Apr
About 4 hours ago, I was riding an inner-tube in a wave pool and a wave flipped me backwards and since the water was very shallow, I hit my head on the concrete floor of the pool. I didn’t loose consciousness at all and felt rather fine when I immediately got up and looked to friends to see if anyone witnessed my astounding wipe out. Normally, I wouldn’t think anything of it. However, with the current news about what happened to Natasha Richardson, I began to worry about head injuries. Within 1 minute or so after the accident, i started to feel pain in my right ear canal when swallowing. The pain has subsided a bit and feels very much like the shooting pain you'd get if you had an ear infection. I’ve been staying up to make sure that I don't have any other symptoms of head trauma. I am absolutely coherent - in fact, I'm writing this post myself. I don't appear to have any excessive sleepiness (besides the fact that it's nearly 1:30 am). I do not have nausia. I still have an appetite. I don't even have a head ache. I’ve not had any bleeding or discharge from my ears, nose or eyes. Other than a tiny soreness in my neck and the mild swallowing pain which is getting superior slowly on it's own, I feel good as new. As I said, it's been 4 hours since the injury. I'm afraid to go to sleep and I worry about whether I should seek medical attention immediately or if I can wait since I have none of the tell-tale symptoms of serious head trauma. I'm very tempted to go to sleep at this point and see how I feel in the morning and over the next few days. Since the accident happened in the pool and I did swallow a little chlorine water during the incident, I'm wondering if that could be responsible for my ear pain. If there's a knoledgable person out there who can put my mind at ease and allow me to sleep, I'd appreciate your input. Am I just reading too many news headlines and being paranoid or is there real cause for concern with such a limited set of symptoms at this point.
Answer:
I would be careful My husband did the same thing last year. He jumped into a pool and hit his head pretty hard on the bottom. He ended up having to go to the hospital later in the day. And it started with just a little pain in his ear. He busted his ear drum. The impact from the fall put pressure on the drum and it just ruptured. As far as a major head wound, the physicians told my husband that since he didn't lose consciousness that they could pretty much rule out a huge head injury. But id state since its been that long and you feel fine I would try to get some sleep. Unless you have a huge not on your head that your worried about. I also don't think you're being paranoid. You are concerned about your health. That's normal for everyone. But if in the morning you feel at all off I would go straight to the hospital, even if it is just a case of better safe than sorry.
Answer:
I would think that four hours out with no additional symptoms, you should be fine. That stated, there's no point in taking the risk. I'd recommend you get checked out as soon as you can (right now if possible). I've read that symptoms of head trauma can take as long as 12 hours to become present and while I assume that's the far end of the spectrum, it's impossible to be certain you don't fall into that category. With today's technology, the relative simplicity of the tests you would need to undergo to ensure you're healthy and the fact that at there is likely a hospital within 20 minutes of your home, I'd say go for it just to be safe.
Just my view. Ideal of luck and feel better!