Got a concussion

Steve

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Ok.

So let me ask you.

Did either of those 2 include magnetic resonance imaging?
I’m pretty sure not in my case. We’re MRIs a routine diagnostic in the 80s and before? I don’t recall. If anything, an MRI was pretty cutting edge and in our for profit medical industry, I would guess most people didn’t get the use of the most expensive machine in the facility. 😅
 

Gyakuto

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I’m pretty sure not in my case. We’re MRIs a routine diagnostic in the 80s and before? I don’t recall. If anything, an MRI was pretty cutting edge and in our for profit medical industry, I would guess most people didn’t get the use of the most expensive machine in the facility. 😅
CT Scans were common and their resolution is much better than most MRI scanners.
 

Steve

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CT Scans were common and their resolution is much better than most MRI scanners.
That could be. Which of those is the one with the tube? I've had a couple of those for my back.

Regarding the rest, I'll take you at your word. Just sharing my experiences. Maybe I just didn't have very good insurance. We were pretty poor growing up.
 

Gyakuto

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That could be. Which of those is the one with the tube? I've had a couple of those for my back.

Regarding the rest, I'll take you at your word. Just sharing my experiences. Maybe I just didn't have very good insurance. We were pretty poor growing up.
MRIs are a ‘tube’. CT Scans are more like a polo mint 😀

In the U.K, head scans are routine for people with significant head injuries. My elderly father (RIP) once fell and banged his head on a bathroom sink and had quite an egg on his head! The paramedics came and wanted to take him to hospital for a head scan. As he lay on the bathroom floor, he told them to ‘P*ss off’ as he wasn’t going to wait for 4hrs in a drafty, cold A&E for a scan and since he was he a retire consultant physician he knew his brain was fine 😂 He demanded a whiskey when they left….not his first of the day, I’m sure!🙄
 

Steve

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MRIs are a ‘tube’. CT Scans are more like a polo mint 😀

In the U.K, head scans are routine for people with significant head injuries. My elderly father (RIP) once fell and banged his head on a bathroom sink and had quite an egg on his head! The paramedics came and wanted to take him to hospital for a head scan. As he lay on the bathroom floor, he told them to ‘P*ss off’ as he wasn’t going to wait for 4hrs in a drafty, cold A&E for a scan and since he was he a retire consultant physician he knew his brain was fine 😂 He demanded a whiskey when they left….not his first of the day, I’m sure!🙄

Got it. So, I've never to my knowledge had a CT scan for any reason. Though, it's possible they did one the last time... I hit the bottom of a swimming pool with my head and spent the night in the hospital. That night was a blur, to be honest, so who knows what they really did? That must have been around 1986.
 

JowGaWolf

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If the supporting evidence is ‘peer reviewed’ and/or from an independent (has no stake in the claim) educational establishment (University), a government agency (such as the NHS) and preferably from multiple sources saying the same things, then it moves from being an unsubstantiated opinion to substantiated and likely ‘true’ until further evidence says otherwise of course.
This shouldn't be a problem as multiple sources can be posted to either verify or dispute another source. In terms of medicine there will always be disputes not all doctors believe the same cure. It wouldn't be the first time that multiple sources have been posted. Studies are often temporary as well and there have been times where one study stated that a chemical was safe, only to learn more about it in the future and then reverse it. Multiple sources = a more accurate picture. A medical opinion is still valuable which is why people recommend getting that second medical opinion. One doctor may know something that another one doesn't One doctor may be more political.
 

Gerry Seymour

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We're not talking about how hard you got hit at Lacrosse.

5-7 concussions is high, pro or amateur...

It's high compared to most humans living today.
That depends how you're defining concussion. If you're counting major concussions, you're probably correct. Many athletes have had a bunch of minor concussions (and yes, those count). I know of at least 2 I had playing soccer in a recreational league (hit in the head by a kicked ball) and at least two from bad falls in MA. I likely had one in a car accident as a kid. And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. Soccer players who "head" the ball are likely suffering small trauma from that, though I doubt they'd often qualify as concussions. Football players are likely suffering minor concussions on a percentage of hard hits - we just don't have a good way to measure that at present.
 

Gerry Seymour

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All they can do is ask ya questions see how ya respond tell ya to go home with somebody, make sure they wake ya up every hour to make sure you wake up, no sedation of any kind! Give you a aspirin if ya have a headache and see what happens a little later. At first reading is out, can’t concentrate really on anything, conversation is out ya seem to just be in a blur, sunlight hurts, ya just slowed down. Depending on how bad it is first time count on a few weeks to 3-4 months to get over it, effects can last 6-9 months afterwards guess it comes with age too!! Maybe it has affected me somewhat then again there’s whatever! Have read were people get hit in the head and dies a few hours later. Life is strange!!!!!
I'm not a medical person (though I do have WFR certification), but aspirin is NOT recommended (nor are other NSAIDs) with a suspected concussion, bercause of the risk of bleeding.

Medical professionals can do much more than ask a few questions and suggest incorrect medication.
 

