Be careful out there!

10 March 2009

Yesterday, I received an alarming email from my friend, Susan McCullough, a very successful dog writer (author of Housetraining For Dummies and Senior Dogs for Dummies, among other titles.) In early January, she was knocked down to the ground at a park when a couple of boisterous dogs ran into her from behind and sent her flying. She landed on her back, hitting her head. The most serious consequence seemed to be a sprained finger.

Fast forward a month or so. Susan started experiencing severe headaches, extreme exhaustion and increasing motor difficulties. She had begun to lose the use of one of her legs. Scary business. Her doctor, who had been subscribing pain killers, sent her to the emergency room where a CAT scan revealed she had two, slowly-leaking subdural hemotomas that had reached critical mass and “were actually shifting [her] brain out of place,” as she wrote in this blog post about the event. Within 45 minutes, they’d drilled into her head and drained out the excess blood. Yikes.

Until Susan told the ER doctors about her fall in the dog park, they were concerned she had a stroke, tumor, aneurysm or worse. But the spill explained everything.

The lesson here? If you hit your head, take it very seriously, even if you don’t immediately have symptoms or if they seem temporary. Any neurological symptoms, even weeks later, might be explained by the injury. As her husband pointed out in an email, even if Susan had gone to the doctor immediately after the fall, the damage might well not have been detected.

I’m very grateful that Susan’s okay, and I appreciate her sharing her story. I had an identical incident in a dog park probably ten years ago, with no lasting consequences. I now know that I should have taken it more seriously!

Tagged with: injury, susan mccullough