A bit of Growing Concern...

[Dragonfly]

Okay, so a lot of you heard about the car accident I had last week. I smacked the back right side of my head rather thoroughly.

In the hospital they said that the CAT scan showed no concussion or bleeding.
But I experienced intense headaches over the past week. And there is still a lot of swelling around the area struck. I'm wondering if this is normal?

I'm also having a lot of trouble with writing. I keep writing the second letter of the word first, something I've never done before.
I also noticed a trend in replacing "a" with "e".
I've noticed it happens to a lesser extent when I'm typing, and usually it's something with my left hand not typing fast enough to spell the word correctly. (To be fair, I cracked my upper left arm really, really well on the steering wheel and couldn't grasp anything for 2 afterwards, so it might still just be recovering.)

And furthermore, I've noticed that while I pride myself on my large vocabulary, I can't seem to find the right words for anything anymore. I said "alternatively" instead of "adversarial" to someone last night. And they looked at me like I was nuts, rightfully so, the sentence didn't make any sense!

Someone PLEASE tell me this is all okay, it just goes with things healing up and it'll go away :(

[AnnaFaerie]

Go to your doctor again and get yourself re-checked. I wouldn't say it is anything serious, but it needs looking at. Head injuries are tricky...don't put this off..pick up the phone and at least tell the nurse what is going on. She can then tell you if you need to come back to the office.

[Mistress Kath the Innkeep]

Yes, do check with your doctor! My mom had little weirdnesses going on for a few weeks after her concussion last summer... she had a clean CAT scan, too. Fortunately, there was nothing serious going on, but if you are seeing things you *know* are wrong, get it checked, ASAP.

Sending good wishes!

Kath

[Dedeley]

Do not delay - run, go check it! For peace of mind if nothing else. And keep us informed. We care.

[saphoenixsilver]

Definatly go get rechecked. Like it was said earlier, head wounds are tricky. I do hope that everything goes well though/

[Pathos]

By way of reinforcing the other responses here my advice would be:

DON'T LOOK FOR MEDICAL ADVICE ON THESE BOARDS!!!

We're all people who LIKE you and are CONCERNED about you but we're NOT DOCTORS! Go see a doctor and tell him your friends say you should see a doctor!

Let us know how you are! :D

[Absinthe d'Accalia]

Definitely talk to your doc - hopefully it is a temporary situation and you'll be back to status quo lickety-split!

[Dragonfly]

Ahhh...I appreciate the input.

My problems are tw-fold, however.

I do not have a family doctor and the nearest person who is in the network for my health insurance (in case that needs to be billed) is in York, 30 miles away. I don't have the time available to take off my job to drive down there and do that during a work day.

Also, this probably requires some special machinery, something that the hospital is most likely to have. I don't have the time to sit 4 hours in a waiting room either, waiting for them to take a picture of my skull. I know I hsould ~make~ time, but I'm really busy.

There is the further difficulty that I"m not sure if car insurance gets billed on this or medical insurance, since it isn't the initial diagnosis and treatment. And I'm not sure who to call or who to ask.
I have a bad habit of getting overwhelmed in these situations and looking at down at my hand with an "Ummmm...." look on my face.

nevermind that the phone company just accidentally drew too much money from my account, forcing an NSF fee, making me officially broke until Friday. I won't be able to afford the gas to drive to these places. :(

I appear to be SOL these days.

[Jessa]

Get a friend to drive and take a sick day off of work. Or just take a day off without pay. Seriously. If you think its difficult now, imagine how difficult things *could* if your concentration problems persist life-long, or grow worse.

I am NOT a doctor, but I that some head injuries with persistant symptoms CAN grow into permament brain and/or nerve damage if left untreated. The only way to be sure that your brain is safe is to get to a doctor ASAP!!

[Galleywench]

Take some advice from someone going through nuerotherapy for brain damage...get it checked out by a doctor now! Keep a journal of daily problems, by tracking things as they happen you minimize the risk of forgetting to tell the doc something important.

