brain injury awareness month – Broken Brain

How Can I Recognize a Possible Concussion?

One of the nice things about being a blogger is that I can add my information to the general wealth of data about subjects of interest to me – in this case, mild traumatic brain injury. This blog is about more than telling my side of the story — it’s about fleshing out info that other trusted sources provide, in ways that are personal and individual… and hopefully contributing to the general understanding about traumatic brain injury, and sports-related concussion in particular.

The CDC has a wealth of information on concussion in youth sports over at their Heads-Up site.

What’s missing is a bit of in-depth explanation about the different points they make.

Since this month is Brain Injury Awareness Month, I hope to contribute to the awareness piece with further info and examples from my own concussion experiences.

From the CDC site about recognizing concussions:

To help recognize a concussion, you should watch for the following two things among your athletes:

A forceful bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body that results in rapid movement of the head.

AND

Any change in the athlete’s behavior, thinking, or physical functioning.

Athletes who experience any of the signs and symptoms listed below after a bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body should be kept out of play the day of the injury and until a health care professional, experienced in evaluating for concussion, says they are symptom-free and it’s OK to return to play.

Signs Observed by Coaching Staff

Appears dazed or stunned
Is confused about assignment or position
Forgets an instruction
Is unsure of game, score, or opponent
Moves clumsily
Answers questions slowly
Loses consciousness (even briefly)
Shows mood, behavior, or personality changes
Can’t recall events prior to hit or fall
Can’t recall events after hit or fall

Symptoms Reported by Athlete

Headache or “pressure” in head
Nausea or vomiting
Balance problems or dizziness
Double or blurry vision
Sensitivity to light
Sensitivity to noise
Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy
Concentration or memory problems
Confusion
Does not “feel right” or is “feeling down”

Remember, you can’t see a concussion and some athletes may not experience and/or report symptoms until hours or days after the injury. Most people with a concussion will recover quickly and fully. But for some people, signs and symptoms of concussion can last for days, weeks, or longer.

Now, for some explanation to fill in the blanks…

To help recognize a concussion, you should watch for the following two things among your athletes:

A forceful bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body that results in rapid movement of the head.

The head, atop the neck, holds our precious brain — which has the consistency of pudding, and is surrounded by fluid which protects it from the bony inside of our skulls. Unfortunately, the bony insides of our skulls can have rough/sharp edges which can rake across the surface of the brain and cause damage that way, should the head/bodybe knocked so hard that the brain pushes past the protective fluid and scrapes against the inside of the skull.

You can see a video of different types of brain injury at YouTube. It’s very informative, and I recommend it.

When the body or head is hit hard enough, the brain can hit against the front inside part of the skull, be injured there — and then fly back against the rear of the skull (called coup-contracoup — which means head-back0fhead — injury), causing damage to the rear part of the brain as well. Under ideal conditions, the protective fluid provides an ample buffer to shelter the brain, and the inside of the skull is not really sharp and uneven. Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that that’s the case.

Forceful bumps or blows or jolts to the head can be things like:

being hit on the head by a ball, such as in soccer or baseball
colliding with another player and bumping heads
being elbowed or kicked in the head
colliding with the catcher and slamming your head against his/hers when you’re trying to steal homebase
falling and hitting your head on the basketball court floor

Another way the brain can be injured by a hard hit to the body, is a whiplash effect — where the connections that are located at the base of the skull and neck are twisted and torn by the head snapping forward and backwards really hard. You don’t need to be knocked out, and you don’t even need to have your head hit, to sustain a concussion in sports.

Forceful bumps or blows or jolts to the body can be things like:

being tackled hard in football
being fouled hard and knocked to the floor in basketball
falling during a soccer game
colliding with another player when going after the same ball
landing hard after any kind of fall, even if your head doesn’t hit the ground
running into the wall when you’re eplaying squash/raquetball

It’s important to remember that these very common collision/impact occurrences (which are part and parcel of just about any sport) will NOT necessarily lead to concussion. If everyone who was tackled hard, or fell, or was fouled hard and ended up on the floor/ground sustained a concussion, there would be a whole lot of impaired people walking around.

