Mountain Biking and Head Injuries - Support and Information

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Eoin
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241
Joined
3/6/2015
Location
FR
Fantasy
42nd
7/14/2024 11:21am

Just wanted to add a few anecdotes from my side that might help with others. This is my first concussion in 15 years of riding and racing.

Had a very unlucky fall about 3 months ago, pedal hit something, I went otb, didn't smash the ground that hard but my 26kg bike smashed into the back of my helmet, breaking it.

1) thank f$+& I was wearing a fox dropframe, if you don't want to wear a full face on every ride, I really recommend these 3/4 ones, that extra bit of security around the lower back of the head and sides really can make a huge difference.

2) my symptoms were very mild and didn't appear until the next day, mild headaches and brain fog. I took it very easy for about 2 weeks and things got better very slowly. I have a 3 year old that doesn't sleep, so rest was quite hard to get, I'm usually woken up 2-3 times a night. I definitely think I could have healed up a lot faster had I gotten proper sleep.

3) This is the main reason I am writing: I made one huge mistake. After 2-3 weeks I started taking my son to the pumptrack and doing a few laps, nothing major just 30mins on the bike broken up over an hour or two. The next days I would feel very tired. A few weeks later I started doing safe loops on the ebike again, just an hour at the home trails which can be a bit rough. This had almost no effect on me. So in retrospect it seems logical, but actually the high Gs at the smooth pumptrack are way worse for recovery than riding on a 170mm bike on singletrack.

4) this one won't really help anyone, but my second child arrived very premature a month ago (I was supposed to be able to ride most of the summer, and I was already riding very cautious when the crash happened, just rotten luck). The amount of stress and sleepless nights has been brutal, my symptoms are worse now 3 months later than when the crash happened. My doctor thinks it is purely stress and exhaustion related, but unfortunately I went through a similar ordeal with my first child and the effects were not as intense in terms of headaches and brain fog.

So yeah, make sure you make the most out of resting when you can!

 

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