So, I got concussed Tuesday. My experiences, and others can add theirs.

[MiltonWaddams]

I’ve had 4 documented concussions and the only one that I recall the immediate after-effects of was skiing at high speeds and hitting an unseen large chunk of avalanche debris. I tomahawked down the slope about 100 feet and remember not seeing for about 30 seconds. My helmet was cracked in half. I laid down, seeing spots/stars for 20 minutes as my friends climbed up to me. I was able to stand up and get my gear on. my friend gave me his full-face helmet  and went with me to the hospital to ensure I was okay. I kept spinning and spitting into the front of the full face helmet…irregular for me as I don’t generally do so. I spent 3 days in a dark room with my girlfriend having to stay with me to be sure I was woken up every 30 minutes. My equilibrium was a mess for a month. 

[Golden*Wheels]

I hurt my back once, but it was actually a back injury.

[Shaw66]

Never been concussed, so far as I know.  And that's another part of this - concussions that do brain damage sometimes are mild enough that they don't generate the symptoms people are talking about here - headache, dizziness, loss of memory, etc.  Apparently concussion damage is cumulative, and if you're concussed and have no symptoms, you've still added to your long-term damage.  And so, you have guys who even today can still talk their way back into the game, because they don't have apparent symptoms.   I think that's what happened with Tua.  I think the testing they did on him in the Bills game wasn't thorough enough to determine that he had in fact been concussed, so they let him go back into the game.  It seems to me that any doctor who looked at the replay of his head injury and how he walked when he got up should have said, "You're done for the day."  

 

Over 20 years ago, sliding in on a close play at the plate in a high school game, my son got smacked in the head on a swipe tag by the catcher.  (This was before the concussion issue had become serious in the NFL.)  He lay at the plate for a few seconds, stunned.  The coach came out.   I was thinking, "get up and shake it off."   Coach kept him on the ground for a few minutes, then took him out of the game.  He told us to go to the doctor after the game.   My son had a headache and didn't feel well that night.   Doctor wouldn't let him play until he had been symptom free for a week.   Symptoms lasted a week, and as a result he missed the end of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs.  Still, I was really grateful that they were that proactive about it. 

 

There simply is no question about the long-term impacts of this stuff, maybe not for every player, but for too many.  It's one thing if their fingers are mangled or their knees are failing them.   It's another thing altogether when at age 50, guys' ability to think clearly is fading, memory is shot, etc. 

 

The NFL won't like it, but their protocol should be fail-safe.   That is, if there's any question at all, the injured guy should not be allowed back in the game.  There haven't been many cases recently like Tua's, because the protocol seems to be working pretty well.   There's very little question this time, however, that either the protocol failed or someone cheated.   Is it possible that Tua's problem last Sunday was not a concussion?  Sure, it's possible.  But given what happened Thursday night, there just seems to be no reason to have allowed him to play just because Sunday MIGHT not have been a concussion.  

[BringBackFergy]

 

There was this one time  I was on my lunch break and decided to walk through the mall and grab something to eat.  I had to use the restroom really bad.  So I went in and put toilet paper on the seat to protect against germs and other bodily fluids which might be on the toilet.  I took care of business and buttoned up.

 

I then walked out of the bathroom and down the main corridor of the mall toward the food court.  I had to weave in and out of others during lunch hour but generally the mall uses the same "rules of the road" as with driving (everyone stays to the right in one direction). After 100 yards or so, there was a wall of mirrors.  As one is apt to do, I naturally glanced over toward the mirror to glance at the dashing young man called Fergy.  Everything looked in check: the suit, the tie, the hair was spot on.  But what was that 5 foot white tail dragging on the floor behind me? My preventative steps toward germ free bathroom use, created a long toilet paper trail hanging out of my pants.

 

That was more painful than my tonsillectomy in 1982.

 

I have never fully recovered. I lost a lot of sleep.

 

Public bathrooms haunt me.

[Just in Atlanta]

I was in first or second grade, hanging on a tree limb while my grandma raked leaves. 

The branch cracked, sending me falling with the back of my head hitting her waist-high rock wall, which outlined the property.

 

I don't remember how I felt but I will always remember hearing the sound of what I thought was a baseball unravelling in slow motion by my ear. A whoosh sound. 

[boater]

4 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

I've been told that's the one thing you're not supposed to do if you suspect a concussion

When I got concussed, I very strongly wanted to go to bed, and I did. Maybe I'm lucky to be here.

[TheBrownBear]

I've gotten my "bell wrung" a few times as an adult by bouncing my head off the ground in mountain bike crashes, but never went to the ER.  Just headaches and tiredness for the rest of that day. 

 

Had one concussion in a high school summer league basketball game after taking a knee to the head while diving for a lose ball.  Didn't lose consciousness, but saw stars and was wobbly when I tried to get up and walk, similar to what we saw from Tua on Sunday.  Went home that evening and went straight to bed and was still asleep when my Mom got home from work the next day - I had slept for basically 20 hours straight - it was the strangest thing.  Little nauseous that evening, but was basically fine when I woke up the following morning.

