Concussion

Life happens. No matter how much we might sometimes not want it to happen the way that it does, it does in fact happen.

I got a concussion in early February. I didn’t even manage to hit my head or get in a car accident or slip on ice or anything terribly exciting. Because of that I didn’t even realize I had a concussion for almost 48 hours after the fact.

I was stepping over our ottoman that had been pushed out of the way to become part of a fort that was being disassembled in my living room. As I stepped over said ottoman I didn’t realize there was a piece of clothing on the floor and my foot slid out from under me and down I went landing hard on my tailbone and having the impact go straight up my spine. I remember feeling that. I do not remember losing track of any time or of having hit my head on anything. I didn’t know that a major injury had occurred.

But it had. I had a headache about 25 minutes after the fall that got worse. My pupils stayed dilated correctly so I just took things easy. Thursday morning I felt better for about two hours and then the headache was back and continued to get worse. By Friday when I was watching another set of kids to keep my kids busy, I had dizziness and nausea going on with my headache and my husband came home and off to the ER we went to get the confirmation of a concussion and a CT scan which came back normal.

I got told to drink lots of water, minimize my screen time and that because I have four kids it would probably take longer than normal for the concussion to pass. I also got anti-nausea medication that wouldn’t make me drowsy and told to follow up with my primary in a week.

So began my move into my bedroom. It has been about two weeks of a concussion as I write this and I have listened and read a total of 8 books. Unfortunately the final book in an exciting 5 book series I had only on Kindle so I haven’t been able to finish that. In the past week or so I have been able to start knitting while listening to audio books a bit.

Driving does my head in. As does anytime my kids get loud or decide to all talk at once, or heaven forbid have a fight. This week a dear friend has taken my kids all day (through dinner) for the first two days of the week and I have had the house to myself and my very demanding cats (who seem to enjoy the fact that I am now stuck in bed.

I have had to miss overnight winter camping with Girl Scouts and my eldest (even though the woman running it was able to find us a ride). I have had to not run Girl Scout meetings and move a workshop I was going to run for three weeks in the future. I have had to miss a lot of family time.

I work in 20 minute bursts with at least 20 minutes between them for my work at the moment, with a lot of things taking a back seat. I have had to spend whole days lying down because the world spins if I sit up.

I have high doses of fish oil and some turmeric and B vitamins prescribed by my primary. I am still waiting on a call back from the concussion specialist for a referral. I don’t know how long this is going to take. I keep getting glimpses of good days only to have the next day (even though I try my damnedest not to push anything on my good days) slap me back in the face.

It is hard and frustrating. It is hard and frustrating on my family too. My girls have had to do more and get less time with their mom (though they are getting more 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 time as that is about all my head can handle at the moment). I haven’t gotten to watch any TV in over two weeks now. This is the first time I have gotten to write anything beyond very short emails rescheduling things.

I am tired of reading (I never thought I would say that) and I am tired of winter because I can’t get out and walk due to the ice. And any place I could walk inside is way to stimulating for this little brain of mine.

I am trying to be patient. And wait for my brain to just completely reboot itself. I am being taken care of by friends and family. I am having to wait. This was suppose to be a busy winter/spring with my book launch coming in May, and well things are just taking a little bit longer. I am taking a little bit longer. My brain is apparently very tired.

I will do my best to keep the blog posts coming but there may be a few weeks missed, depending on my other work load and how my screen time goes. Right now an hour is about my max and there is only so much I can get done in that amount of time, no matter how efficient I am