Hit your head? Don’t just shake it… Leave a comment
stock photo of a provider and a concussion patient
A January grocery trip for Charlotte Davis turned out to be life-altering.
The Shipman, Illinois, woman was loading food into the back of her van when she says the hydraulics failed, and the back door slammed into her head.
While she didn’t lose consciousness or have any visible signs of trauma, Davis doesn’t mince words: “It hurt really bad.”
Davis says she put up with worsening headaches, garbled speech and weakened memory as long as she could.
“I tried to drive one day. I hit a flower pot, drove through the ditch, missed my turn, forgot where I was going three times,” Davis says. “My eight year old granddaughter told her mom, ‘Please don’t let Mawmaw drive anymore. She’s scaring me.’”
When a CAT Scan found no brain bleed, Davis wound up at the OSF HealthCare rehabilitation office in Alton, Illinois. She was skeptical at first but now considers herself a prime example of why you shouldn’t just shake off a head injury – whether it’s in a football game or just around the house.
Physical therapist Kelly Bogowith cared for Davis at the Alton office.
“All concussions are a form of at least mild traumatic brain injury,” Bogowith says. “So it’s important to make sure that you get assessed and also ensure that you’re not playing sports later that same day. A provider can give you education on how long you should be sitting out from sports and other physical activities, as well. And that might even include work.”
“Sometimes with concussions, we may not have symptoms for hours or even weeks afterwards. So it’s important to get checked out by your physician, urgent care, emergency department, or athletic trainer, depending on your setting,” Bogowith adds. “But it’s not something to shake off. And it can be especially important, too, to not have a second concussion because that can be very dangerous and even deadly.”
