GDT #20: 2024/11/20 - Enter the Rooks

[LeafOfFaith]

Yeah, the earlygoing after the hit is the most important. Take it from me, since I got a concussion myself a year ago.

They said, sensitivity to light, nausea, actually lost consciousness, headaches? If none of that stuff and the CT is clear (which was the case with me), they say you're fine. But they did rule out contact sports for two weeks.

It requires an actual concussion diagnosis though. Not sure if Knies actually sustained one.

 

[zeke]

a concussion AND a brain tumour? yikes.

 

[Wayward DP]

Yeah, the earlygoing after the hit is the most important. Take it from me, since I got a concussion myself a year ago.

They said, sensitivity to light, nausea, actually lost consciousness, headaches? If none of that stuff and the CT is clear (which was the case with me), they say you're fine. But they did rule out contact sports for two weeks.

It requires an actual concussion diagnosis though. Not sure if Knies actually sustained one.

I’ve had multiple conkies myself. Worst one impacted me for the better part of two years

 

[LeafOfFaith]

I’ve had multiple conkies myself. Worst one impacted me for the better part of two years

What happened to you?

 

[LeafGm]

I’ve had multiple conkies myself. Worst one impacted me for the better part of two years

Yikes.

My worst one affected me for about a month, and I thought that was bad. Hope you’re recovered now.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

Yikes.

My worst one affected me for about a month, and I thought that was bad. Hope you’re recovered now.

Hockey hit?

 

[LeafGm]

Hockey hit?

Nope. Was out jogging with the dog in the winter when I hit a patch of black ice on the sidewalk. Feet went right out from under me and pretty much the full force of the fall was absorbed by the back of my skull smashing into a wooden fence post.

Didn’t knock me out right away. I just felt dizzy and extremely nauseous. Then when I tried standing up & pulling out my phone, I passed out and came to a minute or two later. Luckily I’d fallen ass-first into a big snowbank, instead of bashing my head again. Was pretty surreal and confusing coming to with my concerned dog staring down at me and cars whizzing by a couple of feet from my head.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

Nope. Was out jogging with the dog in the winter when I hit a patch of black ice on the sidewalk. Feet went right out from under me and pretty much the full force of the fall was absorbed by the back of my skull smashing into a wooden fence post.

Didn’t knock me out right away. I just felt dizzy and extremely nauseous. Then when I tried standing up & pulling out my phone, I passed out and came to a minute or two later. Luckily I’d fallen ass-first into a big snowbank, instead of bashing my head again. Was pretty surreal and confusing coming to with my concerned dog staring down at me and cars whizzing by a couple of feet from my head.

Holy crap. So what ensued for a month, headaches?

 

[JackBurton]

I had a brutal concussion as a kid. Got a baseball bat (Full swing to the head). Things like that were treated so different then.
And yes, to answer the jokes, THAT's what happened.
It was such a hard hit, my hair fell-out.

 

[Wayward DP]

What happened to you?

the initial and most damaging blow happened when I was working as a landscaper between law school and articles. I was digging a hole on a property on Bloor near the Rogers building and I stepped on the shovel with both feet to get it into the ground, except it moved in a way I was not expecting causing me to basically fall into a massive concrete block headfirst.

then, before that had healed, I smacked my head a couple more times (for example, when my now-wife forced me to help her move, despite my protestations).

I actually had two trips planned before my articles (7-day canoe trip in Algonquin, and hiking the North Coast Trail in BC) that I had to cancel cause I was not physically up for it.

I was completely off any work for at least a month - basically every day I'd have maybe an hour or two of feeling 'normal', then I'd look at a screen or stand up too quickly and get this nutty 'pressure' feeling in my brain. like my neck was pumping air into my brain, making everything cloudy. and it affected my mood, a lot. I'm just more moody now, which sucks, with a quicker temper.

it was a bit of a vicious circle for a bit, cause the conky fucked up my balance, which made me more likely to smack my head off more things. and I also realized I just generally move too quickly and am impatient, which has led to a couple other hits.

