So I've had some time to reflect over the past few weeks about the accident and it has caused a few questions to come up for me. Some of these are questions about the injuries that I had and the ramifications and/or effects of the same. I'm not sure how many of these questions will have answers, but I'll start the list with some of them.
1.) When I was taken to the ER and when they went over my diagnoses, they said I broke my collarbone in two places, had an "acute concussion", and some road rash. Well, obviously I could tell the road rash and at the time of the accident I figured my collarbone was probably broken (see my other blog posting about the accident details and how I couldn't stand up on my own after). An x-ray revealed at least one of the breaks, a very obvious one because it essentially snapped completely in two pieces, the same way a small branch or stick might break in two if you bend it too much. (Sorry if that's too visual and gross for some of you, but that's exactly what it looks like in the x-ray.) The question??? How do they diagnose an "acute concussion"? I know from having been through it and having told them that I "blacked out" after hitting the minivan and don't remember anything until I was actually on the ground in a sitting up position. Is the "blacking out" a sign/symptom of a concussion? Did they do a CT scan on my head when they did the CT scan to make sure there was no clotting where my previous blood clot had been? (That's another story if some of you don't know about my blood clot from last October.)
Well, I said several questions, but maybe it's a few questions that kind of fall under one general category. Maybe there's something else going on? Hmm. Not sure what else to say about that.
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3 comments:
The summer before I moved to Colorado I broke my collar bone while riding my bike. I remember nothing of the accident. I came-to on my back lying in the grass. The first thought that passed through my head was "Did I take a nap on the grass?" I quickly realized that I broke my clavicle and had trouble finding my glasses and locking up my bike. I actually considered riding it home a short 3 blocks away, but I walked instead.
My experience is similar to yours, but I don't know to what extent. I was not told that I had an acute concussion, so there may be something else going on with you. I do have a vague vision (like a dream) of hitting a huge hole in the hill and flying over the handlebars of my bike. But, truthfully I remember nothing of the accident. What I do remember is starting down the grass hill and then waking up on my back.
Hmm...after doing some quick online research I can't find anything about an "acute" concusion, just a rating systems that uses three grades.
One reference I read said that most concussions won't show up on a CT. CT scans are only done on those who have a higher risk for more serious brain injury, like you, and looks for brain lesions.
Basically a concussion is the mildest of traumatic brain injuries and it sounds like it is mostly diagnosed through observation of the patient and feedback from the patient in regards to what they are experiencing. Headache, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, ringig in ears, confusion, loss of conciousness, etc.
Well, the long and short of it - I don't really know.
So I too did some online reading yesterday about concussions. I don't remember anything about blurred vision, but I think I blacked out for what may have been as long as 10-20 seconds and loss of consciousness is one of the symptoms that WebMD described. They may have heard my speech as slurred, but I wouldn't have been able to pick up on that as I don't think I will hear my own speech the same way others do. The same reason everyone has a hard time believing that it's our own selves when we listen to recordings of us talking. Okay, enough talk for now. Gotta get ready to go to therapy.
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