Good morning! I’m glad to be back on Good Morning Quad Cities after a few days off. A few of you wondered if I needed time to recuperate after the miserable Packers loss. While that was pretty terrible, I’ve been dealing with an even more strange turn of events…one that landed me in the E.R. on Sunday.
About a week and a half ago, my clumsy self made it down 12 of the 13 stairs in my house. Being in socks, I lost my balance and fell right on my hind end. I didn’t think anything of it since I’ve fallen quite a few times in my day and this time I landed on my “extra padding.” But the jarring gave me a low-intensity headache.
Over the next week, my low grade headache continued. Tylenol didn’t help too much, and I contemplated going to the doctor. I kept telling myself “It will go away on its own.”
Fast-forward to Sunday morning when I was setting up a new wire crate for my dog. I hit the back of my head on the top of the cage and saw stars. Within a few minutes my vision got blurry and I ended up on the floor again. This time I was disoriented and had a hard time talking. Thankfully, I don’t live alone and got a quick ride to the hospital. But I grew increasingly confused as to where we were going and why. The folks at the hospital were fantastic in getting me in quickly and sorting out what was going on. Long story short, after x-rays and a CT-scan, there was nothing out of the ordinary. But the combination of events caused everyone to believe I was suffering a concussion. My head got clearer as a few hours went by and I was able to go home.
On Tuesday, I was able to see another doctor to analyze what was going on. The professional opinion was again concussion. Which brings me to why I’m writing this: I had no idea that concussions could last so long! I thought you get concussions and then they go away in a few minutes or hours. I was totally shocked when my doctor told me that they can last 4-6 weeks before going away. And I never had any idea that they could be this serious, or that you could bump your head and make things worse. Had I known all of this, I would’ve gone to the doctor a while back…and protected my head more.
My prognosis is very good. I have to be careful not to jostle my head and keep active without any jarring movements. (Aww shucks, I can’t go skydiving for a while.) I still have a little fogginess and have a hard time getting my words out right (which you may notice when you watch me on News 8). So let me apologize if I slur my words or stumble on my thoughts. I’ve got a little bit of “cognitive therapy” ahead of me to make sure that the healing is consistent and I don’t have any long-term problems. The road back will be good for me…and I’m really thankful. Much like the weather, my cloudiness will go away.
