did you help a girl who hit her head at the bird yesterday?

[Woodsy]

Head injuries are graded on loss of memory and loss of consiousness as well as a few other symptoms, but these 2 are thought to be some of the more important. Concussions that involve loss of consciousness of 5 min or less and/or involve memory loss of 15 min or more would be classified as a grade 2 concussion. Any time a person has lost consciousness they should be seen in the ER and will likely have a CAT scan to rule out intracranial bleeding.

After my first head injury, I had no loss of conciousness and no loss of memory. Skied down to the bottom of the resort & went to the hospital.

Seemed fine, I was just bleeding like a stuck pig, they almost did not do a cat scan on me before sewing it up, luckily they did, lifeflight to Junction, cranial fracture repaired, pressure relieved, titanium added.

A few weeks later in Aspen, a kid fell down the staris at a bar, he was woozy, went home & never woke up. cranial fracture but didna break the skin.
kids dead cuz noone thought he needed attention.

I had another head injury, with helmet a few months later. The 2 were hard to recover from, cognitively I was fine, but short tempered, easily overwhelmed, easily confused, mean. ( go ahead mags, take that softball deep into left field)
I didna know what to do & was pretty depressed ( plus weeks of painkillers, booze, weed + no skiing during the end of an epic season brings ya low)
My friend ( who many mags know; actually) gave me a book that really helped her mom recover from a hit and run accident in A -town.
It's called Brainlash and I would recomend it to anyone who has had any type of TBI ( traumatic brain injury) I have given it out to a few people & it helped them as much as me.
Knowing there is a reason for your symptoms and how to deal with them is huge.

Bottom line, wear a helmet & do not laugh off any head ringer, it can be dehabilitating and/or fatal.

[fez]

has anyone ever lost their sense of smell following a head injury? For several years following mine i could smell nothing. Even now my sense of smell is altered but has mostly returned.

[KQ]

has anyone ever lost their sense of smell following a head injury? For several years following mine i could smell nothing. Even now my sense of smell is altered but has mostly returned.

I have a friend who lost hers permanently. She has to be very careful with food in her fridge - she can't smell if it's bad.

[iceman]

There was an article about that in the NY Times magazine a couple weeks ago. Lady finally got hers back following a program of smelling really strong odors like ammonia, etc.

[Vinman]

has anyone ever lost their sense of smell following a head injury? For several years following mine i could smell nothing. Even now my sense of smell is altered but has mostly returned.

Olfactory nerve. It is one of the cranial nerves. I have not seen anyone with this symptom but obviously does occur.

[Steven S. Dallas]

has anyone ever lost their sense of smell following a head injury? For several years following mine i could smell nothing. Even now my sense of smell is altered but has mostly returned.

Happened to my uncle- he fell 40 feet flat onto his back and was totally fine, except that he lost his sense of smell. He says he can remember how things taste, though, so he doesn't really miss it.

[Arty50]

Frum al f dez psts I ges I shud be mesd up cuz of fuzball. But me smel fin ad mi brain wurk gud.

[LAN]

Nurse Ratchet here with my $.02.

After working at the nearby trauma center, I saw head injuries of all types. From minor concussions to shearing injuries of the brainstem. Subdural hematomas, epidural hematomas, skull fractures, you name it. No matter how insignificant you think your bonk on the head is/was, get a freaking head CT! You can be alert and oriented one minute and completely f'd the next. I dunno why people are so lackadaisical about their brains?

Head injuries can fuck you up for life. I saw so many young folks who will NEVER have their lives/brains back just because of carelessness - ie: no helmets, being stupid/overly aggressive, using drugs & alcohol while doing sports/driving/motorcycling. Breaks my heart.

The good news is most ER physicians will order head CT's even if there are NO symptoms of a head injury because not all patients become symptomatic right away. Plus, you don't have to have a loss of consciousness to get a head CT. If you've hit your head, that's your ticket.

As far as the olfactory nerve goes - a friend of mine had a brain tumor when he was younger. Had surgery, they removed the tumor and most recently he suddenly passed out while urinating (the docs think the process of bearing down to pee caused him to vasovagal). He hit his head so hard and pinched his nerve that he can't taste or smell. That was 2 years ago. Freaky!

[AntiSoCalSkier]

One interesting side effect (endorphines?) is that I was completely content for the next 2 weeks. My friends tell me that I went to work and just stared into space all day, and went home. But I clerly remember being absolutely content (not happy, just perfectly content.) I also remember the very second it stopped. (Oh fawk!!! I'm 2 weeks behind on my work!)

