EM got concussions twice while she was with me and I'd say she was uh, compromised for about six weeks in each case. She was out of it and forgetful and had a hard time concentrating and found it harder to articulate things.

The first time she knocked herself out was at a pet store. Emmett had run into the back storage area, and she'd run in to collect him. She stooped down to get him and as she stood up in the semi-dark storeroom she cracked her head on one of those big, metal circuit breaker boxes. Laid her right out.

I've only had a mild concussion (after falling backwards off a broken bus ramp in my old powerchair), but it was not a barrel of laughs.

Btw, bus company has admitted liability and I'm waiting on the schedule of damages. That part is decidedly more rewarding.

All this concussion takes makes me wonder if a movie/TV show has ever gotten being knocked unconscious right. Usually, the person comes to and are acting completely normally, except maybe with a headache.

It also makes me think about all those times Giles got cold-cocked.

And also about my landlord, who is still in in-patient rehab for his fall a month ago, entirely due to the head trauma at this point.

NCIS: LA did have a character mention that he was concussed after being knocked out, but he certainly didn't act that way. They just never cover the amount of PAIN involved. It doesn't just hurt where you got hit--it hurts to exist. Everyone looks so spry right afterwards, and with no cumulative damage unless it's a boxing/MMA plot.

My BiL is has a concussion right now and it is not effing great. He was hit by a car while riding his bike to class on Monday evening. (Loveable) idiot that he is, was wearing no helmet.

There have been a flurry of articles recently about how prevalent concussions are in the NFL and the brain damage they cause in players. Helmet on helmet hits almost guarantee it.

The Giants had a catcher retire because he'd been concussed so many times just from foul balls hitting his catcher's mask.

The Giants had a catcher retire because he'd been concussed so many times just from foul balls hitting his catcher's mask.

And in soccer, D.C. United's Josh Gros had to retire because of after-effects of a concussion.

The flurry of articles and conversation about concussions is largely due to Malcolm Gladwell's article in the New Yorker. Fascinating, harrowing reading.

Hope you get some help and feel 100% again soon, Anne.

She was out of it and forgetful and had a hard time concentrating and found it harder to articulate things.

In the category of Everything I Know About Head Injuries I Learned Playing Rugby*, one of my friends who never could learn to put her head to the side when tackling had a temporary stutter after her last few concussions.

My worst one (associated with my blowout fracture ), left me so sensitive to light in the affected eye that a friend made me an eyepatch with electrical tape for my ride home.

* see also: ACL Tears, How to Take Care of a Drunk Person, Dirty Limericks for All Occasions, etc.

On an entirely different topic: My fiancee's father just agreed to come to our wedding.

This is really big. If I weren't stuck in bed with a cold, and also currently in another country from her, there'd be big celebrating.