David plays basketball with his boys in the cultural hall in our church building pretty much every Tuesday & Thursday night around 9pm till about 12am depending on who's there.
This past Tuesday September 18, 2012, David came home around 10:45pm which caught me off guard since he's hardly home this early. He come in with a bloody towel on his head and tells me he fell while playing ball and his friend Allen was going to take him to the hospital. He goes into the bathroom to check out his injury and comes out not remembering that he had taken his shoes off, brought his basketball home or that he had already told me Allen was coming.
I was worried at this point and called Allen to see what his ETA was. When he got to our house, David had already started asking me what was going on and not really remembering what I just told him. I told Allen to tell the ER doctor about David's rapidly deteriorating memory loss and to keep me updated. David wouldn't get in the car until Allen told him what happened and then asked again IN the car.
The ER doctor called me from Allen's phone & let me know that David had just suffered a concussion and that memory loss is a common symptom. He also told me to keep an eye on him and wake him up every couple hours to make sure he's ok and not vomiting excessively.
David came home with 8 staples in his head and a lot of questions. Apparently he was asking Allen the same questions over and over so Allen finally kept telling him lies since David wouldn't remember anyway.
He couldn't get his head wet and he was pretty stinky and sweaty from having played basketball so since he couldn't remember what happened? I decided to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't wash his head. After the shower and he was all clean, he kept asking me the same questions over and over & refused to go to sleep until he "figured things out". He kept me up until 3am with the following questions or inquiries.
1. What's the date? Tues Sept 18 or Wed Sept 19 after 12am. His response every time? "Hey! My birthday's on Friday!"
2. What's the year?
3. We have two kids right? Aaron & Raya? 4 & 2? - he kept getting up to take a look at them.
4. What do I do? Stay-at-home Dad. Response? He did a fist pump with a "Yes!"
5. What did I do before staying at home?
6. You're still a teacher?
He would sometimes stand up and I'll ask him where he's going & he say he wanted to look at his head and I'd have to remind him that I took a picture so it's already on the phone.
He would not go to sleep! He even managed to go shave his face when I must've dozed off ( I had told him not to worry about it).
He finally fell asleep around 3 or maybe I did since I don't remember answering any more questions. Good thing I was taking the day off the next day. I wouldn't have lasted at work!
His dad came over the next morning to give him a priesthood blessing and his mom came later that morning to check on him. (he barely remembers this and thought he might have been dreaming).
I posted on Facebook & Twitter that he got a concussion and his friends that were there filled us in on what had happened.
David was getting fouled a bunch (apparently this happens a lot) and he was getting frustrated. He had the ball and drove it hard to the basket but some guys fouled him and he lost his balance and tripped over his friend's leg. His lower back hit the floor first, landed on his arm and his head hit the floor HARD.
He still doesn't remember that night which is what the ER doctor said would happen. Otherwise he is all good and his short term memory is intact. Thanks for all the get well wishes and offer for help. We really appreciate all your love!
Now all he wants to know is when he can go back to play basketball!