Gerry Seymour

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Maybe you're an outlier dude, and I'll have to dig up some studies but 5 diagnosed concussions is on the high end as far as I've ever known, but especially now in football etc.

Did you know you can't even enter certain full contact fighting comps if you have a history over just a handful of diagnosed concussions? They won't even let you fight, and you have to provide medical files to prove it (and that you don't have HIV etc).

Let's keep medical concussion separated from hitting your head, getting tackled, etc. Big difference.
"Diagnosed" would mean those were seen by a medical professional. There is a long history in sports of NOT suggesting that.
 

Gyakuto

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. That night was a blur, to be honest, so who knows what they really did?
Do you remember what the aliens did to Cartman in the very first episode of South Park? 😉
 

Gerry Seymour

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Let's keep it to the clinical definition, which is brain damage. Traumatic closed head injury.

And yes, the brain is well protected in it's little pool from many impacts. I've done both full contact sports and combat sports, including competition. Never one concussion (well there was this one time playing tackle football with my buddies, major cooperative slam of two giants both going for the ball...it is was like matter and antimatter coliding).

Trained boxers take hundreds of strikes to the head (per fight in some cases, thousands over a career), few cause concussions. Otherwise every pro and ammy boxer out there would have CTE.
There is some question whether all impact is the same. Axonal twisting appears to be in play for knock-out blows. Since part of the determination of risk is change in responsiveness, being knocked out seems to qualify as a concussion. And the brain's "little pool" doesn't protect well against that.

As for boxers, it's very likely more than we know have CTE. Without post-mortem examination, it's difficult to identify milder forms of it.
 

Gerry Seymour

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1 of 5 injuries ok. 20%.

1 concussion per kid? .91 per 1000 seems pretty small to me.
That's .91 per 1000 athletic exposures. We'd need to know what that term means. It seems likely that refers to a game or practice. If you're practicing 4 times a week and playing once a week, you'd hit 100 exposures in 20 weeks. I'm guessing that's close to a season's exposure.
 

Oily Dragon

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"Diagnosed" would mean those were seen by a medical professional. There is a long history in sports of NOT suggesting that.
That's why I was glad to see it on the forms I had to sign to fight full contact.

If I had more than (I think it was 3) on file, sayonara baby. Somebody somewhere was watching out for me.
 

Oily Dragon

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There is some question whether all impact is the same. Axonal twisting appears to be in play for knock-out blows. Since part of the determination of risk is change in responsiveness, being knocked out seems to qualify as a concussion. And the brain's "little pool" doesn't protect well against that.

As for boxers, it's very likely more than we know have CTE. Without post-mortem examination, it's difficult to identify milder forms of it.
This is why I focus on defense. Hands up, chin tucked. Neck strong.
 

JowGaWolf

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That could be. Which of those is the one with the tube? I've had a couple of those for my back.

Regarding the rest, I'll take you at your word. Just sharing my experiences. Maybe I just didn't have very good insurance. We were pretty poor growing up.
MRIs and CT weren't common. Those were big ticket items back then. Also concussions weren't viewed in the same light back then. A bump on the head was just a bump on the head. It was only a biggie if you passed out. Repeated hits to the head. I grew up on the Three Stooges so that gives a person some insight on how head injuries were viewed as lol. and how to defend against eye pokes lol
 

tkdroamer

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CT Scans were common and their resolution is much better than most MRI scanners.
If that is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn't) why are MRI's used so heavily in orthopedics?
 

Gyakuto

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If that is true (and I have no reason to believe it isn't) why are MRI's used so heavily in orthopedics?
MRIs do not use powerful ionising radiation (X-Rays) to form an image whereas CT Scans do. There’s a limit to how many CT scans you can have in a year as a consequence and cannot be used at all on pregnant women. MRIs use tiny changes in magnetic flux’s caused by the rotation and realignment of protons in hydrogen molecules of the body. But you cannot use MRI scans if people have most types of ‘metal work’ in their body and even the repeated use of metallic scalpels can leave sufficient quantities of microscopic ferro- and paramagnetic particles in and around the incision as to ‘blur’ the MRI image. To avoid this you used to be able to buy flint/obsidian scalpel (yes…dragonglass 😄) but they're very pricy and I can’t find them online anymore 🤔
 

tkdroamer

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MRIs do not use powerful ionising radiation (X-Rays) to form an image whereas CT Scans do. There’s a limit to how many CT scans you can have in a year as a consequence and cannot be used at all on pregnant women. MRIs use tiny changes in magnetic flux’s caused by the rotation and realignment of protons in hydrogen molecules of the body. But you cannot use MRI scans if people have most types of ‘metal work’ in their body and even the repeated use of metallic scalpels can leave sufficient quantities of microscopic ferro- and paramagnetic particles in and around the incision as to ‘blur’ the MRI image. To avoid this you used to be able to buy flint/obsidian scalpel (yes…dragonglass 😄) but they're very pricy and I can’t find them online anymore 🤔
Ah, that explains a lot. I am chocked full of metal.
 

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