My head injury

[azfiddle]

Shooting Star,

So sorry to hear about your accident. No words of wisdom or experience but I'm happy to hear you're getting good support, advice etc. Just let you body tell you when you are ready to move back into your routines, as they unfold. Hugs- Sharon

[Serendipity]

Wishing you the very best, shootingstar! Take care of yourself - give lots of time for recovery!

[ny biker]

Shootingstar, I thought you might find this interesting.

https://formerf1doc.wordpress.com/20...for-formula-1/

The background is that Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso had a high-speed crash during a recent test session and spent several days in the hospital due to a concussion. He is now recovering at home. Today his team announced that he will not drive in the first race of the season on March 14, due to the risk of serious injury if he were to crash again so soon after this incident. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/31713292

Some people are speculating that he must have been more seriously injured than official reports have let on, as if a concussion were something that people always recover from quickly. After reading about your experience, the decision for him to miss the race made total sense to me. And I think it was a good decision -- in many sports, people downplay head injuries (and other injuries in general) so they can keep playing regardless of possible long-term consequences.

The writer of the blog post above is a physician who used to be the medical rescue coordinator for F1 racing. Prior to that he was the assistant to the medical rescue coordinator Sid Watkins, who is credited with making huge strides in improving driver safety.

[shootingstar]

I don't follow sports car racing, so was unaware of head injuries, ny biker. So good that he is withdrawing from racing.

May I suggest to anyone who hears the term concussion if they are affected: use the term head injuries. That's what it is. That's how doctors who I've dealt with term it. The term "concussion" obscures the reality of what it is.

The more I stumble across head injuries stories and its downplaying for so long in various sports, because people don't want to let down rest of the team /don't want their individual performance to be viewed as weak if they withdraw for recovery / driven by money purse.....it's shocking.

My sister-emergency medicine doctor emphasized that multiple head injuries for 1 person in their lifetime, is cumulative damage to the brain.

A Canadian hockey player Steve Matador surprised the NHL fan world when he died @ 35 yrs. just a few wks. ago this yr. http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/st...ss-away-early/ It's very sad, because his father sits on the board of directors on hockey safety with a well-known Toronto doctor in spinal cord and head injury trauma who has been tireless advocate in Canada nationally for ie. seat belt safety (for preventing spinal cord injury) in cars, bike helmet .....

It actually is now disturbing to me, that head injuries would be even downplayed in the cycling world ....

Here is an readable medical article: http://www.cmaj.ca/content/185/11/975