Being hit or tackled or falling during a game or practice is NOT a guarantee of a concussion. This is where the next criteria comes in… the “and” part.

AND

This AND is important. The first set of criteria — the bump, blow, or jolt to the head or body are no guarantee that a brain injury has occurred, but they can serve as a trigger to watch out for the following. The next point is what acts as an alert that a concussive event has occurred.

Any change in the athlete’s behavior, thinking, or physical functioning.

Signs Observed by Coaching Staff

Appears dazed or stunned
Is confused about assignment or position
Forgets an instruction
Is unsure of game, score, or opponent
Moves clumsily
Answers questions slowly
Loses consciousness (even briefly)
Shows mood, behavior, or personality changes
Can’t recall events prior to hit or fall
Can’t recall events after hit or fall

Symptoms Reported by Athlete

Headache or “pressure” in head
Nausea or vomiting
Balance problems or dizziness
Double or blurry vision
Sensitivity to light
Sensitivity to noise
Feeling sluggish, hazy, foggy, or groggy
Concentration or memory problems
Confusion
Does not “feel right” or is “feeling down”

Here are some examples from my own experience:

When I sustained a concussion from a hard tackle during a football game in high school, there was an immediate change in my thinking and physical functioning.

First of all, I was not thinking as quickly as I was before the hit. Even I could tell I was slower — I wasn’t following the calls by the quarterback very well, and I was clearly a little dimmer than I had been before the hit. I had trouble understanding what was said in the huddles before the following plays, and I had trouble following the instructions I was given. For example (I can’t remember the exact details, but this is how it was), when I was told to go long and then cut left at a certain point, I went long, but I didn’t cut left.
Secondly, I was not as coordinated as I had been before the hit. I ran clumsily — like I was drunk — and I couldn’t catch the ball when it was thrown right to me. I also stumbled a lot, and I fell a few more times. For all I know, I did more damage to myself, but I was so totally focused on continuing the game and not letting my teammates down, I refused to take myself out of the game. They had to stop the whole game, completely, to get me to quit playing. I was that stubborn.

When I sustained another concussion from a fall during a soccer game a year or two later in high school, there was yet another immediate change in my physical functioning and behavior.

First of all, I was a lot less coordinated than I had been before I fell. I couldn’t control the ball as well as I had before, and it felt like I was moving in slow motion. I stumbled and fumbled, and there was obviously something different about how I was playing.
Second, I was not the same player I’d been before my fall. Before, I had been aggressive and confident on the field. Afterwards, I was hesitant, confused, and I hesitated before shooting on the goal (or just plain failed to shoot). I had a number of opportunities to score, but I didn’t, because I was uncertain and confused. I was also less able to be a team player. I didn’t pass the ball to my open teammates as frequently as I should have. I also became more withdrawn and was not communicating with the coaching staff on the sidelines. It was like I was in my own little concussed world, suspended in a foggy soup that slowed down all the input and output.

Absolutely, positively. This must be done. Unfortunately, I myself never received any medical evaluation or treatment for my injuries. But on the bright side, I was removed from play in both instances. Nobody watched me afterwards to make sure I was symptom-free and it was OK for me to return to play. Then again, by the time I got to those games, I’d had a number of TBIs already, so I already showed symptoms of impairment. Still, the changes I did experience, on those two separate instances, were clear indicators that I’d undergone a concussive event. I only wish someone had known what to look for, and helped me out.

Another important piece of the CDC info is:

This cannot be overstated. Concussion, hidden as it is inside the skull, can also be hidden by time. It can take hours or days for symptoms to show up, which is why it is so important that not only coaches, but also teachers and parents and teammates are all familiar with the danger signs and informed about how to respond appropriately.

One of the things that can show up later, are behavioral issues. Indeed, behavioral issues are the bugaboo of mild traumatic brain injury, because on the surface everything looks fine, and the brain may have recovered from its initial trauma, but there are microscopic changes under the surface that can have long-lasting effects. If you know someone who plays sports, whose behavior has suddenly started to change for the worst – suddenly they have a lot of anger, rage, irritability, distractability, sensory issues, fatigue, insomnia — it could be they had a concussion during a game or some other event — and nobody realized it, including them.