I was followed by a neurologist for a couple years, until I moved back out East. all through my articles I had daily headaches and light sensitivity, thankfully I articled with a crown agency so I could still meet the demands even though I was not in top form.

once back out East, I went for vestibular physiotherapy which helped resolve my remaining issues. basically cleared up the daily headaches - it turns out I was having problems with my eyes/tracking that some hilariously bizarre exercises actually fixed.

it's pretty funny, my friend who works as doctor in the ICU is soooo condescending to all physios. yet cannot explain how the physio I did made my headaches go away, cause he thinks it's all cookie stuff.

anyways, I still have more headaches than I did pre-conkies, but it's not at a point where it limits me in my day-to-day or work activities anymore. like I can work 16 hour days again and be okay. but was a bit of a journey to get back to that point.

 

[Wayward DP]

Nope. Was out jogging with the dog in the winter when I hit a patch of black ice on the sidewalk. Feet went right out from under me and pretty much the full force of the fall was absorbed by the back of my skull smashing into a wooden fence post.

Didn’t knock me out right away. I just felt dizzy and extremely nauseous. Then when I tried standing up & pulling out my phone, I passed out and came to a minute or two later. Luckily I’d fallen ass-first into a big snowbank, instead of bashing my head again. Was pretty surreal and confusing coming to with my concerned dog staring down at me and cars whizzing by a couple of feet from my head.

crazy. my roommate in uni gave himself a nasty one when he got up in the middle of the night to take a leak, but passed out and smacked his head off the radiator...

 

[LeafGm]

Holy crap. So what ensued for a month, headaches?

In the immediate aftermath, I managed to get up and very slowly walk/shuffle the 1km or so back to home.

I had a headache, nausea, dizziness, difficulty thinking, screamingly loud ringing in my ears and my pupils were both fixed and so fully dilated that you couldn’t even tell my eyes were blue.

Because I’m dumb, and this happened on a Friday night, I didn’t seek any medical attention. I just cancelled the snowshoeing/camping trip I had planned and spent the weekend in dim light, avoiding screens (which made all my symptoms worse) and not doing much of anything.

By Monday morning I felt mostly ok and went into the office. But I quickly discovered I literally wasn’t even capable of thinking or basic problem solving. Basic routine functions of my job I’d done a million times before were like unsolvable puzzles I couldn’t figure out. And within an hour, the ringing in my ears had just about quadrupled in volume, my head was pounding, my eyes literally hurt from the overhead lighting & computer screen and I felt like I was going to throw up.

So after laying down in a dark room for about an hour to recover, I went home, and aside from a visit to the hospital, spent the next week-and-a-half doing nothing but sitting in a dark room at home, sleeping and occasionally reading a book.

All in all it was about a week and a half of not being able to function at all, a couple weeks of gradually lessening symptoms & increasing activity and another week of mostly being ok but still feeling a little “off” and fuzzy-headed.

 

[Wayward DP]

In the immediate aftermath, I managed to get up and very slowly walk/shuffle the 1km or so back to home.

I had a headache, nausea, dizziness, difficulty thinking, screamingly loud ringing in my ears and my pupils were both fixed and so fully dilated that you couldn’t even tell my eyes were blue.

Because I’m dumb, and this happened on a Friday night, I didn’t seek any medical attention. I just cancelled the snowshoeing/camping trip I had planned and spent the weekend in dim light, avoiding screens (which made all my symptoms worse) and not doing much of anything.

By Monday morning I felt mostly ok and went into the office. But I quickly discovered I literally wasn’t even capable of thinking or basic problem solving. Basic routine functions of my job I’d done a million times before were like unsolvable puzzles I couldn’t figure out. And within an hour, the ringing in my ears had just about quadrupled in volume, my head was pounding, my eyes literally hurt from the overhead lighting & computer screen and I felt like I was going to throw up.

So after laying down in a dark room for about an hour to recover, I went home, and aside from a visit to the hospital, spent the next week-and-a-half doing nothing but sitting in a dark room at home, sleeping and occasionally reading a book.