Take the day off...better to lose one day now than the rest of your career if you ignore a potentially serious problem.

If it turns out to be related to the accident then get on the phone with your insurance agent and find out how and where to submit those medical bills.

[Lug Ironjaw]

I'm not a doctor, but I am studying to be one. ( also am a Nurse)

1) Head to the doctor now. Just because your original CAT scan showed nothing was wrong, it doesn't mean that you're not injured. An MRI may be needed to further evaluate you.

2) DO NOT WAIT ANY MORE - Go to the Emergency room. At triage, tell them your symptoms. Tell them about the accident, the headaches, and the cognitive problems. I doubt you'll be waiting long after that. If need be tell them you're having a headache at that very moment and that it's hard to concentrate. That should get you in ahead of the guy that's throwing up.

Any head injury if left unchecked can leave you with the possibility of permanent damage. It can leave you paralyzed on one side or leave you with persistant headaches and possibly memory loss and loss of function such as speech, motor function, and sensation.

Hospitals are not evil places as far as billing. Since this is probably related to your accident the insurance will possibly pay for it. If not, you can work out a payment plan with their business office instead of getting large bills. But they cannot refuse to treat you on the ability to pay.

Again...head to the ER. This sounds serious and even if it isn't, you need a Doctor to evaluate you for these new symptoms.

[Adriana Rose]

Please go get your head checked!!!

Mum cracked her self really good in an altercation with our backhoe and she had a really bad concussion....
And yes she did the stuff that you are doing please Dragonfly go get checked at least by the ER docs...

[Foxglove2660]

I do not have a family doctor and the nearest person who is in the network for my health insurance (in case that needs to be billed) is in York, 30 miles away. I don't have the time available to take off my job to drive down there and do that during a work day.

Also, this probably requires some special machinery, something that the hospital is most likely to have. I don't have the time to sit 4 hours in a waiting room either, waiting for them to take a picture of my skull. I know I hsould ~make~ time, but I'm really busy.

There is the further difficulty that I"m not sure if car insurance gets billed on this or medical insurance, since it isn't the initial diagnosis and treatment. And I'm not sure who to call or who to ask.
I have a bad habit of getting overwhelmed in these situations and looking at down at my hand with an "Ummmm...." look on my face.

nevermind that the phone company just accidentally drew too much money from my account, forcing an NSF fee, making me officially broke until Friday. I won't be able to afford the gas to drive to these places. :(

I appear to be SOL these days.


This is directly a result of your auto accident Dearest, therefore it is under your auto insurance. Your medical insurance would only be involved if you exhaust your auto coverage.

Um. No. there is an MRI place on Trindle Road right beside Delbrook. Do you want their phone number? It is on speed dial in my cell phone.

I will drive you. Anyone in my family would drive you. The Redhead will drive you. That useless sot you are dating may even be persuaded to drive you.

Dragonfly, please take care of this. You are the only Dragonfly we have...

Why didn't you ask me about where to get an MRI done?

[FairieTink]

Go to the ER late at night, ususally they are slower, unless gods forbid something huge has happened.

[Dragonfly]

@ Foxglove~ Because if it isn't gushing blood and/or torn off completely, the Davis clan does not bother themselves with it. It will go away, like all good health problems do...
That, and I didn't really want to freak anybody out...

Now...an update!

My shiny new sister-in-law is a PA. Last night she did some quick tests on me (making me follow the pen light, stuff like that) and said that I looked okay. But then she sat down and listened to me talk for 2 hours, watching me get frustrated when I said the wrong word or hesitated because the word wasn't coming to mind at all. She then said that she would look in to things for me, see if she couldn't find me a place to get my head scanned.
According to her there's a chance there was some swelling after the accident which could be the cause of these problems. It sounds very serious, but she said it wasn't unusual and that problems like that can last up to a month, so she was going to keep a close eye on me in the meantime until we can get it checked out.
She also said no headbanging. So no metal fests.
On the plus side she said that the bruised area would also take a month to go away, but that my cut had healed very cleanly and looked very nice.