I think I may have just been Concussed

I'm not really sure if I have a low-level concussion. Tonight, I played in an ice hockey game at Pickwick Gardens in Burbank. Late in the first period, I grabbed the puck off a drop pass and made a nifty move to the center... where I promptly got smashed by some sort of pick-up truck or SUV on the ice.

It hurt, but it hurt less because the ref called a penalty on the guy who hit me. Wasn't a dirty play, since he was going for the puck, but he tried to go through me to get to it.

Later in the game, I felt REALLY tired and I started to develop a headache sitting on the bench. I just wrote it off to me being woefully out of shape, which is true. On the drive home after the game, I realized my neck was really sore. And just a few minutes ago, I heard ringing in my ears. I've read enough about hockey injuries to know that these are signs of a concussion, so I felt the need to do some quick research.

Wikipedia, you complete me.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concussion

Concussion, or mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI), is the most common and least serious type of traumatic brain injury.

TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY?!? I don't like the sound of this. I'm skipping over the words "least serious"... frankly, because my eyes can't get past the words TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY. Oh man. I LIKE my brain. I don't want it traumatized.

Okay. Let's see the symptoms-

Unconsciousness. Nope - I never lost consciousness. I'm clear here.

Vomiting. Nope. Haven't vomited. Not that I know of.

Confusion. Hm. Not anymore than usual.

Visual disturbances. Don't even know what this means. I'm pretty disturbed, but not visually, so I guess I'm good.

Amnesia. Nope. There are plenty of things in my life I'd LIKE to forget. Man, I need someone to invent some real Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Worsening Headache. Nope. It's actually getting better.

Ringing in the ears. Only happened once. Hasn't happened since.

Drowsiness. Nope. It's almost 2 a.m. and I feel energetic.

Unequal pupil size. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL? My small Asian eyes are pretty unequal to begin with. I'll need some sort of magnifying glass to make sure. I'll go ahead and assume that this one is a yes.

Increasing disorientation. I'm fairly disoriented all the time. Ugh. I just mistyped disoriented as disorientated, tried to fix the typo, then misspelled it disoriental-ed. Better put this one down as a definite maybe.

I'm not scientist (and the world breathes a sigh of relief), but I'll play one here (and the world panics). I believe I got my "bell rung" - and I have a couple concussion-like symptoms. But I do not believe I got even a grade 1 concussion. I don't believe I was ever confused... unless I was and somehow forgot it.

The fact that I decided to blog about this right now was also a test to see how disoriented (nuts, I just mis-typed it as disorientated again...) I was. And seeing as this blog post is no funnier and no more rambly than any of my other posts, I'll go ahead and assume I'm going to be fine.

Though, maybe I'm just getting old and this is senility kicking in. I know I know - I'm too young to be talking about senility. But if my choices are senility and something with the words "traumatic brain injury"... BRING ON THE EARLY BIRD SPECIAL.

Ow, my brain...