safe sports?

I took Daniel and Sam ice skating Thursday. We went to the noon session, and Sam taunted me into trying again to skate. I made it around the rink 3 times... almost. By 12:10 I was being helped up by the only other patron on the ice... an elderly woman appearing to be in her 80's. But one who could actually SKATE.

I hit my head really hard. Really, really hard. I took off my skates and left the boys to finish their session. Up the stairs of the rink to the main floor of the Jones Center. I was then lost. I had no idea where I was or how to get back to the car. I thought I may have taken the wrong exit. So I went back in the doors marked Ice Arena. There were the stairs I had come up, the same stairs, the only stairs. Back out through the doors... and into the strange place I didn't know. I decided to follow along the way I thought was right... and eventually found the parking lot.

That freaked me out pretty bad, so I called Tom at work. By then, I had a tennis ball knot on my head. He answered and I burst into tears. He agreed to call me every 10 or 15 minutes as I waited in the car for the twins. I was blinded by a headache... so after the second time he called, I agreed he should come get me. He and Ben went back later and retrieved the other car.

By the time I got home, I had a baseball sized knot, rapidly heading to softball sized. A blazing headache. I laid down, but there was no sleeping. No one can sleep through a headache like that!

About midnight, some 12 hours after the fall, the swelling was starting to go down and 'squishiness' set in. I took an ibuprofen at that point, and laid down. Finally got enough relief to sleep. I had work at noon Friday. After a couple of hours, I agreed I better see a doctor, I sure wasn't hitting on all cylinders. My speech was slurred and stuttering. I couldn't hold on to a customer's question long enough to give them an answer. I couldn't for the life of me read the simple work orders I had been left. While the headache was not as bad as the day before, it was still there. I called Tom (from my job) and he called and made a Dr appointment. I was the last patient of the day- and it was a quarter to six before I got out of there. Doc agreed that since I had done 24 hours, we could "wait and see" with close monitoring, whether I needed a CTI scan. He gave Tom his home phone and his pager number. Said call if he needed to meet us at the ER.

But I woke this morning with my head feeling much less melon- like. My speech and co-ordination is nearly as good as new. (I never said it was great to begin with!)
I have continued to feel really poorly all day. I assumed the 100* fever detected at the Dr office was a side effect of the concussion. Nope. Fever is not a side effect, I was told today. So gee.. maybe I am SICK as well as concussed. So my co-workers decided they can handle the store without me. It is freezing out, and a chance of snow... very few folks are working on their cars! I got to come home early.

I am ready for bed... and it is only 4:30pm.

Becky suggested maybe I take up knitting instead of any physical sport... but decided maybe NOT knitting, as it involves pointy sticks. Think I'll stick to reading, as soon as my brain can handle reading.