[Sweet Lou]

September 1991, it was a Sunday, don't remember the actual date, it might of been the last Sunday in September, but I lost control and went over the handlebars on a steep downhill, during an off-road motorcycle race.  After the crash, I knew I was ***** up.

Out of frustration I removed my Bell Helmet and threw it with my left arm.  Right arm was dislocated and broken.  I was raised to my feet by a fellow racer then escorted off the track to an ambulance nearby.  I was taken to a trauma center somewhere in Cattaraugus County.  From there I ended up at ECMC, but don't remember how I got there.  I was told later that I was air lifted.

I do remember them cutting off all my gear at ECMC, including my boots.  I remember bitching about being naked and remember them bitching about the whereabouts of my helmet and who removed it.

I told them "I DID!"  They set someone to retrieve it after I described what it looked like.

From there; a complete blank until I heard the voice of a nurse sitting beside me in a chair while I was laying in bed, at ECMC.  She was a very pretty girl who told me you have to stay awake.  She also told me that I was an "#######" downstairs and you're naked because you had minor, manipulative surgery, so you gotta learn to relax.  I was actually embarrassed by her scolding.

The last thing she told me was: "Concussions ruin people, so try to remember who you used to be."

There was a bills game on the TV but I don't remember the details because I had a hallucination, which I had to describe to the nurse and I still remember it to this day.  I vomited only once.  After I got home I had an EEG (brain activity stuff) and some muscle and joint therapy later on.

I completely recovered with no side effects, but I think the whole experience was directly related to my divorce five months later on February 8, 1992.

I have a great wife and a great marriage now.  We originally met in 1993 and became the best of friends, then we got married in 2018. 

So;  the concussion was the best thing that ever happened to me, but I wouldn't want to go through it again, nor would I wish it on anyone.

 

[GoBills808]

I skinned my knee yesterday

[BaaadThingsMan]

Had a concussion from HS football. Spent a few days in a dark room, on my knees with my head on the floor wondering if it would ever end.

 

I recovered by Friday and played the whole game both ways then hosted the after party 🤷‍♂️

[BuffaloMatt]

I get concussed every Sunday thanks to the King of Beers. I always clear protocol for the next game. 

[Dr.Mantis_Toboggan]

About 20 years ago, as a young man who was pretty certain he was invincible, I decided that I was going to pursue pro wrestling. Far from the biggest guy, I knew if I ever wanted to achieve my goal, there would be some bumps bruises and broken bones along the way.  Unfortunately I did not go the proper route, and a friend of mine had done some workshops with ECW vets and so I told him to just show me what he learned… along with a bunch of other backyard wannabes. Then another backyard wannabe somehow procured an actual wrestling ring, and shortly after the biggest joke of an independent wrestling company, Roc City Wrestling, was born. Following no actual licensing requirements, with no medical staff on site or proper insurance, it’s really a wonder how they were able to run without being fined, but this is also oddly enough where the late Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper- RIP) go his start.  Anyway, so you got a bunch of backyarders doing the most sorry excuse for pro wrestling in the world, but most of us were just happy to be in a real ring. My first few matches, while not at all watchable other than for cringe inducing entertainment, were fine and without injury, but I realized this wasn’t exactly for me, not like this, I wanted to go to a real wrestling school.  So I stop, a year or so goes by and they call me up asking to come back, and I oblige bc I still hadn’t been able to save up to make the move for wrestling school and just wanted some ring time.  Big mistake, they put me in their with two of the single biggest jackasses ever. I got one guy straight up stiffing me with punches to the forehead, then I get blind sided by an uncalled spot, a spear of the top rope, and my head just bounces of the mat full force, out cold, and then come back to being pinned, but it wasn’t supposed to be the finish, and I remember the ref only counting to two, even tho I didn’t move to kick out, and the first thing I remember seeing is blurry faces and kids yelling “he didn’t kick out”! So then I kinda roll a bit, and I hear “Shane! Shane! Cmon Shane!” And I’m just thinking who the Frick is Shane? Then I realize, ohhhhh, I’m “Shane”.  So I manage to roll to the corner, as if I’ve just finished the last step of “stop drop and roll”, make a tag, and then proceed to just roll right off the apron to the outside floor and lay there, with zero medical attention, until the end of the match.  Then my tag partner, I’m assuming helped me to the back? I don’t remember the walk back, I do remember being in the dressing area, and trying to walk and then going full Tua on Sunday, stumbling and falling flat on my face, luckily into a pile of wrestling mats as this place was a big karate dojo. Even then, there was no medical attention, and being 19 or so myself, I didn’t realize the severity of the issue.  This was my third head trauma as a result of being careless with pro-style wrestling, but this by far felt worse than the others.
 

