One of my children was conceived while I had a concussion because I convinced hubby we were fine just this once.
I would refrain from signing any legal papers or making any life choices for a week or so.
[QUOTE=demidq;7876084]
I am really surprised I have no symptoms! Vision, balance,co-ordination, orientation, alertness, counting backwards, recall of 5 words (immediately and then 10 minutes later), neuro testing all normal- basically the routine concussion exam. My husband says he doesn’t notice any difference in my speech or cognitive function. No indications of need for Xrays or CT. There’s nothing really that can be done about a simple (!) concussion, except give the brain rest time to get over the bash before doing anything remotely risky for a repeat bang. And to get rechecked ASAP if any new symptoms develope![/QUOTE]
wait. 
when i had my little kerfuffle (cracked the helmet in two places… oops :uhoh: ) i felt fine when i got home from the ER. next day i felt funny, day after that fine, day after that funny, and then fine ever since. got bucked off a little !@#$ a couple months ago; don’t remember hitting the ground, but as i landed on my butt and was talking to the instructor the whole time and muttering four letter words to the horse (“alpo!” “iams!”) i didn’t worry about it. figured it was a couple seconds of post-concussion syndrome happening all these years later.
I think there’s a reason that people say old horsewomen are so nutty…a few too many concussions.
I have friends mentioning things I’ve done years later after one or the other of two major concussions I had.
One I was galloping a horse and horse spooked and I got lawn darted.
The other, I was also galloping a herd out and the horse wanted to go one way, I wanted to go the other and we compromised and hit a tree.
Both, there are missing pieces of time, but more troubling things I did in the following weeks and months of which I have no recollection.
So take it easy. Definitely don’t make any major decisions and have someone else check and make sure you aren’t doing anything too much crazier than normal.
So you did GO to the DR and get an exam right OP? Some times symptoms of something serious can be very minor at first - like slight differences in pupil dilation.
As for concussion stories - knock on wood in my 28 years of riding I have only really hit my head once. But it was a doosy.
Unlike you OP - I did NOT lose consciousness. I was schooling a horse XC as a teenager. Horse tripped / stumbled at take off, never got his knees out of the way, and did a classic “rotational fall” over a silly log.
I hit FACE first (chin and forehead), as my hands were still on the reins - and the horse landed upside down next to me.
Immediately stood up - and thought “I can’t believe that just happened” and put my hand to my bleeding face (scraped up my chin, knocked teeth lose).
911 was called - local volunteer firefighters came out. At first they thought I was “fine” as I could answer all of the time place questions etc. But I didn’t feel right, felt foggy and “off”. I kept insisting that I did not feel like I was “okay” and ended up taking an ambulance to the hospital.
It was some time during that ride that I started seizing and it was very clear I had serious brain swelling.
I was induced into a coma for three days to control the swelling.
I was discharged from the hospital after 4 days in ICU. Made a full recovery in a few weeks, and was back riding in a month.
Thank god I had a helmet on that day - all of the Dr.s agreed I would have died without one.
Concussion Number 1 (that we know of): My beginner safe, dead to the world, has had lightning strike behind her and didn’t move (literally) horse and I were doing a teeny weeny line with my coach. We were comfortably jumping 3’6 at the time, and this was a mere cavaletti, bounce to a small vertical, one stride to an X. The first time we did it perfectly, the second time I brought Madame Mare in to a horrid distance, we got caught in the cavaletti, scrambled over the vertical and arrived to the X facing the standard. Madame Mare stopped (she had zero choice, or else she would have gone) and I continued onwards.
I hit the ground laughing and did a headstand. My coach thought I had broken my neck. Anyway, I got up, put the horse away, drove to work, said “Hmm, I’m not feeling so hot” and drove home.
I was off for THREE months. Semester of university (and the money) gone, work gone, riding time, gone. Three months of doing absolutely nothing. And in another 3 months I would still get horrid headaches if I moved too quickly.
Exactly 363 days after concussion number 1, I received concussion number 2. Baby Horse, my newish 4 year old, who was normally calm and sweet and perfect had someone coming out to look at her for partboard. I saddled up and Baby Horse was bouncy - a buck here, a buck there but nothing too bad. Still, it was unlike her so I decided to just jump a X-rail and finish the ride, because I had said she jumped wee jumps. Well jump the x-rail we did, and then Baby Horse took off BRONCING. I came off and smashed my face off the metal arena gate. I then had to apologise profusely to the people who had come to see her with bent glasses, my face covered in bloody and barely able to stand up.
