Head injuries.

My head got jarred a little at rugby practice on Thursday. I played a game on Saturday without incident, but for the last day and a half, I've had a headache.
Time to see a doctor?

 

Never had a concussion. Administered one in middle school via a snowball from across the street. It looked like it hurt.

 

Had one when I was five. I remember being really sleepy, and so my idiot parents let me sleep on the couch. I would wake up (a good sign) and ask for stuffed animals and things they had already brought me and I was holding. I must have sounded like a broken record.

 

Had one at eight, riding a bike, bike slid out from under me, head hit rock. Threw up a lot. Went to the doctor, X-rays reveal nothing, endured repeated recitations of that joke. I did have some memory problems after that.

Football in the 10th grade. In line for a downfield blocking drill, talking with my good friend Gary. Picked up the hand-held dummy and remembered it was my good friend Gary, who hit like a wrecking ball. The third time through the line, he hit me so hard I went flying. When I woke up the dummy was about five yards away and I was flat on my back, peering up at the coach and trying to look him in the eye, a difficult assignment considering all the bright yellow dots that were in the way. I get up on my feet, all wobbly, and Gary puts his arm around me. He's crying. "Gary, this is football," I said. "You're supposed to hit people like that. Now hold me up." He laughs. I do not practice the rest of the day after I inform the coach I do see his fingers (two), but there are too many moving yellow dots.

Another time, playing snow football about 20 years later, tackled, the ball hits me in the ribs and knocks the breath out of me. But I also am not sure of the count, or the score. So I go to the sidelines for a play. After all, I'm a snow football player.