Concussion doesn’t just affect the student athletes — it affects everyone who interacts with them, everyone who loves and cares about them. It’s in all our best interests to learn about it, learn what to watch for. And to report it to someone who can help.

As the CDC says, most people recover quickly and fully, and it doesn’t need to wreck their lives. But if you don’t pay attention to the first warning signs, it is all too easy to re-injure yourself (having a concussion increases your chances of experiencing another one from 2-6 times). So, paying attention, right from the get-go can help prevent other problems from happening.

In retrospect, I wonder what might have happened, if I’d stuck with track and field and cross country exclusively, and not played any team sports that involved tackling or the danger of falling/collisions. I wonder if I would have been so susceptible to drugs and alcohol, if my behavior would have been so problematic. Thinking back, I had a ton of problems when I was a kid that actually resolved as a result of organized sports. Unfortunately, the thing that helped me most, also introduced more problems to my mix.

Well, I can’t worry about it. What’s done is done, in my case. I’m just happy I’m as functional and well-off as I am, today.

I also hope that coaches and trainers and teachers and teammates are learning enough, today, to help avoid the kinds of situations I got myself into… and help address the after-effects of the kinds of injuries that I — and hundreds of thousands of others young athletes — experienced. The CDC material is really helpful, and they have lots of free information and additional materials available.

Check ’em out. It’s worth the trip.

Once we’re aware of brain injury… what then?

One of the things I hope happens during this month — March is Brain Injury Awareness Month — is that TBI awareness doesn’t “dead end”.

What I mean by that is, I hope that in learning about brain injury, tbi, head injury, concussion… whatever you choose to call it… people don’t reach the conclusion that a brain injury is The End of the Line for people who sustain one.

Proof that this can’t possibly be true, all across the board, is the fact that Every 21 Seconds, someone in the U.S. suffers a traumatic brain injury.

1.5 Million Americans suffer a traumatic brain injury each year.

And those are just the ones we know about.

There are very likely many, many more individuals who sustain head injuries (or concussions) and either never fully realize it, or who say nothing about it, don’t report it, don’t seek medical assistance, etc.

Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an awful lot of people. Which means, there are a whole lot of folks walking around with a history of head injury. And it means that this “silent epidemic” as some folks are calling it, has a substantial presence in our lives, whether we like it or not.

And although this silent epidemic is a serious one, from where I’m sitting, it’s not catastrophic. It doesn’t need to signal The End of Productive Life for survivors. And it certainly doesn’t necessarily mean that we TBI survivors are all disabled or incapable of getting on with our lives.

Now, I’m playing devil’s advocate here — and it may seem out of character, because I’ve devoted a fair amount of time and energy to raising awareness about the difficulties that come with TBI (especially “mild” traumatic brain injury, or mTBI). I’ve spent a lot of time talking about my difficulties and challenges and things that hold me back and get in my way. I’ve really wanted folks to get a sense for what it’s like to deal with TBI on a daily basis, not sugar-coating it, and not hiding the warts and bumps and foibles and screw-ups that beset me along the way.

I’ve taken the liberty of saying things here and voicing opinions that are clearly the results of my issues — temper tantrums and tirades and poor-me bitching and moaning. I’ve been as honest as I can be — on purpose — because that’s a side of this condition that needs to be acknowledged and reckoned with.

At the same time, though, I also want this blog to show how, despite these challenges and problems, it is possible to overcome them. With the right strategies and the right outlook and the right tools — and the right self-awareness — you can overcome mild TBI’s challenges and get on with your life. You can even overcome a more severe TBI — I may have had a more severe one that I originally thought, when I was knocked out by that rock when I was 8 years old (but I don’t remember how long I was knocked out, and I didn’t get medical assistance that could identify what the real story was with me, back then, so I’ll never know for sure just how severe that injury was — for all I know, my brain might have swelled or I had a bleed, or something like that, but 35 years after the fact, any evidence of that didn’t show up on the MRI or EEG).

