1.1 Seconds (Head Injuries Part II)
Recently, I returned to work from almost a week off work. This is the second week in less than a month that I have missed some or a good chunk of working time in order to attempt to properly re-cover from my fall on the ice. A simple “mistake” I will never make again, but a mistake I wish more than anything I had the power to reverse. Simply put, I’ve got a good old concussion. For me this concussion is life-changing and in my heart of hearts I hope to make it multi-life changing.In case you hadn't seen my previous writings, I was clipped on the ice at an single 'A' practice. Standing there, looking one way when unbeknownst to me a child behind me had lost an edge and ended up taking me out at the feet from behind, I was launched into the air, my helmet now off my head, and my head then hitting the ice first (with my less-than svelte frame, I imagine that’s a bit of massive thud!). This was a Saturday morning, and now some four weeks later I am starting to feel a little bit better, but far from normal.
I remember those days in high school playing football, basketball or hockey, and colliding with someone else or a puck, ball or wall and getting my “head rung”, once in my early twenties, under the influence of alcohol at a baseball tourney, launching myself in the air head first at a backstop upright pole – the lingering ringing in my ears lasted two weeks. The doctor at Sunnybrook, who looked at me at 6 in the morning (after lying on a gurney for the night “sobering up” told me I got my bell rung, but there was “no cause for concern, if it was a concussion I would have gone into convulsions by now”.
Flash forward twenty plus years and a lot has changed. Sadly a lot has stayed the same as well. Sport is the primary area of concern for concussions, as it the area in which the head is most vulnerable and the area where the head sees the most action. I leave the world of “big buck” sport out of the equation, because realistically there is little or nothing that I can say or do that will make a Coach or General Manager, a Sports Director or even a trainer change their ways and potentially sit a highly paid or highly-integral-to-their-success athlete out for a game, a week or a month. They are “paid to play” and play they must do. In the NHL, you are seeing more and more men missing games with concussions, but generally they miss one or two games and go back. Marc Savard is the most recent and obvious exception there. Lindros was chastised by Bobby Clarke for missing games for God's sake. In the NFL, there have been a string of head injuries this year whereby the player is mysteriously able to return to work inside of a week.
As a coach I have always had a rule on the bench, if a player is hit in the head or complains of anything to do with the head, they are out of the game. I then explain to the parents what happened and what I believe they should do. Again, emphasize that this is lower tiered competitive sports, not highly competitive, where the impact of missing a game is or can be different.
In my weeks since falling, I have been limited in my ability to attend my kid’s games, but in the few, I have seen, I have become “Captain Cautious”, and am often doing what I hated others doing, which is preaching to a coach or player about doing up this that or the other. Most of the comments I make are met with glares from coaches or volunteers with that look of “chuck you Farley, I know how to skate”. A few “thank you’s” have been given, but more the exception than the norm. Sadly though I can report that at every single practice I have witnessed since falling a minimum of one person on the ice has been wearing equipment improperly, leaving themselves open to the same type of accident I had or worse.
Why?
Why as human beings are we ignorant enough to challenge consequences as if they didn’t exist? It takes 1.1 seconds to do up a helmet properly. 1.1 seconds! And despite the popular belief of most hockey pucks out there, if you ask ANYONE you want to ask, a done up helmet looks no less cool than an undone one – in fact I would argue that most mom’s and dad’s and even kids looking on would tell you it looks way better done up properly – Tonight at a local arena – 6 coaches, one with helmet done up properly, another with a helmet and four others with nothing. Ignorant – In my opinion at least - yet not one of those coaches would listen to me when I asked them to stop after coming off the ice – Not one.
I really don’t want to be a preacher here – I’m further from perfect than most of these coaches, let alone society, but guys (and ladies too) you are being a complete and utter ass by not wearing the lid properly – and I guarantee each and every one of you that living in the post concussion syndrome world I am currently embroiled in, is, while better than the death alternative, one of the worst times in my life.
You are likely 1.1 seconds away from not having to put up with sleepless nights due to dizziness, the inability at age 46 to remember what was told to you by a colleague at work 30 seconds ago, headaches that last for days on end, and most importantly to me, the inability to see your own kids games because being upright for an hour make you nauseous.
I can’t single-handedly get the message out to everyone, especially given that my current condition requires lots of rest and relaxation, but I would appreciate it if you passed along this link to anyone you know who might benefit from reading it. I don’t want to become a preacher, nor do I really have it in me to set up some sort of on-line help line, but to date my warning and writings has made one person vow to change his ways and I am hoping that this letter makes at least one more change theirs.
posted by G.M. Shier @ Thursday, November 25, 2010
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