Again, I put away horsey. This time I called my parents: “So I just got another concussion…” This one resulted in only a week and half off work, but holy fudge has it ever lasted. I get headaches (BAD HEADACHES) nearly every day. My eyes don’t focus like they used to. Memory games that I used to be very good at, I now am horrible at.
So the moral of the story is don’t jump crossrails in January.
[QUOTE=dotneko;7874929]
Last time I rode without a helmet - it could have been mush worse.[/QUOTE]
Excellent typo. 
6 months ago, I came off for the first time in ages. Horse zigged, I zagged. I somersaulted off, hit on my back and then my head, which bounced on the ground. I was riding in the indoor and the sound of my melon hitting the dirt was quite loud because people who were outside heard it. :eek:
A doctor friend at the barn checked me out, and I never lost consciousness. But I was a little woozy with a slight headache for the rest of the day and had a small bruise at the base of my back.
I didn’t ride for a week afterward. I call that getting easy for being 60+.
Glad you’re OK, OP. Just keep an eye out for any changes. And get a new helmet. :yes:
I’ve had four concussions and only went to the doctor for one of them (naughty, I know). My third was the one I finally went to th ER for (BO wanted to drive me home… I made her call my parents). Doc wanted to do a CT just to be safe, and came back with “I think you have an AVM.” Of course, it turned out to be a tumor, which brings me to my third concussion: Three months post op, my young OTTB pulled me off of my feet and I did a face plant.
Of course, no one at the barn thought it would be prudent to call anyone, even though I was barely allowed to walk on a horse, and I was so out of it all I was able to do was sit up. BO kept asking if I was okay, and all I could do was think, I should answer her somehow.
Now I’m somewhat of a mother hen when people hit their heads. People don’t stand up for concussion victims when it happens. No one said “you HAVE to be looked at” for three of four concussions, and they definitely should have. When you hit that hard, you don’t always realise, so the people around the injured have to step up.
As great as COTH is, I would consider getting off of here for a couple of days. Reading takes a lot more brain power than you think. A screen makes it even tougher, and grammatical/spelling errors add another challenge.
I was fine after my concussion. No memory loss (I don’t think, I was alone), rode again, fell again, rode again, put pony away, drove home, packed, drove 2 hours to boyfriend’s house, drove to the beach, set up all my gear to dive (didn’t because of the conditions), came back, got sick, slept for 2 days straight, and felt great!
It wasn’t until later that week my boss mentioned that I was having a really hard time doing basic math and remembering numbers. Being stubborn, I took no time off, and it took about a month to feel like I could add and subtract again. I wish I would have taken it easy earlier, because I believe I would have healed quicker overall.
I was in a lesson and was working on getting my horse to slow it down. We did a perfect line and it felt amazing, then about 2 strides out the barn cat ran across the ring and spooked my horse. I guess I was so excited about how perfect it felt that I wasn’t paying attention and landed on my back and hit my head. I layed there for a minute becasue it really hurt the back of my head (yes I was wearng a helmet) I got up and got back on because you always have to when you fall off right!?! Well as I was sitting there I realized that everything looved reversed. I knew where I was but it was like looking ina mirror with everything flipped. This sensation went away in about 5 minutes but my trainer made me get off. I have no recollection of untacking and even called the BO to check and make sure my horse was untacked and in her stall. I never felt dizzy or sick and even drove home. I never went to the dr but in hind sight I probabaly should of. Recently I have noticed that I have a hard time remembering words that I should know sometimes and that sometimes my mind is just not quite right. I can’t even explain it. I just feel that I’m a little bit off.
I will definetly go to the Dr next time!!
The problem with a simple concussion is that there really isn’t any kind of medical intervention which helps. The best advice is the usual- watch for any changes, the list of worrying symptoms for which you should be reassessed, rest, don’t do anything which might increase your blood pressure for a few days (increased intracerebral pressure), don’t do anything which might cause you to hit your head again for at least 7-10 days. Repeated concussions,or severe symptoms are another story.
