I-Portal will be more precise than other methods used to diagnose concussions.

There is no single “confirmatory diagnostic test for concussion,” said Dr. Jeff Kutcher, director of Michigan Neuro*Sport at the University of Michigan, who helped to write the American Academy of Neurology’s sports concussion guideline. Unlike broken bones, which show up on X-rays, or other conditions that can be detected through imaging, concussions are not readily observable. While doctors, athletic trainers and professionals have balance and cognition tests to guide them, diagnosis of concussions still relies partly on the self-reporting of athletes who may just want to return to the game. To some degree, “you are relying on patients telling you how they feel,” said Sam Akhavan, a sports medicine specialist at Allegheny General Hospital who’s involved in the research of the Neuro Kinetics technology, called I-Portal.

J. Howison Schroeder, Neuro Kinetics president and CEO, said he hopes I-Portal will be more clinically precise than methods now used to detect concussions, including the well-established King-Devick Test, a 2-minute eye-movement test that measures the speed and accuracy with which a person reads a sequence of numbers. Eye-movement tests, including King-Devick, also are used to assess people for multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, dyslexia and other disorders. Concussions are a major concern for the military, whose soldiers can sustain the injury in combat, and for sports at the scholastic, college and professional levels. The National Football League faces a lawsuit from more than 4,000 former players who claim they weren’t properly warned about, or treated for, concussions. A judge last year rejected a proposed $765 million settlement, saying she didn’t believe the sum was sufficient.

MORE

 

[Politico]

have you been to the hospital??? if not, GO.

I've had 2 or 3 actually.

Doubt it. If he actually had one he wouldn't be able to post on an internets forum.

 

[waltky]

Concussions get Obama's attention...

Obama: US must change 'suck-it-up' culture on concussion and head injuries
Thursday 29 May 2014 • White House seeks to increase awareness on head injuries • President says he may have suffered football concussion

America must change its “suck-it-up culture” when it comes to responding to head injuries, President Barack Obama said at a White House event on Thursday, during which he revealed his suspicion that he himself sustained concussions as a young athlete. As the Department of Defense and National Collegiate Athletic Association announced a $30m research programme into the effects of repeated concussions in sport, the president said the biggest problem was attitudes that prevent players from resting after receiving blows to the head. “We have to change the culture that says 'suck it up',” said Obama. “Identifying concussion and being able to self-diagnose is something that does not make you weak, it makes you strong.” The concern was echoed by army chief of staff Ray Odierno, who said only 16% of the army's 200,000 cases of traumatic brain injury were combat-related and added: “The biggest problem is recognising that it is OK to come forward”.

The danger of repeated concussion in amateur and professional sport has become a growing issue in recent years, but a panel of experts said that danger was still not fully understood, and that there should be more education of the public. Many parents, the experts said, believed concussion injuries only affected a few full-contact sports, such as American football. “All across the country, parents are having a troubling conversation, and that’s about the risks of concussions. There’s a lot of concern but there’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Obama. “Concussions are not just a football injury … every season, you’ve got boys and girls who are getting concussions in lacrosse and soccer and wrestling and ice hockey, as well as football.” The panel heard from two soccer players who suffered long-term neurological problems from repeated blows sustained in collisions with other players, while heading the ball or in clashes with goalkeepers. Data from the Centers for Disease Control suggests young people in the US make 250,000 emergency room visits a year with brain injuries sustained in sports and recreation.

President Barack Obama listens to Victoria Bellucci, a high-school graduate who has suffered five concussions.

But medical experts caution that there is huge variation in the severity of such injuries, and say the most important steps are to recognise the symptoms of concussion and to take players off the field or court if there is any suspicion at all of a head injury. “The term 'mild concussion' is a misnomer,” said Dr Gerard Gioia, chief of pediatric neuropsychology at Children’s National Medical Center. “They are like snowflakes: every one is different.” The panel of medical experts also said it was vital that concern about the risks of concussion did not deter parents from letting children take part in sport. “We want to make sure parents put this into context,” said Dr Dawn Comstock, who runs the National High School Sports Injury Surveillance programme. “The negative consequences of an inactive lifestyle are still much worse.”

This was echoed by Obama, who said the event was intended to give parents more information, not to scare them. “Obviously there’s a huge public-health interest in making sure that people are participating in sports,” he said. “But sports is also just fundamental to who we are as Americans and our culture … So with all of these questions swirling around, as a parent and as a fan, and in discussions with a lot of other parents and fans who happen to be in this White House, we decided why not use our convening power to help find some more answers.” In a number of unscripted comments during the event, the president also spoke of his own experiences as a sportsman and a parent. “When I was young and played football briefly, there were a couple of times where I’m sure that that ringing sensation in my head and the need to sit down for a while might have been a mild concussion, and at the time you didn’t think anything of it,” he said. “The awareness is improved today but not by much.”

