Well, I started off the month by getting bonked in the head and suffering a concussion. A big heavy mirrored door fell right down and crashed onto my skull. It was not fun. I was initially dazed, a bit dizzy, and honestly kind of annoyed. I immediately iced my head, expecting a big goose egg, and decided to take it easy for the rest of the day.

A pretty bad headache started up shortly after. By the next day at around noon, I still had that nagging bad headache (but no goose egg). I called to see if my doctor thought I should come in to get checked out. They did. They conducted a bunch of neurological tests, asked me a slew of questions, noted my ability to speak clearly and appear oriented, and said I had a concussion. Their main advice was to take a break from “mental work,” avoid all screens, and avoid too much sun. So, this will be a short post, because I’m still feeling pretty banged up from it. And mental work, it turns out, intensifies the headaches.

A beautiful time of year

map of trail system at Shelburne Farms
A map of the trail system

Until this happened, I’d been having a pretty great month. It’s a beautiful time of year! I’ve done a bunch of walking, have spent time with family and friends, and have been enjoying a lot that is unique to my state in the days of late summer. I’ve continued to go walking since the concussion, and was really happy to check out the nice and easy (meaning, concussion-friendly) trails at Shelburne Farms. My husband and I used to bring our daughter there for their awesome farm and animal programs. It was also a fantastic place to go with our parents and our daughter’s cousins. We had recently been meaning to check out their expanding trail system, and the concussion recovery was a great reason to finally get over there again.

Recovery

Hopefully I’ll recover from the concussion in short order, and return with a bit more to say next time!

~ Nellie

p.s. if you happen to live in the region, Shelburne Farms is really a great place to visit, especially if you have kids or grandkids. They are also dedicated to protecting the environment, offer great educational and family programs, and sell really wonderful cheese (among other things). Photos were from my husband (thanks, G!).