Blackham Week 1 - Skiing & Concussions

    Monday morning, I went up to Blue Mountain with my brother, Austin, to go skiing. Since he learned to ski so young, he’s almost just as good as me even though he’s six years younger. The difference, though, is he’s pretty much fearless. We were planning on going on two more runs before we had to leave. As he was going down a black diamond, he wanted to try to ski the moguls - even though he’s never learned how to. Well, long story short, he wiped out, got the wind knocked out of him, and hit his head pretty hard. When I got to him, he was frantically trying to rip off his mask, goggles, and helmet, but in the process, he tripped backward two more times. A ski patroller happened to be riding down the same run a minute later and stopped to make sure my brother was okay. Austin was having some short-term memory loss (like he couldn’t remember what day it was or what he ate for breakfast) and was feeling kind of dizzy and disoriented. Because of this, the ski patroller radioed for a toboggan to take my brother down to the ski patrol lodge, which Austin doesn’t even remember riding. The patroller determined that Austin probably received a mild concussion. After we got home, he slept for most of the day and felt much better when he woke up. To add to that, my other younger brother actually got a concussion before Christmas by running into a door. They’re 9 and 11-year old boys, so it’s always an adventure at our house! Thankfully neither concussion was too serious, and they’re both doing much better now. All that to say, while I was thinking of what to write about for this blog, I thought I’d learn more about concussions and the seriousness of that kind of injury. 

    Basically, your brain is protected or cushioned by cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the inside of your skull. A head injury causes your brain to slide and hit the walls of your skull. Simply put, this sliding affects the functioning of your brain, which leads to symptoms such as drowsiness, confusion, headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc. Depending on the injury, bleeding could occur in or around your brain, which could cause fatal symptoms. Other possible complications include skull fractures, microscopic structural damage, blood clotting, and lasting brain damage. My aunt was in a motorcycle accident ten years ago when she rode into a backhoe not wearing a helmet. She sustained a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and almost died because of the bleeding and swelling in her skull (she was only 16). She’s mostly functional now but still has some emotional setbacks from the damage to her prefrontal cortex. 

    Since a concussion involves the most vital organ in the body, besides the heart, it’s super important to avoid head injuries. A mild concussion usually heals within a few months with no lasting impacts. However, if another head injury occurs within a month or two of a concussion or before symptoms have resolved, someone could suffer from second-impact syndrome. This results in rapid brain swelling. While it is rare, it’s often fatal. 

   Moral of the story...wear a helmet! (And a mask!)