Obama: US must change 'suck-it-up' culture on concussion and head injuries | World news | theguardian.com

 

[YellowBird]

Concussion can be pretty scary I think. But I believe this is a pretty accepted position. I mean, is there much of a ‘suck-it-up’ culture about? There certainly isn’t in the UK, I don’t know about the US and elsewhere. I remember I got concussed once playing rugby (actually a lot less common than you might think, but we don’t have the helmets you guys have for American Football!! haha). When I went down people had seen it was a head injury and I was rushed off to hospital straight away, although I was functioning ok. The majority of the time that someone went down with a blow to the head nothing serious had happened. But sometimes … it is scary because it can be extremely serious, not because it necessarily is. My mum freaked out when I had it. She went ahead and bought all this new cool bedroom stuff from this website: new pillows, mattresses, duvets … After the initial shock, the whole thing was actually pretty pleasant.

 

[waltky]

Concussion 'breathalyser' test proposed...

Sports concussion 'breathalyser' proposed
10 September 2014 ~ Experts who want tighter regulation of concussion in sport are trialing new medical tests that could provide rapid, pitchside diagnosis.

The "return to play decision" after a head injury is a serious problem that has caused tragedy and controversy. Among the new proposals is a breath test, which successfully detects key chemicals in early laboratory trials. Produced by the damaged brain, these chemicals are known to indicate a brain injury when found in the bloodstream.

Further trials will establish whether the same markers can also be detected in athletes' breath, and whether such a breath test would pick up the kind of brain injuries commonly seen in sports like rugby, football and American football. "These biochemical compounds from the brain can be measured in a number of different fluids - for example, saliva and breath," explained Prof Tony Belli, a neurosurgeon and medical researcher from the University of Birmingham. "At the moment a breathalyser is tuned to detect alcohol - but you can reengineer it to detect other things. And you need to refine the technology at the same time, to detect very small amounts."

The dangers posed by concussion are currently the subject of considerable scrutiny in several sports

If breathalysers could be adapted in this way, Prof Belli said that the tell-tale chemical signature of concussion could potentially be detected within five or 10 minutes of the injury. Prof Belli and his colleague Dr Michael Grey presented their work at the British Science Festival in Birmingham.

Objectivity called for

Currently, different sports use a variety of psychological tests and waiting periods before making a decision to send a player back onto the field. The reliability of these tests is controversial and it has been suggested that players can fudge them or even "sandbag" the results, by deliberately underperforming in the pre-game tests that are used for comparison. Among the tests is a five-minute assessment introduced by the International Rugby Board in 2012, which attracted criticism.

Can heading the ball cause brain trauma in footballers?

Former Ireland full-back and rugby medical adviser Dr Barry O'Driscoll was also speaking on the subject at the British Science Festival. He said: "This was basically the reason I resigned from the International Rugby Board. I'm afraid that five-minute test was unscientific - it didn't prove anything, really." The Birmingham researchers want to bring more science to bear on the situation. They are also anxious to raise awareness of "second concussion syndrome", which they say is not as widely understood in the UK as it is in North America.

Football controversies

See also:

Blood group 'link to memory loss'
10 September 2014 ~ There may be a link between a rare blood type and memory loss in later life, American research suggests.

People with AB blood, found in 4% of the population, appear more likely to develop thinking and memory problems than those with other blood groups. The study, published in Neurology, builds on previous research showing blood type may influence heart risk. A charity said the best way to keep the brain healthy was a balanced diet, regular exercise and not smoking.

A US team led by Dr Mary Cushman, of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, analysed data from about 30,000 US citizens aged 45 and above. It identified 495 participants who had developed thinking and memory problems, or cognitive impairment, during the three-year study. They were compared to 587 people with no cognitive problems. People with AB blood type made up 6% of the group who developed cognitive impairment, which is higher than the 4% found in the general population.

Can your blood group affect your memory?

The study supported the idea that having a certain blood group, such as O, may give a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, which in turn protected the brain, the researchers said. "Our study looks at blood type and risk of cognitive impairment, but several studies have shown that factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes increase the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia," said Dr Cushman. "Blood type is also related to other vascular conditions like stroke, so the findings highlight the connections between vascular issues and brain health. More research is needed to confirm these results."

Commenting on the study, Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said the research did not look at risk of dementia, and it was too early to say whether AB blood group might be linked to a higher risk of the condition. "Current evidence suggests the best ways to keep the brain healthy are a balanced diet, not smoking and regular exercise," he said.

BBC News - Blood group link to memory loss

 

[Gagafritz]

What about Soccer ? I mean does it make a lot of sense to be hitting a ball off of your head?