All in all it was about a week and a half of not being able to function at all, a couple weeks of gradually lessening symptoms & increasing activity and another week of mostly being ok but still feeling a little “off” and fuzzy-headed.

sounds about right, unfortunately.

the way my neurologist explained it to me at the time when I was in the worst of it is that you basically need to retrain your brain to perform all the tasks that it used to.

in university, I used to run like 30 km/week. I remember when I went for my first-run post-concussion, the next day I had the worst headaches I had had in months.

 

[LeafGm]

the initial and most damaging blow happened when I was working as a landscaper between law school and articles. I was digging a hole on a property on Bloor near the Rogers building and I stepped on the shovel with both feet to get it into the ground, except it moved in a way I was not expecting causing me to basically fall into a massive concrete block headfirst.

then, before that had healed, I smacked my head a couple more times (for example, when my now-wife forced me to help her move, despite my protestations).

I actually had two trips planned before my articles (7-day canoe trip in Algonquin, and hiking the North Coast Trail in BC) that I had to cancel cause I was not physically up for it.

I was completely off any work for at least a month - basically every day I'd have maybe an hour or two of feeling 'normal', then I'd look at a screen or stand up too quickly and get this nutty 'pressure' feeling in my brain. like my neck was pumping air into my brain, making everything cloudy. and it affected my mood, a lot. I'm just more moody now, which sucks, with a quicker temper.

it was a bit of a vicious circle for a bit, cause the conky fucked up my balance, which made me more likely to smack my head off more things. and I also realized I just generally move too quickly and am impatient, which has led to a couple other hits.

I was followed by a neurologist for a couple years, until I moved back out East. all through my articles I had daily headaches and light sensitivity, thankfully I articled with a crown agency so I could still meet the demands even though I was not in top form.

once back out East, I went for vestibular physiotherapy which helped resolve my remaining issues. basically cleared up the daily headaches - it turns out I was having problems with my eyes/tracking that some hilariously bizarre exercises actually fixed.

it's pretty funny, my friend who works as doctor in the ICU is soooo condescending to all physios. yet cannot explain how the physio I did made my headaches go away, cause he thinks it's all cookie stuff.

anyways, I still have more headaches than I did pre-conkies, but it's not at a point where it limits me in my day-to-day or work activities anymore. like I can work 16 hour days again and be okay. but was a bit of a journey to get back to that point.

Second-impact concussions really seem to be no joke. One of my friends suffered what by all logic should have been an extremely severe concussion, but bounced back quickly with pretty much no problem.

Then a couple of weeks later, all he did was stand up and hit his head against the corner of an open cupboard in his kitchen, and that kicked off severe and long-term post-concussion syndrome for him.

crazy. my roommate in uni gave himself a nasty one when he got up in the middle of the night to take a leak, but passed out and smacked his head off the radiator...

Yikes.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

These posts are kinda terrifying.

DP - I'm curious about this vestibular physio you did. What was involved in that and how long did it take?

 

[LeafGm]

These posts are kinda terrifying.

DP - I'm curious about this vestibular physio you did. What was involved in that and how long did it take?

If it makes you feel better, my concussion was about 5-6 years ago now. Haven’t had any problems since or suffered any additional concussions.

 

[LeafOfFaith]

If it makes you feel better, my concussion was about 5-6 years ago now. Haven’t had any problems since or suffered any additional concussions.

That's good to hear. Mine was a really hard hit at hockey, plastic shinguarded knee to head (with helmet, thankfully), but no ill effects after I regained my senses around 15 minutes later.

I tend to get migraines here and there throughout my life, but usually brought on by hunger that goes on too long without food, or burning myself out on a very long call where I'm talking for hours. Or some lighter combination of those, but working really late and getting spent. Those are really bad - light, noise, nothing, it all results in pain and goes on for a long time, and is often accompanied by bad nausea. So, a concussion with a really horrible reaction like you guys had would be killer for me.

