You can say it all kinds of ways. You can say you got your bell rung. You can say you got clocked. You can say you got knocked cold, silly, or senseless. No matter how you put it, if you are a bull rider it has probably happened to you. And if you are a fan of bull riding, you've seen it over and over again.
One of the chief problems with the way we think about concussion is that somehow, over time, it came to sound like a minor injury. A bump on the head, maybe leading to dizziness, easily shaken off. We heard the word so often and in so many different contexts that it didn't seem that bad. Nobody made a big deal over it. There were so many ways to refer to it and most of them were semi-amusing. We saw stars, the lights went out, we got our chickens scattered. The other problem with concussion is that it is an invisible injury. There's no limp, nothing broken, bruised, or scratched. A mild concussion is an injury you can hide, ignore, and play through. Of course the reality is that a concussion is an injury to the brain. When we say it that way, we think about it differently.
The truth is, if you are a fan of bull riding, you may see concussions in a different way than fans of other sports. Football players butt heads, bang heads, hit with their heads over and over, week after week. But there are a lot of them on that field and as a fan you don't pay attention to every hit. Bull riding, on the other hand, is a "one guy at a time" sport. Fans see every hit individually, and in slow motion, and in close-up. Fans of bull riding have a different perspective on concussion. And if you are a bull rider, you have a unique perspective on it, too. Because for you, it's an occupational hazard. It might not be a given, but it's definitely a probability.
Recent high profile concussion-related incidents in the NFL and the National Soccer League have brought the injury and its consequences to the nation's attention in a new way. After this long season of bull riding and its many, many concussions, this week I will be talking about the injury: what it is, what causes it, frequency, symptoms, assessment, and treatment.
One of the chief problems with the way we think about concussion is that somehow, over time, it came to sound like a minor injury. A bump on the head, maybe leading to dizziness, easily shaken off. We heard the word so often and in so many different contexts that it didn't seem that bad. Nobody made a big deal over it. There were so many ways to refer to it and most of them were semi-amusing. We saw stars, the lights went out, we got our chickens scattered. The other problem with concussion is that it is an invisible injury. There's no limp, nothing broken, bruised, or scratched. A mild concussion is an injury you can hide, ignore, and play through. Of course the reality is that a concussion is an injury to the brain. When we say it that way, we think about it differently.
The truth is, if you are a fan of bull riding, you may see concussions in a different way than fans of other sports. Football players butt heads, bang heads, hit with their heads over and over, week after week. But there are a lot of them on that field and as a fan you don't pay attention to every hit. Bull riding, on the other hand, is a "one guy at a time" sport. Fans see every hit individually, and in slow motion, and in close-up. Fans of bull riding have a different perspective on concussion. And if you are a bull rider, you have a unique perspective on it, too. Because for you, it's an occupational hazard. It might not be a given, but it's definitely a probability.
Recent high profile concussion-related incidents in the NFL and the National Soccer League have brought the injury and its consequences to the nation's attention in a new way. After this long season of bull riding and its many, many concussions, this week I will be talking about the injury: what it is, what causes it, frequency, symptoms, assessment, and treatment.
