Part 3 (if you haven’t read Part 1 on Adventures and Naps blog page, or Part 2 – click on the links first!)

After my big weekend of learning to sail, I was not surprised to wake up Monday feeling completely exhausted. Again I was a little surprised that I still had my sea legs, but I suspected they would go away as the day progressed. Over the weekend I had sustained numerous small knocks to the head and one pretty solid knock from the boom of my dinghy and I still had a headache from it, but there was nothing I could do but go to work and get this day over with. I was sure after a good night’s rest I would be 100% by Tuesday, and until then I would just have to get by.

Within an hour of getting into the office I realised something wasn’t right, the sea legs had turned into a constantly slight warp in my vision, concentrating on anything was taking all of my effort, my comprehension of basic conversations was basic at best and my speech had apparently seriously slowed. I decided that maybe those booms to the head had, had a greater effect than I had realised.

Doctors are expensive in Ireland and the Irish health system is about 15 years behind what I was used to in Australia so I wasn’t particularly fond of going to a doctor. But I really had no choice. So I packed myself up and after reassuring my boss several times I would be fine, I found myself in a local doctor’s surgery. MRi’s are not standard so I ended up having ‘an old fashion’ physical examination with the doctor asking me to follow her finger and touch my nose, while she used a little hammer to bang my bruised knees checking my reflexes. After a 15 minute examination the doctor advised, that without a proper scan of my head she could not be certain, but suspected that I had a mild concussion.  She wrote me a letter and advised that if my situation worsened to head to a hospital, otherwise I was to rest for the next couple of days.

In a haze I proceeded home to rest, stopping off at the grocery store to buy something to eat. On the trip home I remember being accosted by a woman on the bus, but for what I have no idea; I remember calling my mum to tell her what happened; and then I remember standing in my bedroom at home realising I did not have my bank card. Somewhere on the trip home I had lost my only Irish bank card. I had enough sense to cancel my card then and there and in the days since I have still not found the card, so god knows what happened to it.

Over the next couple of days as I began to recover I realised just how bad I had being. I returned to work on Tuesday, feeling better than I had on Monday but probably still not really right to be at work. The room would still warp from time to time, and my comprehension was still mediocre at best but as they say… fake it until you make it. Being new to the company and still on a temporary contract I didn’t want to let something as trivial as a mild concussion get in the way of a possible permanent position.
By Friday for the most part I was back to my normal self.

As I had talked to people afterwards as my concussion became general knowledge around the office, the common question I was asked is ‘Will you go sailing again?’ and the answer is a definite YES. I really did enjoy my weekend, I really enjoy sailings, and as I become a better sailor the likely-hood of a knock to the head decreases. Next time though I may just wrap some bubble wrap around my head just to be on the safe side.

If you haven’t yet read Part 1 or Part 2 of this adventure follow the link to Adventures and Naps where I guest posted Part 1. While you are there have a read of Alanna and Tyler’s adventures, and if like me you like what you read – don’t forget to follow them!