ER Visit #3

June 19, 2007 started out as an ordinary day…nothing to make it more memorable than the day or week before. After work I went to my Weight Watchers meeting (plug for WW here – the program works, I lost 34 pounds over 8 months in 2007). Matthew had asked me earlier in the day to attend his softball game that night. This was his second season to play on one of the company teams, but I had never made it to a game. I think this was only the second or third game of the season.

The game started at 6, and I showed up around 6:15 or so. As soon as I got there, one of the wives told me I should go check on Matthew. So I walked over to see what was going on. From a distance, he looked fine. One of the guys on the team told me that he had been running back in the outfield to catch a ball, fallen, and hit his head on the ground. He must have hit it just right because it knocked him out for a little bit (just a couple of minutes according to them). Several guys and an umpire suggested that I take him to the ER. I had to ask where the nearest ER was and we drove there. All the while, Matthew was trying to go back into the game. He had no idea what was going on.

Matthew couldn’t remember much. He was in a euphoric state, but his memory was certainly lacking. He did not remember what happened on the field. He asked me how I got to the game. He didn’t remember inviting me earlier that day. I told him what the guys had told me had happened, and he asked if he caught the ball (he did in fact catch the ball). He didn’t remember how long we had been married (I honestly think he didn’t know we were married but was trying to figure things out), where we lived (or that we had just built a house), where our friends lived (who had moved to Dallas and Seattle since we moved to Colorado), where family members lived, or how old he was (although this is something he doesn’t remember anyway).

All the way to the ER, I kept asking him things to see what he could remember. Other than some of his memory being gone, he seemed pretty normal. I asked him if he could tell me the alphabet (he could), count for me (he could), and other questions about our lives. Some things he knew and some things he did not know. I tried to keep him talking so that he wouldn’t get tired or groggy. That wasn’t a problem because he kept asking me questions as well. He would ask me what happened, where we were going, where I came from, etc. As soon as we made it through those questions, he started over with the first one. At first, I told him he had just asked me that question. I thought he was playing with me, but he wasn’t. So I quit telling him that I had already answered the questions 5 or 6 times. I just tried to calmly answer him.

Once we got to the ER, I took him inside and as I told the guy and girl behind the counter what was happening I almost started crying. All I could think to say was, “he hit his head and keeps repeating himself.” As soon as I said that, they told me he most likely had a concussion. Thankfully, the ER was not too busy when we walked in and they took him directly back to a room. As we were checking in, they would ask him questions which he didn’t know the answer to…address, phone number, insurance, birth date, etc. He did however know his social security number which I thought was interesting.

We were at the ER for hours. He had an MRI to make sure there was no bleeding in the brain. There wasn’t, which was fantastic news. He kept the nurses and other patients laughing because he was in this euphoric state. He was so happy and everything was exciting. “We built a house? I can’t wait to see it.” “I was knocked out. That’s so cool! I’ve never been knocked out before.” Then the shock wore off and he was in great pain. The rest of our time there was miserable.

The next day was our physical for our life insurance. That was fun. Poor Matthew did not feel well for days and even weeks. He was dizzy, nauseous, in pain. He spent a lot of time in the dark. At first, he couldn’t even watch a movie without feeling sick. Over the weekend we returned to the ER because the symptoms had not gotten better. Unfortunately, the ER was much busier this day and we waited a long time before getting called back. The best they could do was offer him pain medication. The effects of the concussion slowly went away. The doctor could only say his brain had been knocked around pretty good.

Some things to remember for the future…

• If I see someone sustain such an injury and a spouse or family member is not there to do so, I will call 911 or take the person to the ER myself. Why didn’t anyone think about either calling me or calling 911 if they were so worried about him and knew he should go to the ER? They didn’t know I was supposed to show up at any moment.
• If a person is repeating himself after a head injury, that could mean he has a concussion.
• As this was his second injury in two seasons of softball, Matthew is no longer allowed to play on the company team. Isn’t that sad?

So you see there was not even a year between ER visit #3 and ER visit #4. Thankfully, there was no blood involved in this injury. That does not make it any less serious, but I was able to deal with it better than this last accident.