Yes, rest is what is prescribed. Nothing that “uses” your brain too much. So, that meant no reading, working, watching tv, thinking, worrying about stuff like I often do. Is it ever difficult to do absolutely nothing! I was surprised.
But, like you say different for severe and multiples I would think.
Glad you are ok!
Yes, no reading is a recommendation I have heard time and again for concussions. I was ordered not to read for a good while after my concussion.
This summer I was at a training show with a horse I had only ridden three or four times previously. I had no idea he was a serial launcher with authority issues. When doing a warmup jump, I asked him to add and he went ‘nope, going for it!’. He had to stretch to make it over, then decided to play upon landing. I went a$$ over kettle and do not remember anything until about two hours later. Apparently I rode him and my gelding in their 3 o/f rounds and their undersaddles. I placed well, got ribbons, including reserve champ and over-all champ, WITH pictures and don’t remember any of it. Luckily I wasn’t driving that day as we were 2 hours from home. Not one person noticed any issues with me or could have even said I had no idea what I was doing. Apparently I was cognizant, moving normally and had no issues talking. That should have been everyone’s first clue bahahaha!!
On the sly (so hubby didn’t know), I went to my doctor the next day, who examined me and subsequently I had a scan done a week later, luckily with no issues to be seen.
I am a very much wait and see type of person especially for anything that “rest and check later” is more than likely the answer but there are a few things that I are more important to get checked than others and the brain falls under that, it repairs very slowly and just because you do not have a lump/bruise on the outside of your head does not mean it was not a hard hit or your brain doesn’t have a bruise, it just needs to smack your skull and it can take time for it to swell too. Personally I don’t think a week off is enough for a brain after a concussion, the cells in brains take forever to repair, think about how long it may take for a bruise on your skin to go away/not be sensitive and those cells repair so much faster than your brain. Knowing what I know now, I personally would take a month off from a concussion just in case because you do NOT want two close together.
I have had two concussions where I was completely knocked out and one where it just “rang my bell”. I definitely am feeling the effects of them now. The first I rested for at least a week with no reading but did watch movies per the doctors orders.
The second I resumed normal activities the next day driving us home then just doing normal summer activities. I was in college at the time on summer break. The day before this is when I had the one that “rang my bell”. Got my head slammed back in the trailer hitting the divider. Was not wearing a helmet then but did for the two actual concussions.
The last concussion I was told I would have died had it not been for my helmet. I had lasting effects of that for at least a year where I couldn’t remember my name, who I was talking too, where I was driving too. These events happened quite frequently.
Now it’s been about 3 years and I still have lots of memory troubles, can’t remember words, zone out, and sometimes have blurred vision. I’ve been told their is therapy to help with this but haven’t really looked into it. I wish I would have taken the 2nd concussion more seriously but I did go to the ER in an ambulance for both of them.
The lasting effects have really taken me by surprise.
I’ve had several. The worst was when a tractor buzzed my mare while on lead line and she ran bumping me. I landed about 10 ft away, felt a electrical twinge and noted I was not paralyzed. I just now realized that I don’t know how I got from where I landed to where I sat until the worker drove me to the ER. I could not move or even raise my eyeballs without vomiting which is why I went to the ER. Now the thing I believed helped my most was the bag of frozen peas the worker immediately brought to me and I kept on my head for it seemed like an hour while sitting still at the barn and during car ride and at ER. Thankfully I did not have food to throw up. Th doctor gave me a shot to stop vomiting as I could not even look up at him.
I did go home and mostly slept for 3 weeks. Awake for maybe 15 min and sleep. Never watched daytime TV soaps before but it was on and some mighty weird soaps, especially with my sleep patterns. I could not walk without holding the wall. I saw an Osteopath who did not help except to finally say to get otc sea sick pills which helped some with the dizziness. Every time I turned my head to the left, I got dizzy. I couldn’t remember words. (Still sometimes a problem with words and dizziness). I could give a description of a belt but not recall the word. It was pretty bad for over a year. Other cognitive issues. Probably/maybe therapy would have helped. It has been years and still some sometimes issues.
So, always have bags of frozen peas available. I swear it saved me from much worse damage.
Also check these sites for different approach for treating head traumas. Dr Sam Ghajar believes in treating the brain swelling rather than inducing comas. There are trauma centers that do use the method.
http://www.braintrauma.org/coma-videos/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/coma/ghajar.html
