Friday night heads: concussion without a knockout.

Kirkwood takes its Friday nights seriously. The stadium lights on the school roads, the track in the afternoon, the club fields on the weekend: this is a town that moves, and a town that moves gets hit. The Journal's interest in that is narrow and specific. A head that gets rattled on a field and a head that gets rattled on I-44 are the same head, and the most common mistake made about both is the same mistake: nobody blacked out, so nobody thinks it counts.

Concussion without a knockout

A concussion is a mild traumatic brain injury caused by a blow or a jolt that makes the brain move inside the skull. It does not require a loss of consciousness. Most do not involve one. The CDC's HEADS UP program lists the signs plainly: headache or pressure, fog, trouble concentrating or remembering, dizziness, nausea, sensitivity to light or noise, irritability, sleeping more or less than usual, and feeling slowed down. The NINDS describes the same picture for mild TBI and notes that symptoms can appear days after the injury.

The Journal's point is that a rear-end hit on Lindbergh is a jolt. The head snaps forward and back, the brain moves, and the driver who says "I didn't hit my head on anything" is often right and also missing the point. The whiplash motion that strains the neck is the same motion that rattles the brain. A crash patient with a foggy week has a head complaint whether or not there is a bump to show for it.

The week a rattled head has

It rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a reader who cannot get through a spreadsheet without losing the thread, who finds the office lights suddenly unbearable, who snaps at a spouse over nothing and is surprised by it, who sleeps eleven hours and wakes up tired. Athletes describe it as being a half-step slow. Drivers describe it as "just not feeling right." Both descriptions belong in an exam, said out loud, on the phone and again in the room.

A brain complaint deserves the same promptness as a back complaint, and here it gets the same roof.

The rehab lane, as the clinic publishes it

Missouri Injury Clinic publishes TBI and concussion rehabilitative therapy after acute injury as one of its three lanes, alongside auto injuries and sports injuries. On its TBI rehab page the clinic names the tools it uses: vagus nerve stimulation, described as gentle microcurrent at the tragus; neurofeedback; Alpha Stim; sensory motor integration; exercise with oxygen; oculomotor rehabilitation; and cognitive rehabilitation using computerized brain-exercise software. The Journal lists those because the clinic lists them. It does not describe how they are sequenced or what they cost, because the clinic does not publish that and the desk will not guess.

What the Journal will say is the structural thing: a crash patient whose head is involved and whose neck is involved is in one building with both lanes. That is a convenience worth knowing about when you are deciding whom to call.

For the sideline

Sports injuries are the clinic's third lane, and Kirkwood's athletes are the readers this entry was written for. The rule for a hit in a Friday game is the same as the rule for a hit on I-44: examined promptly, documented plainly. A coach, a parent, or a trainer making the call should give the athlete's name, a number that reaches a parent, one sentence on the play and the day, and what the athlete is describing now. Then tell the athlete what you told the clinic. One standard for all of it keeps the Journal's advice easy to remember.

The line a head does not get to cross

A head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. So is a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, or trouble speaking. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. The rehab lane is for the week after that line has been respected, not a substitute for it.

Make the call

The Tesson Ferry room, 11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200, is about fifteen minutes south on Lindbergh. The number is (314) 530-5480, answered in the morning and after 2. Say it was a crash, or a game, and say the head is involved, so the desk books the right lane from the first call. The getting seen entry has the rest.

The emergency line, first. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic.

Advertising disclosure. This page is advertising. This desk is compensated for featuring Missouri Injury Clinic, and it is not the clinic, not a law office, and not a party to anyone's insurance claim. We publish only the lanes, rooms, and hours the clinic publishes on moinjuryclinic.com. We do not write reviews, rank providers, or give medical or legal advice.

Educational reading. Not medical advice, not a diagnosis. The Journal cannot examine anyone.