With my son and his friends at his birthday a few days ago.
My beautiful, brave and remarkable son was telling me about yesterday, he saw me lying on the ice from across the rink and thought I’d fallen and was just resting/laughing on the ice. As he got closer, he realized the skating guard and another woman were bending over me and I was not moving. Worriedly, he skated up quick and said “Mom, mom!” At which point I opened my eyes and looked blankly about. He said “What’s your name?” And I replied: Samina. He was very relieved at that. He helped me up, the first time my legs gave out from under me, but he took me off the ice and we sat on a bench. I asked him “Where am I?” He said at the Pepsi center. I asked “Why am I in Buffalo?” He said I was visiting for his birthday. I looked down at my feet and asked why I had skates on. He told me I was skating. Then I sat these a minute and said”Where am I?” And I started asking all the other questions again (my son tells this in a hilarious way, maybe I should videotape him and post it 😉 ) At that point he realized he had to get help, so he told me in no uncertain terms to STAY PUT, don’t move, and he went to the front desk and asked if they could call an ambulance, which they did. The EMTs came in, put me on a stretcher, and started doing all the EMT things. I have no recollection at all of any of the above interactions above, with my son. I do have glimpses of talking with the EMTs, and again I have no memory of the ride in the ambulance to BGH. The first thing I remember is being in a cubicle in the ER of BGH. And from then on I remember everything.
So there’s about a half hour gap in my memory and I was unconscious at least for a few seconds. Whoa! Never thought this would happen to me. I am generally very cautious. One misstep and here I am. But so very fortunately, I am whole and healthy, with only a kind of sick headache to boot, which will reportedly, be gone soon.
All my friends and family have been messaging me, calling me. It is so wonderful to get this support and know I am loved. It gives me strength and hope 🙂
Thank you to all my friends and family for their concern and love. I appreciate it so much and I hope all of you know that you are well loved and appreciated by me in return.
Sorry I keep going on and on about this, but this has been an important event in my life, an event of consequence, first to show me that I am breakable, then to show me that I am also resilient and strong.
And let’s not forget my perseverance, I really do intend to, heck not just intend to, I will learn to skate well, a goal I have set for myself. And I will do it while wearing a helmet.
Bipolar1Blog 
Yikes! I’m glad you’re OK, dear lady!
You are probably already aware that a concussion can aggravate BP symptoms for a while, so write yourself a simple note and tack it up where you can see it, in multiple places like your mirror, the fridge, etc….”I had a concussion, I will feel better soon.”
I have had many an ice skating concussion. And skiing. And getting dumped by other people’s ponies as a child. Oh, and falling off of city buses, being hit by a car…what was that one in Israel that was so bad I can’t remember what caused it? Oh yeah, seizure meets stone floor. I don’t know why I can even still kind of walk and talk 😜
Ice skating saved my life when I was the director of Rochester General Hospital’s Pediatric Emergency Department. RIT has the BEST ice arena. I would just go over there during hours when everyone was in class, get into a good nice swingy rhythm, and skate for an hour, take a shower, go eat something, then go to work for an 18 hour shift. Yes, I was hypomanic on that schedule! Plus no meds, not much sleep. In the summer it was roller blades on the canal path, heaven!!!
Repeat: make yourself some way to remind yourself that you had a head injury, so you may be more symptomatic, for several months or even a year, so you should touch base with your shrink and perhaps do some contingency planning as far as medicine management and maybe some extra appointments. Poor squash (that’s a medical term for “skull” 😡)
Enjoy skating, but you should know that even with a helmet you need to avoid activities that might give you a repeat bash to the squash for at least six months. In the meantime, swimming is wonderful! xxx The Real Dr. Laura
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Oh how exciting and fun at RIT, a stone’s throw away from Buffalo. You were so energetic and smart and amazing! Oh god, someone find a cure for bipolar! And it gives me hope that I’ll be fine if you have so many concussions and still recovered. Yes my poor squash and neck and tail bone and various parts in between 😞 thank you for the advice, I’ll use it. I plan to learn how to skate with an instructor and a helmet. Thank you Laura and ❤️❤️
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I was manic, Baby Child, manic…the sports were fun, miss being able to do those crazy things. Yeah, I imagine you’re one sore puppy by now 😦
Are you still in Buff? I’m going to be roaming around in those parts, late winter/early Spring, and I have family still in Rah-cha-cha…
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Oops, ah yes manic, a bit of a complication! I’m in Buffalo till Friday. Maybe one day we can plan to get here at the same time and meet 😀 💕
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Sounds like a plan❤❤❤
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Yaay!
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Brain injuries can be so scary! Glad you are okay now.
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Thank you! 💕💕
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