The other two both involved my tag partner, a couple years prior when I was 16 or  17, the guy who bought the ring, previously rented a ring, and I took a power bomb without knowing how to bump properly (turns out even after semi-learning it was still an issue, and not one I cared to keep trying over and over until I got it right) and my head smacked off the mat, as well as a chair shot on the top of my dome from the wrong part of the chair… Sean, if you’re reading this, you suck… oddly enough, my whole childhood I was cursed with such intense headaches I had to undergo CT Scans and MRIs, only to find that my headaches were stress induced, but it was a scary enough experience that I never wanted to go through that type of testing again.  Now I’m just kinda praying, for my family’s sake, that I don’t end up with CTE or already have it.  No lingering headaches, but I do feel like time is almost distorted sometimes, and I’d just be lying if I didn’t say my temper can be embarrassing at times.

Oh and years later, I ran into Huber (Brodie) and brought up RCW and his response was “oh yeah, we used to watch that video over and over, rewind, just brutal”… My only regret is not getting a copy of that tape and a good lawyer.

 

Go Bills!

Edited September 30, 2022 by Dr.Mantis_Toboggan

[ExiledInIllinois]

48 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

I skinned my knee yesterday

You sir are an inspiration.   A true warrior! 

 

Okay... 🌈 Warrior! 😉 

[BigAl2526]

I've never been concussed.  I should have been multiple times.  Just lucky, I guess.

[The Red King]

Thanks, all.  Knock on wood, it seems like I could have been much worse off.  That aside, given all the recaps here it is terrifyingly negligent for the 'phins to put Tua out there Sunday for the second half, or yesterday at all.

[Generic_Bills_Fan]

6 hours ago, The Red King said:

So I fell on Tuesday and cracked my head on the corner of the wall.  This post applies to more then just Tua's concussion, it applies to Trent Edwards and everyone else players or otherwise.  That's why I made a separate post.  Anyone else out there that got a concussion can add their experiences as well.

 

Let me tell you where I'm at.  Tuesday was bad.  I ended up in the ER.  I was dizzy, with double vision.  When I got home, I was stuck in bed.  Now Wednesday I felt a lot better.  My head was mostly better.  I was fine in bed or in my chair and just a little fuzzy when I got up and moving.  I could move around with pretty much no difficulty.  I figured things were recovering quickly.  On Thursday I felt much the same, no better, no worse.  Then I woke up today.  My head is swimming.  Things are not as bad as Tuesday but they are worse then the last two days.  I need to be careful when I get up and move around.  That's when I discovered I'm not alright and it's going to be some time before I am.  I can't imagine what this is like for football players who are rushed back into playing.  Tua is, of course, the worst example but this applies to anyone who is concussed.

 

So, what is the point of this post and why is it separate?  I want to get other members' experiences.  How their concussions affected them and how much time it took for them to recover.  I also want this to be a precautionary tale to anyone who gets concussed in the future, to look at these posts and not rush themselves back so that they don't risk additional injury.  Finally, I want this post and additional replies to put NFL concussions in perspective.  Sometimes it's hard to see how concussions can truly impact players, not just short-term, but long term as well.

 

So TBD members who have suffered concussions, I want to hear your stories as well...

I’ve had two pretty minor ones.  First one I was scrambling for a loose ball on the floor face down in basketball and someone kneed me in the back of the head and smashed my head into the floor.  I was very woozy with hazy vision.  I felt better a couple hours later.

 

second one I caught an edge snowboarding and fell backwards and smashed my head on ice with no helmet.  I was really nauseous and had a pretty serious headache but wasn’t as woozy as that first one. Both were mostly better the next day.  My hair grew in gray in the spot where I smashed it on the ice for months after 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Generic_Bills_Fan

[seattlebillsfan]

Got a concussion from a bike wreck (wearing helmet) a few years ago. Was incoherent for about an hour and can’t remember much. Spent the night in the hospital. Took a few days off of work and was advised by my doctor not to look at a computer screen or phone for 2 weeks (my secretary saved my bacon; it was back to the 1950s…). Followed instructions and have never had any Ill effects….No screentime plan worked well for me….

[US Egg]

The Dolphins have forever altered the concussion protocol…..and it won’t be fun.

 

If in 2023 there isn’t some sort of new take extra precaution Tua preventative rule, I’d be surprised.

[ExiledInIllinois]

6 minutes ago, I am the egg man said:

The Dolphins have forever altered the concussion protocol…..and it won’t be fun.

 

If in 2023 there isn’t some sort of new take extra precaution Tua preventative rule, I’d be surprised.

Flag football. 

 

Thanks Dolphins!

 

[Shay]

I suffered a serious concussion due to being thrown from a horse at age 13, 

I was completely unconscious until I woke up my head covered with blood, and  with a huge head gash in an ER,   My parents drove me to the hospital as this happened on a rural road, I had no recollection of the ride.
i remember dizzy spells and a terrific headache and my parents not allowing me to do much for a few days,   And I did get back on the horse🐴 and love riding to this day (now with ⛑)