Thought I had a title for this one but it's kinda evaporated ...

I think I've said this before sometime but if you know someone's had a head injury, however minor, keep an eye on them. Damage that can seem superficial on the outside can hide more subtle damage on the inside. The brain is very complex and we don't properly understand it ...

So with my bump from Wednesday, the outside damage is superficial (ok, I should have had a stitch but it stopped bleeding on its own). When I came back into the practice, my reactions were still sound and my technique was working well so no problems with the reflexive parts of Me.

But where I have been struggling is speed and clarity of thought. Not had a headache but I've not been thinking or acting at a speed I'm accustomed to. I'll be ok, I recognise the signs from fragmented memories of when I got hit before. I know what to look for this time, including the hidden signs. Part of it is trusting yourself - I've having more trouble than usual putting words together and have had to watch the typos.

One thing I always seem to do though is reverse react. That's when you should really curl up into a ball but what you actually do is speed up and mask the trouble. So yesterday at work even though I was thinking slow, I was still thinking right. When I get damaged, I'll react and push through it for as long as I need to. It's like deferring the time I'll need to rest and recover.

That's enough of that though. Had today off work, partly due to anticipating being stiff from practice and to give the head chance to recover. And then slept 12 hours on and off this morning, including imagining a phone call at 7.30 this morning.

Had fun yesterday, topped off by getting out and about with the team in town. (We don't do that often enough). Snow Queen was looking radiant as the Spring Princess (how come I can't get those words out and just stand there like an idiot ?) and our table was alive with conversation all the way through.

But before that was thinking up a different explanation for my cut lip to anyone who asked. Here's a selection :

"You shoulda seen the other guy"
"Practicing kendo without a mask"
"You should never run with scissors"
"Getting hungry during net practice"
"When you allow the other guy the first punch, you are allowed to dodge"

And my favourite, which I did eventually get to use :

"When a beautiful woman comes running towards you at top speed, you don't have to catch them. You are permitted to dodge."

That one's actually true, I got a very similar cut lip at university where I was walking through the halls minding my own business when a very pretty first year student came running out of her room. I got to "She's gorg..." before SLAM. Ok, maybe I wasn't staring too much because I was going out with someone and my single mindedness there wouldn't have allowed the possibility. Anyway, next thing I know the cut is getting washed in her sink and then I'm getting dragged off to hospital A&E by my girlfiend.

4 hours later I get seen and the cut has already stopped bleeding, treatment unnecessary. I MISSED MY PIZZAA !!! Yep, that was what we'd planned to get. Or maybe that was what we bought after missing dinner at uni.

And that's one incident where I learned to rely on my own healing than waiting for doctor's appointments. Most of the time I've gone to doctors, the problem has healed before I've got in to see them.

Oh - I was highly amused by one person's reaction to seeing the cut lip : "OH GOD PETE!" :-)