Today, I was playing hockey. A girl checked me pretty hard, and I hit my head (I was wearing my mouth guard). My headache has died down, and I'm pretty much back to normal. I don't think I'm concussed. How soon should I be able to start playing again?
I would go to the doctor. It's better to be safe than dead. You shouldn't mess with these kinds of things. It sounds like you hit it semi-badly if it caused you a headache for a while. You probably won't have to get anything done like scans or w/e depending how bad it was, but its good to have a doctor look at it they can check your pupils or w/e and see.
You need to have a doctor clear you before you play again. This is something that is quite serious. There are some recent studies that show that returning to play with a concussive brain injury results in cumulative damage. Many professional athletes are showing signs of early dementia, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and Parkinson's disease. The studies are showing that many of them had head injuries that they did not report and they returned to play before their brain injury had healed. For this reason, many athletic programs are requiring a physician to examine players who take a blow to the head. And the player cannot play again until the physician has cleared them to do so. Definitely better safe than sorry when it comes to head injury. http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/youth.html
No matter what go see someone. There is no harm in seeing someone about it (except maybe financial) but your health is important.
I'd get it checked out by a doctor before you do anything. It's better safe than sorry. Like Kara said, head injuries aren't something to mess with.
Well, I've started playing again. Since I had no recurring symptoms and the imPACT test didn't show any signs of a concussion, my doctor ssaid I was fine.
Kudos to whoever ran a neurocognitive assessment tool on you. That's exactly what we want them to do before letting you off the bench again.