 

[Wayward DP]

These posts are kinda terrifying.

DP - I'm curious about this vestibular physio you did. What was involved in that and how long did it take?

yah my troubles started in 2017, and I don't know that I'd say I ever fully recovered (just kinda changed my general risk tolerance in a number of ways), but I work without limitations and have for years. and I climb, sail weekly spring-fall, cycle to work daily, etc. was just quite the process for my body to relearn its limitations.

like my ability to socialize was impacted for quite a while, ability to drink too. exercise, to an extent.

the vestibular physio is pretty similar to regular physio, just focused on your vestibular system. I did a bunch of balance/coordination tests, and then the coolest/most impactful thing were these magical fucking goggles. so it's like a scuba mask, completely blacked out, with cameras that track your eyes. apparently, when you damage your vestibular system, it affects your eyes/tracking, but can only be tested for in those conditions.

so they put the scuba camera goggles on, black me out completely, and then watch my eyes (this is apparently pretty new tech, or was at the time). that's how they identified what was messing up my vestibular system. then I had the most hilarious, bizarre, low impact exercises assigned to me. one I think was called the 'BBQ roll', and involved as soon as I got up in the morning, I think lying on my back for x amount of time, then lying on my side for x amount, then getting up in a particular way. I had a different exercise before that where I would as quickly as possible go from upright to lying on my side in bed, on the affected side.

I was admittedly skeptical but the exercises were not difficult, just strange, so I tried them out. within a month or two I want to say almost all the lingering headaches I was having were gone, and same with my tracking problems (basically, it was like my eyes didn't want to stay in focus where I was looking, they'd wander off, which caused strain and could have contributed to the headaches).

 

[Wayward DP]

If it makes you feel better, my concussion was about 5-6 years ago now. Haven’t had any problems since or suffered any additional concussions.

yah I've been functioning at a level I'm pretty happy with for years now.

I've also hit my head a few times since, and *touch wood* haven't had anything like my initial problem. maybe some headaches for a couple days or a week, but nothing that lingers, and nowhere near as severe or intense

 

[LeafOfFaith]

yah my troubles started in 2017, and I don't know that I'd say I ever fully recovered (just kinda changed my general risk tolerance in a number of ways), but I work without limitations and have for years. and I climb, sail weekly spring-fall, cycle to work daily, etc. was just quite the process for my body to relearn its limitations.

like my ability to socialize was impacted for quite a while, ability to drink too. exercise, to an extent.

the vestibular physio is pretty similar to regular physio, just focused on your vestibular system. I did a bunch of balance/coordination tests, and then the coolest/most impactful thing were these magical fucking goggles. so it's like a scuba mask, completely blacked out, with cameras that track your eyes. apparently, when you damage your vestibular system, it affects your eyes/tracking, but can only be tested for in those conditions.

so they put the scuba camera goggles on, black me out completely, and then watch my eyes (this is apparently pretty new tech, or was at the time). that's how they identified what was messing up my vestibular system. then I had the most hilarious, bizarre, low impact exercises assigned to me. one I think was called the 'BBQ roll', and involved as soon as I got up in the morning, I think lying on my back for x amount of time, then lying on my side for x amount, then getting up in a particular way. I had a different exercise before that where I would as quickly as possible go from upright to lying on my side in bed, on the affected side.

I was admittedly skeptical but the exercises were not difficult, just strange, so I tried them out. within a month or two I want to say almost all the lingering headaches I was having were gone, and same with my tracking problems (basically, it was like my eyes didn't want to stay in focus where I was looking, they'd wander off, which caused strain and could have contributed to the headaches).

This is legit fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

Regarding silly exercises, I tore my rotator cuff just before the pandemic, and so all the physical therapists were shut down for months. I figured I would just check youtube for any videos that would let me do the exercises myself, and there were several. The exercises seemed so stupid, like lean on something and just let your arm drop down and hang with its own natural weight. Stuff like that. But it did actually work somehow and by the time the pandemic restrictions were lifted, I was fully healed and didn't need anything more.