concussionista

This spring, I co-captained an intramural soccer team with a nursing school/soccer buddy. It was an interesting experience, since only three of us were there to play because soccer is vital to our mental health. Everyone else was either good-naturedly dragged or literally begged to play. We played every game, despite frequent forfeits by one or both teams due to lack of numbers. This week, we had a game Tuesday night and another one on Wednesday.

In Tuesday's game (which we won by forfeit), the other team had recruited some DI (read: better, faster, stronger) players so we could scrimmage. I was positioning myself to control a ball headed toward me from the sky, when all of a sudden there was an explosion of light and I was on the ground, my skin stinging in strange places. Apparently one of the other players had full-on body checked me or something. Anyway, my teammates who saw the collision were laughing, describing it as an "epic" fall. Got up, carried on, got body-checked real hard again later by another guy, spent the rest of the game trying to protect my head with my arms when the beefy guys came close.

Had a headache that night, put the pieces together and figured out I most likely had a mild concussion. Told my dad, he agreed, but said I could play Wednesday anyway. I've never had a concussion before, but I've played soccer for 16 years.

Wednesday night rolls around and it's pouring rain. We got the game started, but no more than five-minutes into it I was taken down by a two-footed tackle by some overly-zealous midfielder. Hit my head on the ground.

Haha.

We went out to one of our favorite pubs after the game. Some of my nursing friends were concerned about my head and agreed with my decision to stick with water instead of beer, you know, just in case. The others tried to peer-pressure me into drinking anyway, because "it can't be that bad." They thought it was funny to spontaneously perform neuro checks and vision tests. Right. Hilarious. I did appreciate one of the guys asking me to text him when I woke up the following morning so he'd know I was ok.

Apparently at school on Wednesday morning, my co-captain had mentioned to my favorite peds faculty that I'd been concussed, to which the reply was "She should take it easy this week." Of course, my co-captain knows me better than that, so she snorted delicately and pointed out is was me that they were talking about. A fair assessment, really, since I hit my head again in the game that night.

Play every game like it's your last game.

Anyway. The headache is manageable, but now I have to study for finals.