Entry posted by Random Terrain
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I've only seen characters with amnesia on fictional TV shows and movies, but today I got to experience it for real. It took about 30 minutes to start remembering what happened, then I remembered even more within the next hour or two. Below is what happened to me this afternoon. (By the time I got around to finishing this, it was almost 1 in the morning Eastern time, so it actually happened yesterday.)
The street at the end of our driveway was still covered in ice today because trees across the road block the sun. Both lanes were coated about 6 car lengths up the street. I kept bashing and shoveling chunks of ice in the spots where it was easiest and worked my way into the harder spots. I'd bash a bunch of chunks loose with a flat metal shovel, then push them off the side of the road with a plastic snow shovel. While I was doing this, cars would randomly zip up and down the dead end street we live on like it was a warm Summer day. Way too fast to be driving on ice. There was probably a car every 15 to 20 minutes and I would have to get out of the way fast to avoid a slippery metal death.
I got a fairly large part of our side of the street done. The latest chunks of ice I loosened were building up on the super-icy side of the street. I tried to shove them with the snow shovel to the other side, but the chunks wouldn't slide all the way. I didn't feel like getting sued by someone driving over them, and although I knew it was a bad idea, I carefully stepped up on the ice on the other lane and shoved the chunks the rest of the way off the side of the street. I didn't seem to be slipping at all, so I shoved some more chunks. No problem. I stepped to the left to shove the last bit off the side of the street then KERSMACK!
I instantly went from standing to lying on the ice on my back in the middle of the icy lane of the street. There was no "Oh no, I'm falling!" moment like you'd expect. I went from standing to whacking the back of my head on the ice in what seemed like a millisecond divided by a million. I couldn't see anything (don't know if I just couldn't open my eyes or what). And although I've never passed out before, it felt like that's exactly what I was about to do, so to avoid getting hit by the next random car that could speed down the street at any second, I blindly rolled until I knew I was on the slope of the ditch (on the icy side, across the street from my house).
I started to get up, but just trying to make it to my knees was a struggle. I felt like I must have screwed up my brain pretty bad and this might be how I die. I was pretty sure my skull was cracked open, blood was pouring out and part of my brain was exposed, so I didn't even try to touch the back of my head. I eventually made it to my feet and somehow crossed the ice without falling again and carried the two shovels and two other tools up to the house and went in.
My mom was in the house babysitting my step-sister's 4 kids and I asked her to check the back of my head to see if it was bleeding. Nothing. No blood. Not even a bump. I told everyone what happened and my mom asked me if I wanted some aspirins and I said she better Google it first. My clothes were sweaty from the ice removal, so I said I'd go change my clothes in case I had to go to the hospital. That's when reality decided to take a holiday.
According to everyone, I seemed to change my clothing faster than any human ever did, but while I was changing my clothing and putting my stuff in my pockets, I had what seemed like a full in-the-bed 20 minute meandering dream that was loosely about me falling and hitting my head on the ice. It was one of those dreams you can't exactly remember, but you remember just enough to know that all kinds of things happened and you talked to all kinds of people.
I walked out in the living room and woke up out of my 20 minute dream that was actually a less than 2 minute dream I had while getting dressed and walking around. I asked why I was dressed and they told me that I fell on the ice and might have to go to the hospital. I asked them where I fell and they said out front on the road. I couldn't remember anything that happened, including getting dressed. I got kind of a double shock because I just found out that the 'dream' I just had wasn't real and I had freakin' amnesia, so I couldn't remember what really happened.
They said I asked them the same questions about 3 times as if I couldn't remember their answers. I remember it actually feeling like it hurt my brain to try to remember. I kept pacing back and forth and my mom told me to sit down. They say I kept getting back up, but once my doctor told my mom to call 911, they said to have me sit down, so I finally stayed in the chair while I waited for the ambulance. Well, I sat down after I brushed my teeth and got a bag ready to go in case I had to stay at the hospital.
The fire dudes came first, then the ambulance followed about 5 minutes later. By the time the first batch of guys were asking me questions, I started to remember some of what happened. But even now, about 10 hours later, I still don't remember how I got back across the ice without falling again and carried four yard tools back up to the house.
They asked me if I was sure I wanted to go to the hospital and I said with my memory being messed up and having a dream while standing up and moving around, I better go. I walked down the front porch stairs and got on their bed thingy, although I said it would probably be easier for me to walk over to the ambulance.
The bouncy ride in the ambulance seemed to hurt more than falling. They slammed on the brakes so many times that it felt like my intestines shot up into my skull and started fighting my brain for head space.
When we got to the hospital, there was no sitting around for 5 hours in a waiting room. We went right in, had to answer the same questions 3 times, then I got a CT scan. They said it would take about 20 minutes until we would know anything, but it seemed like it only took about 10. They said there was no brain damage, so after a lady took me for a little walk to make sure I was OK, we got to leave the hospital. It took less than 4 hours from the time I fell to when we were back home. If you're ever in a hurry, an ambulance is the way to go. They see you right away (the 5 hour wait is eliminated).
I don't have any broken bones, nothing is sprained, don't seem to have any neck or spine problems, don't seem to have any bruises. Nothing on my body seems to hurt except for a little headache. There might be a slight bump on the back of my head, but it's hard to tell since it doesn't hurt and my head was already lumpy.
Update February 5, 2011:
A few days after the fall, I started having fairly bad headaches (felt like somebody was squeezing my head) and I needed to take Tylenol which usually helped. The headaches went away after about a week. If you have visited my Asperger's Syndrome/memory/eyesight page, you probably already know that words and other things can get misplaced in my brain and it can be hard to find them. It seems that the fall has jumbled some things even more. I've been saying wrong words for things more than usual and generally having a harder time finding the word I want.
Update March 20, 2011:
I had more problems related to this fall. You can read more about it here:
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