Confessions of a Concussed Cyclist: you will not ignore me!

December 28, 2019

One of the first lessons I learned after being thrown into the brain injury world was that you could not ignore a brain injury…you could try but you would pay a dear price for doing so.  Despite being taught this lesson often over the past five years, I still try to test my boundaries. Some might say I’m a slow learner but I prefer to think I’m just very stubborn.

This past week I pushed my brain injury once again and once again my brain injury let me know it was still the boss.  Friday night I was sitting at my parents table, chatting with my mom and my nephew when it hit. Nausea. Post-concussion migraine ramping up.  Dizziness. Suddenly feeling too hot. I tense up because I’m uncomfortable and in a lot of pain, so my whole body begins to ache in protest. Uh-oh!  Minutes before I had made the comment to my mother that I knew I’d done too much and my brain was going to call it quits soon; I just wasn’t expecting it to be so soon!  I left within a few minutes and drove straight home. I needed to quickly take anti-nausea medication, migraine medication, and lay down. After about 30 minutes I thought I had the energy to get up, shower, and then crawl into bed but I was still too dizzy, so I continued to lay down and wait for my brain to forgive me for overdoing it.  It took a few hours for the symptoms to calm down enough so that I was able to get some sleep. I woke up this morning to find that my rattled brain was still holding a grudge for doing too much and I would continue to pay the price today. Another beautiful day when I could be outside; another day of plans cancelled; another day on the couch; another day living with a traumatic brain injury.