If you were in a car accident, you wouldn’t neglect getting your car repaired. If you were injured in that car accident and broke your arm, you wouldn’t refuse to see a doctor and get a cast on your arm. So why do some people refuse to go to the doctor after they’ve had a brain injury?
Brain injuries are also called concussions. They can happen in a variety of ways. A person can fall, and their brain shakes inside their skull, bruising and injuring it. Just the same as if you bang your shin against a chair and a bruise forms on your leg, if your head is hit hard, your brain has the potential to smack into your skull and get a bruise of its own.
What activities come to mind when you think of what causes a concussion? Some people might think that you must hit your head really hard, such as in a car accident, in order to have a concussion. It turns out that while you can indeed get a concussion in a car accident, you also can get it by simply tripping and falling. You can get a concussion colliding with another person such as when playing contact sports or even riding a bicycle. Wearing a helmet is important because it protects your skull from outside injuries, so don’t ever skip wearing a helmet.
So if you tripped in your house and fell down, or collided with a teammate playing baseball, or if you were in a bicycle, motorcycle or car accident, or even if you were jogging and looked down to avoid something in your path and whacked your head on a thick, low hanging tree branch, you need to go in and be seen. There’s no question and there should be no argument at all. But people will come up with arguments such as not having time to be seen, or not being able to miss work, or not wanting to waste a doctor’s time. Perhaps you think you just had a minor bump on the head, so you will take a nap and some pain killer and be just fine.
The truth is that you probably shouldn’t eat anything after a brain injury. If you went in to see a doctor, they would tell you that. They’d also tell you a few other things. First, no one ever really has time to be sick, and no person can truly afford to miss work. But illnesses and injuries occur anyway, and people are forced to take care of themselves. If you don’t, you can experience setbacks which may make you miss even more work. So, it’s best to just be seen immediately so that you can be on the road to recovery as soon as possible. They’d also tell you not to eat in case your stomach is sensitive after concussion. Sometimes people get nauseated after a head injury.
Finally, if you are going to take a nap, make sure to have someone wake you and check your mental clarity regularly. It might seem annoying or unnecessary but monitoring during rest is important. To learn more about the importance of proper care after concussion, call for your appointment.