TBI doesn’t have to be the end of the line. Concussion, either (and let’s use those terms interchangeably this month). A head injury may sideline you for a time, but it does NOT need to become a permanent, life-threatening condition that plunges you into chaos and desperation. For some people it may be that, but there is no rule written in stone that says that TBI is the end of the road. While the organizations and research facilities which are seeking funding and want to get the public’s attention around TBI may resort to dramatic accounts to get people’s attention and get them to take this national health issue (note, I am not saying “crisis”) seriously, as an individual I am saying that TBI can be survivable. And it does NOT need to permanently derail your life.

Now, I know the dangers of giving people false hope. Sometimes an injury is a permanently disabling one. Sometimes there’s just no chance of getting back certain functions and abilities. Sometimes the brain is just “done” in places, and the things it used to do, are things of the past. For people in that situation, I feel a great deal of compassion. Not pity. Compassion. They are in serious need of help — especially when their injuries have come as a result of serving their country, and their TBIs have left their spouses and kids and other family members with a huge gaping hole where their personality and presence used to be.

That’s a terrible, awful situation, and those folks need all the help our nation can offer.

But when it comes to Brain Injury, there is no set-in-stone rule that says a certain outcome is 100% predictable. There is no 100% certainty that a certain type of injury will result in a certain type of effect. Everyone is different. Every brain is different. We’ve got our genetics, our physical fitness, our personal expectations, even our individual character, to factor in. We’ve got past training and conditioning — physical, mental, spiritual — to consider, as well as the amount of support we receive. And then there’s plain old grit and mettle…

What happens to one person and results in certain after effects, can happen to another person and result in something completely different. It’s not an exact science, and there are as many unpleasant surprises along the way, as there are pleasant ones. There are no guarantees, and there are no unassailable absolute rules about TBI that say if such-and-such happens, you can expect such-and-such to occur.

Each head trauma survivor, and their family and friends, have to find out for themselves what is truly possible for them.

But while we’re learning about the issues and problems and difficulties and challenges, let’s also keep in mind the possibility that there is much, much more we have to learn about how much recovery is truly possible. For all we know about brain injury, right now, there’s a ton we don’t know. That goes for the brain, itself. And in this day of medical and scientific expertise, where trained professionals with “qualified” backgrounds are doing their utmost to help us feel more secure by being their expert selves, it would do us all some good to keep in mind that their demeanor and their outlooks are parts of roles they play — as experts, they must necessarily appear strong and confident and authoritative. Which opens the door to following them blindly down roads where the surface is not paved nearly as well as they would have us think.

And it can also close the door to other possibilities — the possibility that they might be wrong about how the brain works and how it heals. The possibility that they may be wrong about what the human spirit is capable of doing. The possibility that they may be looking in the wrong places for some of their answers, and that they might be discounting valuable information and experience that others can use, because it’s not part of a double-blind peer-reviewed controlled experiment conducted under tightly monitored conditions.

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month, and my own personal contribution to the collective awareness is this: Just because you sustain a brain injury doesn’t mean your goose is cooked for all time. There may be some things you have to let go of — like that go-go-go lifestyle that kept you from paying attention to your whole life. There may be some changes you need to make — like exercising regularly, or taking some meds to keep yourself cognitively engaged. There may be some challenges you cannot shake — like constant headaches and all-over general aches. But everybody has something they have to overcome. It comes with the human territory. And for every one thing that we have to let go of or adjust away from, there are about a million other things we can do or pursue, to take its place. Just because you can’t do ___________, doesn’t mean you can’t do _____________.

The world is bigger than that. And so are we.

Awareness of Brain Injury is just the first step. And it doesn’t have to be the last. There are millions of people who are dealing with the after-effects of TBI, years after the fact, and not all of them have been rendered incapable of living their lives. How well they recover and move on with their lives depends on myriad factors, not least of which is character and the strength of the human spirit. It’s not all about the brain. It’s about the mind. The body. The heart. The soul. The brain is one piece of the equation — it’s an important piece that cannot be disregarded. But it’s not the only piece.

