1st basketball game after resting for >1 month due to appendicitis surgery + acute pulmonary oedema, I knocked my head against the floor hard & had short term memory loss now. #FML #BlackKidKing
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Needless to day, my wife is seething with anger & worry now. Pretty sure she's asking herself why can't her husband just be like an ordinary father who just laze at home & grow a tummy.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
It's like the benevolent being up there wants me to stop sports altogether.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Appendicitis after a marathon? Checked.
Knocked my head silly with memory loss during a basketball game? Why not?
It's all a strange twist of events; I've been playing basketball for >20 years now & you would think that I would have suffered the worst injury in the early years. Furthermore, it wasn't like I was playing with experienced adults, they were all lower secondary school kids.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
There were 9 of us so we played 3v3. My team won the first game comfortably though I was a lil' rusty. It was in the middle of second game when I was knocked down & next thing I knew, I was writhing on the floor in fetal position, great pain emanating from the back of my head.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Kids were pointing fingers at each other, retelling the chronology from their POV. Some blaming, some defending but 1 thing is for sure, they were at a loss on what to do. After I managed to get myself into sitting position, I rested a while & then it dawned upon me.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
I have no freaking idea on what I did earlier in the day & how I got here. I have no memory of myself walking all the way to this basketball court. Panicked, I kept recalling my own name, my wife's & my son's. At least I remember these. I knew I had to get home fast.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Up to this point in time, I still failed to recall how I got myself home in one piece. Good thing was that I didn't leave any of my stuffs behind at the court.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Wife said I took a bath but I have no recollection of it. I even candidly told her that I wasn't sure if I shampoo'd.
Anyway, told her what happened, I did. That I fell down & hit my head & that I was having difficulty recalling what took place earlier in the day. She broke out in tears but after she helped to fill me in on what we did, the memories started coming back.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
So, apparently I had both retrograde & anterograde amnesia. She kept asking me how I fell but as hard as I tried to recall, I couldn't make out the episode. I went back to the court to talk to the kids but none of them could jolt my memory back on what took place.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
A part of me kept telling myself that it was just an ordinary fall & there was nothing to worry about. My mind kept replaying the few times my kid fell & hit his head hard & him bawling his eyes out.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Actually, that got me thinking if he suffered any memory loss back then. Hmm...
Another part of me reminded myself that it wasn't normal since this was a concussion of which I've never had.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Wife insisted that I visit a clinic as a start so off I went. Doctor advised to monitor myself for the next 24 hours.
If I were to experience confusion, giddiness or vomit, I need to get myself to the hospital. The last time I was given such an advice, I ended up with perforated appendicitis so this was definitely not a welcomed déjà vu.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
Bedtime became a horror to me again. It wasn't easy for me to accept sleep after the previous episode where I almost kicked the bucket & now the dread crept in again.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
"Will I still be able to wake up?"
No thanks to this, I had a rough night with constant waking.
The swelling at the back of my head didn't make it any easier for me to sleep either.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 7, 2018
It's more or less 13 hours post concussion now & hopefully the fact that I can tweet all these out is a positive sign that the worst is over.
Compared to the appendicitis incident where 2 doctors misdiagnosed me, this time around I was better prepared by asking for a referral letter from the doctor just in case I needed to seek further help at a hospital.
— (e+ho)ng (@talexeh) January 8, 2018
Touch wood, not looking to use it at all.
