concussion!

N heard word on Friday that he passed his general exams, meaning he's officially a PhD candidate. To celebrate, we went down to Gettysburg and planned to bike around.  I remember waking up, packing, sleeping most of the drive down, parking, and going into a visitor center.  I sat in the back of the car with the hatch open and put on sunscreen, and have a hazy memory of stoping to look at a monument while going up a hill.*

But then I biffed it pretty bad going down that hill. I think it was a combination of my going to fast (which I tend to do), a gravelly road, and my brakes being a little worn down.  I got a concussion, had an accompanying seizure, and spent about 5 hours in ER--good times! I also go scraped up pretty bad, especially on my face, but it should heal pretty well, with maybe one or two small scars.

I had some severe short term memory loss initially.  N got the car to drive me to the ER, and when he got back, I said something like I don't know what happened, but I know I'm married to you and I love you.  N said I kept asking the same things over and over again.  Did I just finish my first week at Hunch?  I have to get a new helmet now, right?  Are you cold?--you can get in here with me.  I'd get stuck on one to five things and just repeat them over and over, with less than 30 seconds between repetitions of the same question.  He says I thought it was July 2011 for the longest time, and that I talked about my first garden here.  I was pretty punchy too.  When we checked in, N was getting a little worked up, and I told him, blood running down my face, that he needed to calm down.

I feel like I'm pretty back to normal memory-wise now.  I can't remember what happened after visiting the monument or much of the ER, but I'm able to remember most of what happened after checking out of the hospital.  However, it's still pretty early in the recovery and they say that it could take up to months for me to get back to 100% memory.  I need to have a follow-up early this week in order to see if I'll be allowed to go to my conference in Ireland (I'd have to leave about a week from now).  Part of me wants them to say I can't go.

* The monument memory came back to me when we drove by it, but I forgot about it until I was writing this.  I also remember seeing signs for an auto tour, and saying that that's what we did when I visited as a kid with my family.

Above: When we checkedout out of the hospital, we drove by where I crashed before heading home.  There I be.