This is important information. It’s critical. And it’s vital that we not lose sight of the whole person, when we look at TBI survivors. Each person has their own personal “constellation” of abilities and limitations. And each person has a choice in how they approach them. We TBI survivors may not have the same faculties as we had before our injuries, and we may not have the same faculties as others, but we are still very human and we are still very much alive, and that in itself should count for something.

That being said, during Brain Injury Awareness Month, I am really hoping that more of a conversation can emerge about the nature of brain injury, and we can hear more stories of recovery. There’s always the danger, I suppose, of successful recovery stories convincing people that brain injury is not that big of a deal, and that all you need is time and rest, for things to get back to normal. That’s not how it works. I’m not sure it works that way for anyone, brain-injured or not. Likewise, there’s the danger that showing the lives of people who were brain-injured who never fully recovered will tell people that once your brain is damaged, it’s the end of the line for you. That’s not how things have to work, either.

It’s more complicated that that. More complex. Perhaps more than can be handled and addressed and discussed in March.

Well, at least this is a start. The month is just beginning, and there are 30 more days in which to talk about all this.

Onward…

March is Brain Injury Awareness Month

And this month, the Brain Injury Association of America is putting a special emphasis on concussion with their campaign “A concussion is a brain injury. Get the facts.”

I’m really happy they’re doing this. As someone who has sustained a number of concussions in the course of my life — several of them during sports events — this topic is near and dear to my heart.

The more we know about it, and the better trained coaches are to recognize and respond to these events, the better off we will all be.

Because concussion doesn’t just affect the individual who’s been injured. It affects all the people they interact with, their families, their teachers, their peers. And in the long run, it can affect society on a very large scale. Violent crime and repeat offenses have been connected with TBI,

About eight years ago, a study was conducted which tested the hypothesis that TBI is related to violent crime. What they found was that more than half of the participants in the study (half of whom had been convicted of domestic violence, half of whom had no convictions) had sustained a TBI — the violent offenders had had more severe injuries.

Knowing about TBI and responding appropriately to it is important not only for the criminal system, but for all of us in everyday society. Whether it’s dealing with anger management issues, attention issues, poor performance which cannot be explained any logical way, or a host of other issues that come up after TBI (sleep issues being a big one for me as well as many others), the after-effects of TBI (even “mild” TBI) can have dramatic and long-range impact on many, many aspects of our lives.

And since we know, deep down inside, that none of us is really an island, we can safely way that individual problems can and do become collective issues.

So the more we know about TBI as a whole society, indeed, a whole world, the better equipped we can become to respond appropriately to it.

I hadn’t actually intended to write about this today, but m reminded me that it’s Brain Injury Awareness Month, so I’ve got to make mention of it.

I guess maybe I’m supposed to give more thought to the other things I was going to write, before I write them.

All good 🙂

It’s Brain Injury Awareness Month 2009

Did you know March is Brain Injury Awareness Month? It is and each March the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) and the BIA chartered state affiliates throughout the United States partner together with other organizations, businesses, schools, survivors and their families and others to generate awareness and understanding of brain injury. This year’s focus is dedicated to Sports & Concussions, specifically youth sports.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) an estimated 1.6-3.8 million sports and recreation related concussions occur in the U.S. each year. Concussions occur even if an athlete doesn’t lose consciousness and in fact, is the most common type of brain injury sustained in sports.

A concussion is a type of traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by a blow or jolt to the head. The severity of an injury can range from mild to severe. Signs and symptoms may be noticeable immediately, or it may take days or weeks before they are present.

Symptoms and recovery vary for each person, but awareness and seeking medical attention immediately following an incident are crucial steps in caring for yourself, a teammate, or family member.

Read more about this critical issue at the Brain Injury Association of America’s website. They have lots of great information and educational materials.

I only wish I’d had this information when I was in high school. It might have made a difference in how I handled my own concussions — not to mention my extracurricular activities.