Nationals medal and a head injury

Nationals is always really hard. I mean common, the best in the nation show up to ride to be crowned #1 in the nation. As I step back and reflect on the event, I am happy to have tied for 10th in the points race and place 5th in the madison, with partner Kate Wilson, after a violent crashed that almost had me out of the race. In this photos is Kate (shes 17) and I at the podium ceremony. Which brings me to the purpose of the next few weeks of blogging.

After visiting my doc today, I decided to blog daily about healing from a head injury. I have been diagnosed with a concussion but and in good shape. What does that mean? I am a bit foggy headed and slow on the uptake and need to rest and heal my brain. We've scheduled a MRI to check out how much my brain has suffered this season. Although I have only had 4 crashes and broken 2 helmets, this last crashed has opened my eyes to needing to heal the brain.

Head injuries are on the rise and we can recover, we just need to be a good patient and actually recover from a brain/head injury. Doc says that the brain is like tofu. If you give it a good whack, it jiggles quite a bit. Our brain jiggling inside our skull is not a good thing. Helmets to protect the initial impact but not the bouncing around of the brain in the skull.

Doc says about 2 to 3 weeks of non risk taking activity. He said he doesn't even want me riding to work and no alcohol. To think, I've been waiting 6 months for the season to end to open a fine bottle of scotch.

I'll keep this post short but I plan to research head and brain injury and blog about my recovery and results. I'll try to get some insight from "THE DOME" Easton Bells new research and testing facility to see what their doing in research of new helmets.