I need to get back to something safe like climbing

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 1 - 20 of total 35 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 20, 2014 - 07:07pm PT

Full body head-slam into rock during trail run yielded this blood smear.

Poles didn't help me this time. Hand-pressure stopped the bleeding in a minute or two, but not before there was a blood streak down my side. I felt fine, so carried on with the run.

The fresh-from-an-ax-murder look freaked out some hikers as I loomed menacingly over the crest of Bonticuo Crag, obviously looking for more victims to butcher.

The accident report will read FALL ON TRAIL, INATTENTION, RUNNING ALONE, NO HELMET.

Captain...or Skully

climber

in the oil patch...Fricken Bakken, that's where

Aug 20, 2014 - 07:16pm PT

Haha! I took a header on my mtn bike one time(yes, I wear a .gd helmet these days) but anyway I broke my fall with my face...bloody mess, bike all jacked. ..ended up pushing it back. Folks on the trail would gasp and say "are you ok?"...to which I replied "do I look ok? Go away"...good times maaaan.

looking sketchy there...

Social climber

Lassitude 33

Aug 20, 2014 - 07:29pm PT

Wow, that looks serious. Hope you heal up soon. Almost every bloody injury I've had -- several involving stitches -- were Mt. Biking. Seems climbing injuries are either minor scrapes, overuse, or potentially fatal.

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 07:39pm PT

Had I been on a mountain bike there'd be some excuse. But I was just running on the trail and my mind wandered for a moment. I didn't lose consciousness after the fall, but rather before it. When your mind wanders, your skull pays the price.

The wound isn't at all bad, although the blood smear on the rock did get my newly revived attention. Skull lacerations bleed out of all proportion to their seriousness.

coolrockclimberguy69

climber

Aug 20, 2014 - 07:57pm PT

My knee hurts right now because of my stupid ass mountain bike. I've never endo'd into a pile of scrub oak while rockclimbing so I think your on to something, rgold.

ionlyski

Trad climber

Kalispell, Montana

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:02pm PT

Well let's get back into climbing then Rich. Keep running but don't stop climbing. Never!
Glad you're OK.

Arne

JEleazarian

Trad climber

Fresno CA

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:09pm PT

The accident report will read FALL ON TRAIL, INATTENTION, RUNNING ALONE, NO HELMET.

I think we've read too many accident reports. Something over 45 years ago, in a cross country race, I slipped in the mud and crashed into a palm tree. My teammates were convinced it happened because I ran without my glasses and couldn't see the tree.

John

MH2

climber

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:15pm PT

How hard was the knock? Be on the watch the next couple days or get a scan if you think it was bad enough to do something internal.

Poles?

Inattention?

As long as the sense of humor survived.

zBrown

Ice climber

Brujò de la Playa

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:28pm PT

Let me get this straight. That blood on the rock is from your head? Did your arms break the fall?

You need to go and have a concussion exam as per Tami. I speak from personal involvement here. My wife took a header in a stairwell and was still showing detectable impairments 6 months later.

Do a little poking around on the Internet regarding the long term effects and recovery required. Hint: "post concussion syndrome".

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:30pm PT

Damn! You have purple blood? How did you escape from Area 51?

MisterE

climber

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:31pm PT

More climbing, less running?

Sounds good!

Heal up!

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 08:34pm PT

Thanks folks; I didn't see stars or even bit players or, as I said, lose consciousness after the impact. No nausea, headache, pale cool clammy sweating, balance was fine. No confusion or amnesia. Well, I did wait for a moment for a bevy of super hot naked angels to bear me off to the promised land (or at least back to Area 51), but they were apparently otherwise engaged in a Miley Cyrus video. I begged that I had twerked my ankle to no avail.

As for breaking the impact, the road rash indicates that I reflexively did what I learned to do as a soccer goalie, which is to land on the side on the lats and glutes with the hands off the ground (because you are supposed to catch the damn ball). This meant I hit the side of my head, not the front, and it wasn't the first thing to hit the ground.

I did carry on with the run, which surely indicates a lack of good sense, but that was present (which is to say absent) in abundance before channeling humpty dumpty.

Still, that's more blood on the rock then I've ever deposited in 54 years of climbing. And yes, it was all from the head laceration.

MH2

climber

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:52pm PT

Chances are excellent that you are fine. People who whack their head can have a little internal bleeding but if that were found all a hospital would likely do is observe you for 24 hours. Chances are very small that anything serious will result and if it happened to me I would just wait and see, too.

Try to miss rock the next time.

mike m

Trad climber

black hills

Aug 20, 2014 - 08:53pm PT

You definitely should've took a selfie.

Blood on the face makes the best Selfies.

rgold

Trad climber

Poughkeepsie, NY

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 08:59pm PT

I never think to do that. I've taken one selfie in my entire life (and its posted on this site).

JimT

climber

Munich

Aug 21, 2014 - 03:56am PT

Damn! You have purple blood? How did you escape from Area 51?

Richard is part of the aristocracy, didn´t you know?

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 21, 2014 - 05:03am PT

hey there, say, rgold...

man oh man... and a: whewwwwwwww, glad you are okay...

or, at least, hope you are okay...

Wait till neebee sets her fangs into this thread. Dude, yer toast

hee hee, tami:
fangs, latching onto this subject, now,
though most delicately as possible... :)

head injury awareness:
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/BrainInjury/
THE LINK, SHOWS THE SYMPTOMS:

Some of these symptoms occur at the time of the injury. Other symptoms may not be noticed for days or months after the injury, when a person returns to their everyday life.

VERY GOOD INFO SITE, HERE:

http://www.biausa.org/about-brain-injury.htm

Closed Head Injury
When a person receives an impact to the head from an outside force, but the skull does not fracture or displace this condition is termed a "closed head injury". Again, separate terminology is added to describe the brain injury. For example, a person may have a closed head injury with a severe traumatic brain injury.

With a closed head injury, when the brain swells, the brain has no place to expand. This can cause an increase in intracranial pressure, which is the pressure within the skull.
If the brain swells and has no place to expand, this can cause brain tissues to compress, causing further injury.
As the brain swells, it may expand through any available opening in the skull, including the eye sockets.When the brain expands through the eye sockets, it can compress and impair the functions of the eye nerves. For instance, if an eye nerve, Cranial Nerve III, is compressed, a person's pupil (the dark center part of the eye) will appear dilated (big). This is one reason why medical personal may monitor a person's pupil size and intracranial pressure.

Causes

According to the Centers for Disease and Control Injury Prevention Center, the leading causes of traumatic brain injury are:

Falls: 40.5%
Unknown/Other: 19%
Motor Vehicle: 14.3%
Struck by/Against: 15.5%
Assault: 10.7%

JUST please, keep checking on yourself, and take
care... let folks know, if things seem wrong, even if
months later... there may be a connection...

zbrown, had a good share, there, too...
and tami, of course, :)
:)

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Aug 21, 2014 - 05:07am PT

hey there say, rgold... just the newer post, say,
you would know best, too, as if it was a hard hit to the rock, or just
a scrape, after you hit the ground first, with your body...

good to know that...
thanks for sharing all this...

always good to share, and thus open the doors for
head injury awareness...
:)