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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 20, 2014 - 07:07pm PT
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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.
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Captain...or Skully
climber
in the oil patch...Fricken Bakken, that's where
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Aug 20, 2014 - 07:16pm PT
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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.
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looking sketchy there...
Social climber
Lassitude 33
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Aug 20, 2014 - 07:29pm PT
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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.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 07:39pm PT
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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.
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coolrockclimberguy69
climber
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Aug 20, 2014 - 07:57pm PT
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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.
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ionlyski
Trad climber
Kalispell, Montana
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:02pm PT
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Well let's get back into climbing then Rich. Keep running but don't stop climbing. Never!
Glad you're OK.
Arne
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:09pm PT
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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
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MH2
climber
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:15pm PT
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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.
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zBrown
Ice climber
Brujò de la Playa
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:28pm PT
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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".
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:30pm PT
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Damn! You have purple blood? How did you escape from Area 51?
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MisterE
climber
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:31pm PT
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More climbing, less running?
Sounds good!
Heal up!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 08:34pm PT
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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.
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MH2
climber
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:52pm PT
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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.
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Aug 20, 2014 - 08:53pm PT
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You definitely should've took a selfie.
Blood on the face makes the best Selfies.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 20, 2014 - 08:59pm PT
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I never think to do that. I've taken one selfie in my entire life (and its posted on this site).
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JimT
climber
Munich
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Aug 21, 2014 - 03:56am PT
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Damn! You have purple blood? How did you escape from Area 51?
Richard is part of the aristocracy, didn´t you know?
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Aug 21, 2014 - 05:03am PT
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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, :)
:)
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Aug 21, 2014 - 05:07am PT
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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...
:)
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survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
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Aug 21, 2014 - 06:35am PT
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This is AWESOME!
Rich, scars make you look tough.
Ohhh, the women will be all over you now, lucky bastard.
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clinker
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
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Aug 21, 2014 - 06:36am PT
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head injury awareness
That is a name that may get used.
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The Lisa
Trad climber
Da Bronx, NY
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Aug 21, 2014 - 09:14am PT
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Rich, I am glad it is only a flesh wound.
I won the Best Blood award in a trail race once but I think you would have me beat.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 21, 2014 - 09:28am PT
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good thing you only use your brain for your livelihood...
...I'm notorious for not getting these things checked out. Once I was T-boned by a police cruiser in Illinois, totaled the rental car I was in... fortunately the cruiser hit about 3' in front of the passenger door. The cop wasn't wearing his seat belt, hit his head, and was convinced he had killed me.
He was out of his car in a flash and desperately yelling at me "are you all right?"
I was sitting in the wrecked car trying to determine whether or not all the warm liquid around me was from the Starbucks coffee I had recently purchased, or my blood. Turns out to have just been coffee. I replied, eventually, "I'm ok."
The ambulance got their quickly (the cop's boss was following him) and after they checked me out the recommended that I go to the hospital, a recommendation which I demurred.
The collision was a lot more violent then I had appreciated (of course) and though I had felt relatively fine that day, I was sore on my left side. I had attributed that to the seatbelt catching me, it was only later that I realized that the seatbelt would have mostly affected my right side.
Anyway, I woke up the next day very sore, but I woke up... so that was good.
It would have been prudent to have been checked out, even though it all ended up ok. I was a bit fuzzy headed (though attending MINOS collaboration meetings sometimes left me feeling that way) and probably suffering from a mild concussion due to the impulsive force of the collision.
With what is known about head injuries now, whacking my head hard enough in a fall to make it bleed would probably have me going to the hospital just to have another experienced person evaluate the injury. I'm not that experienced in head injuries, and head injuries by nature can effect one's ability to make a judgement...
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 10:21am PT
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I've had two concussions, one with momentary loss of consciousness and one without that was actually much more serious, so I think I know what they feel like, and I don't think I have one. I think the real worry is a slow-growing subdural hematoma, which could take as much as a week or two to produce symptoms.
Like Ed, I tend not to get things checked out until it is late in the game...I've scrupulously driven partners to the ER for stitches and then just slapped some butterfly closures on analogous wounds when I get them.