Wow, I want a type II concussion!

"But is there any way that you, you could just sock me out so there’s no way that I’ll know I’m at work? Right here? (points to his head) Can I just come home and think I’ve been fishing all day or something?"

[lph]

Losing the sense of smell with brain injury is kind of common. It turns out the the inferior portion of your frontal lobes (which are directly up against your skull) are commonly injured in brain trauma. This area carries the nerve fibers that allow you to smell.

When i was working at a level 1 trauma center in Denver, one of the neurologists was studying this phenomenom and he therefore ordered MRI's (after the initial CT Scan) on most trauma patients to see if they had contused this part of their brain.

Scary thing about doing MRI's on so many trauma patients was that as a radiologist you began to realize how much of the brain damage that is actually present CAN NOT be seen on a CAT scan. However, when I had a Grade 1 concussion I got a CT not an MRI.

As LAN pointed out the ER will get a CT scan on essentially every head injury case and during a busy weekend day in ski season (especially when it is ICY), i will read many many of those CT's. Luckily the vast majority are normal.

Helmets are definitely key and the may not save your life, but they may save you a trip to the ER.

BTW, to clear up some confusion in earlier posts, a simple skull fracture is not, in and of itself, a serious injury. The exceptions are a basiliar skull fracture, a depressed fracture and an open fracture. The CT is done to find blood in or around the brain.

Fineline, be smart, you had a serious head injury, take it easy and don't put yourself at risk for a second injury and possible long term damage.

BTW, from a medical standpoint, girls who throw corked 7's = Damn HOT!!

[EstoBum]

Two major concusions for this noggin:

A) High school football, returning kickoff, try to block guy who's got a good 50+ lbs. on me and one heck of a running start. (I was small for my position) I get levelled, one of those great high-light reel clips. Of course the colors in my vision separate like those old tv's, (green to the left, red to the right, blue in the middle, etc) and then slowly blur back together. I get to spend the rest of the game wondering why they won't let me play despite the fact that I thought I answered all the questions right.

On the bus ride back home (it was an away game) I get this really weird feeling that the left half of my body is going numb. I can move it, but I can't feel it. What really freaks me out is that half of my face and tounge are also numb. I go to the hospital after that, they check me out with a CT and everything seems fine. A week off of hitting in football for me.

2) Couple years later Skiing one day without my helmet as it was stolen a week before, go off a jump in a terrain park, come down nice and vertical or so I'm told. I only remeber putting the skis on the car in the morning (not the 2 hours driving to the resort) and next thing I know its about 3pm in hte afternoon. Apparently I had been skiing all day. I was with a friend, and they managed to keep telling me what day it was, (I thought it was an actual month later than it was) and even wrote a note for me to look at when I started asking him questions again. We didn't really stop skiing for too long, cause I remember becomming concious on a ski lift. I was able to do things, just a little woozy and confused because I could not remember short term. By the time we left the resort at 5pm, I was pretty back with it. I drove home, since my buddy had his license revoked two days earlier for rolling his car a couple times. I think I didn't hit my head until the afternoon, but its interesting how all the previous events I don't remember. Didn't have no cat scan for this one.

a couple years later, said buddy crashed his car into a bridge one night just driving home from work and passed away. He had been accidentally run over by a tractor (driven by his dad) when young and would rarely black out cause of the head trauma. We think that caused him to crash. So this stuff is important.


I have had a couple of minor ones too, but always ski with a helmet now. And as an engineer and a skier: All the helmets that are out there prevent injury by deforming upon impact. If you have a major crash where you hit your head, you should replace your helmet

I think I have a little trouble focusing sometimes now, but I'm not sure if that's due to the head trauma or the drinking.

[gonzo]

i overshot a landing at the 'loaf, impacted facing uphill, downhill edge of my board hit and i slammed hard. shattered my right forearm (radius) and split the back of my helmet. tried to pop up and ride it off - shook my head and said "holy shit" but i heard myself say "blub bla blub." then i sat down. realized my arm hurt. it was crooked. helmet = good. 7s = hot.

[slippy]

I saw so many young folks who will NEVER have their lives/brains back just because of carelessness - ie: no helmets, Breaks my heart.

I think after this thread and about 20-30 people telling me to ski with a helmet....I might now maybe actually consider it. Damn it.

[AltaPowderDaze]

All the helmets that are out there prevent injury by deforming upon impact. If you have a major crash where you hit your head, you should replace your helmet[/b]

or by helping the blow glance off. but that is only if you're lucky. the rest of the time you get a deformed helmet and/or head.