People are looking for a simple way to diagnose concussions, right on the sidelines. I have one and recent research agrees with me. I want to begin by way of a story.
My oldest son called me up one night. As soon as I picked up the phone, he said, “Mom! I’ve got a concussion. I was hit so hard in the head, I went BLIND.”
It was a complete shock! Then he told me what happened.
He was playing soccer and marking his man on his side of the field when unbeknownst to him, his teammate on the other side of the field kicked the ball towards him. Well, he was so busy with that guy that he had no idea it was coming. He wasn’t ready for it and he was struck HARD on the right side of the head.
Simple way to diagnose concussion – Dilated Pupils
It was when he was sorting things out on the sidelines that he realized he couldn’t see. O.M.G. Imagine the terror and panic he must have felt. All of a sudden his life changed!
But – thank God – his eyesight did come back. Maybe it was 10 or 20 minutes later – he doesn’t know.
At the end of the game, he drove home and when he got home that’s when the pounding headaches started. He knew he had a concussion.
As a simple way to diagnose concussions, vision problems are the first thing to look for and ask about. A blow to the head can cause the liquid inside the eyeballs to move around and cause blurry vision. Or like in my son’s case, cause temporary blindness, which is rare. It’s really frightening when that happens.
” ‘Visual symptoms are incredibly common after a concussion,’ said Dr. Steven Galetta, of NYU’s Langone Medical Center. “Patients complain often of photo sensitivity, blurred vision, double vision and vertigo.” They found that a simple and inexpensive vision test correctly assessed concussions in 75 percent of young athletes. The test involves timing an athlete while he reads a jumble of numbers.”
Another simple way to diagnose concussions is to look at the eyes themselves and do a physical assessment – the pupils are often dilated (as in the photo above). One eye or both could be dilated, even in full sun. So look carefully. So this is the first thing you should look for and then watch out for these other simple way to diagnose a concussion:
- Headaches are the big sign.
- Nausea and vomiting or the compulsion to vomit
- Emotional outbursts or more emotional then usual
- Insomnia
- Loss of appetite
You should observe at least two other of these signs to know if there is a concussion or not. They may occur within a short time, an hour or two after the initial blow to the head.
Here’s the article to the Langone research.
Dr. Joanny Liu, TCMD, RAc, P.Eng. Dr Joanny Liu “Best Selling Author and founder of Extraordinary Sports Medicine, where we help athletes reverse injury, get back in the game they love and improve their quality of life.” Best selling book at: Heal Your Concussion: How to Quickly and Effectively Get Back in the Game Remember, we’ve got two books about healing concussions in Amazon: Knock OUT Concussions, Heal Your Concussion: 21 Days to Brain Health, and Dr. Joanny’s new book, Heal Your Concussion: How to Quickly and Effectively Get Back in the Game is NOW live on Amazon!