But you kind folks here, and of course my wife and friends, have been patiently explaining to me (and not for the first time) that I'm an idiot, so I've got an appointment this afternoon to get checked out.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 02:08pm PT
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Ok, doc says all is well, suggests running in bubble wrap from now on. Thanks for your concern folks.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 02:24pm PT
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No offense DMT, but if you had showed up instead of the super hot naked angels, I would have been seriously bummed.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 21, 2014 - 02:49pm PT
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angels can appear different from what they actually are... and DMT's imagination probably could have cooked up an awesome avatar with whom you've had gone off with gladly...
you might have been disappointed later... angels are angels for a reason, after all...
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ladyscarlett
Trad climber
SF Bay Area, California
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Aug 21, 2014 - 04:48pm PT
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Heheheh!
I hear that angels are actually quite fiesty! ;)
Glad to hear you're doing just fine and still staying in shape for Red Rocks season...
When is that again? :)
Cheers!
LS
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goatboy smellz
climber
लघिमा
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Aug 21, 2014 - 04:59pm PT
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Accidents tend to happen when we let our guard down. I can't recall how many times I let my guard down daydreaming only to be woken up in mid fall.
Good to know you are okay Rich.
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Dingus McGee
Social climber
Laramie
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Aug 21, 2014 - 05:35pm PT
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Rgold,
Poles didn't help me this time.
I am of the impression that poles are generally a hindrance to self rescue(motion slow down) because they have too much inertia too move about as quickly as needed. You can get your hand in brace much quicker without poles.
Poles have their place in walking for stability because they add two limbs. If you want better stability while walking move only one of these 4 limbs at a time, Grandad.
Run without poles and you will have you hands ready for that mantle like brace that will save you face & teeth when you crash.
D
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 07:16pm PT
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Dingus, it is a mixed bag in my experience. I've stopped a lot of trips and ankle twists while running with poles, some of them would have been falls and others not, I don't know how to tell in retrospect. A fall like the one I just took---very rapid---you're right, I might have stopped myself from hitting my head if my hands were free (of course at the possible expense of a broken clavicle), but there was no hope of help from my poles.
To some extent it depends where the poles are when you trip. If they both happen to be behind you, then as you say you won't be able to get them forward in time. If one or both are forward, you can probably keep from falling. I had just gallumphed over a low log planting both poles, so they were both behind me when I daydreamed my way into the dry stream bed beyond.
It is also possible for the poles to cause you to trip. I executed an elegant pole-driven face plant a month or so ago. This is not easy to do and folks with less talent will have to put in considerable effort. You have to be using the wrist straps, and then you have to step on a pole basket, driving the pole into the ground and pinning it there. With your body plummeting heedlessly forward, the pole now firmly anchored to the ground, and your hand pinned in the strap, things can only go one way.
Being my ever-inventive self, I've found other ways to trip on poles while running, but enough for now.
I only started running with poles two years ago after my ACL surgery, at first because I really needed both the help and the stability to compensate for the weakness in my leg. But I got used to them. They help a bit running uphill, especially steep uphill, and make a big difference for me running downhill on very uneven ground with rocks and roots---typical NE terrain. I also kinda like the idea of having crutches with me when I blow it the next time...
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Aug 21, 2014 - 09:38pm PT
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I'm glad you went to the doc and got the all clear. Head injuries are nothing to take chances with. So glad you are OK.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2014 - 09:53pm PT
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Glad to hear you're doing just fine and still staying in shape for Red Rocks season...
Ah, Red Rocks. I dearly want to get back there for some more long routes before I completely decompose. My time for that is Spring Break, which is sometime in March. But I think this year my wife---who sensibly decided years ago that climbing was pretty damn nutty---and I are going to go on a nice little desert sight-seeing trip with the odd moderate hike thrown in (no running, thank you very much). So Red Rocks will have to wait for another year...
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crusher
climber
Santa Monica, CA
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Aug 23, 2014 - 08:28pm PT
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Rich you do have a way with words! Glad you're ok and that you got checked out. Head wounds do bleed a lot but you never know if you knocked some screws loose inside....and don't we all have some loose screws?!!
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 23, 2014 - 09:21pm PT
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In my case so many screws are loose already that a few more here or there aren't going to be noticeable anyway.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
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Aug 24, 2014 - 07:36am PT
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Glad you're ok, rgold.
I have a friend who did the exact same thing but wound up with a good concussion. Bled all over her bathroom and didn't even remember driving herself to the ER (scary!). When she posted the scenario on Facebook all her friends wanted to know was "why on EARTH were you running alone without a gun!?!?!?"
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