concussion

We were on the farm on Fathers Day (September 4).

I was attacking the blackberry with gusto. It’s my new favourite weed, having taken first place from something we call ‘wandering jew’. And I’ve discovered the joy of using a hoe.

On this day, I pulled on a long tendril which had taken root, stepped back into a deep hole, fell backwards, and hit my head on a rock. I think that I must have blacked out for a moment because I awoke laying in a ditch completely drenched and muddy.

Apart from a sore head, there were no symptoms of concussion. We packed up and I drove the 4 hours home. When I got home I took some Panadol.

The following week, I continued to work, look after the three kids and the three dogs, got everyone where they needed to be, and did what needed to get done.

The crash came one week after my fall. My head was getting foggy. I was dizzy and light-headed. I’d alternate between sad and irritable. I was tired, confused, weak, and dazed. Stiff neck. Couldn’t remember what day it was. Constantly hungry. Something was ‘not right’. Sometimes my lips and fingertips were numb (injury to parietal lobe). And the small voice in my head was screaming at me to go to the doctor. I still managed to work, feed the kids and the dogs, but I was not at all well. My husband (a nurse by trade) said that it was possible to have a delayed slow bleed.

The GP did some neurological testing and checked my blood pressure. All was good. Just to be sure, he sent me for a CT scan.

The scan came back with ‘oedema’ and a linear line on the scan which the report stated could be ‘the possibility of a small bleed’.

Three weeks on, and my head is still very strange. It’s fine if I do very little. Doing most things makes my head throb, and thinking hurts. But when does one get to do very little? I’ve had one luxurious day of rest this past three weeks. I muddle through. Loud noises are like fingernails scraping a blackboard. I can’t follow a conversation containing more than three sentences. Our chatty neighbour bailed me up one day, and his nattering overwhelmed me so, that I must have been looking at him like he was speaking a foreign language and he gave up.

I’m desperate to get back on the farm. But, as it happens, the area is having a ‘once-in-a-generation flood’. There are 12 causeways leading to our farm and the water can get very wide and very fast. It’s not worth the risk. Dang! It’s school holidays and I wanted to go and stay there for a week or more. If we did manage to traverse the floods, all we could do is clomp around in the mud and sit in the cottage watching the rain fall.

So, my husband has been plying me with YouTube videos of tractors. Who knew that watching video of people mowing grass could be so interesting? I have not been so keen on a tractor due to their propensity to roll over and kill their occupants. And we have a lot of sloping land.

Ta da! Ventrac. An American tractor that looks like a cross between a bobcat and a ride-on. These things can go on 30 degree slopes. There are so many attachments available and they are here in Australia!

So, for the moment, I’m relishing the thought of all the jobs that nuggetty little tractor will help us to get done around the place. My husband says he’ll get me a hard hat.