Interesting river story.

Curt Hennig

Curt Hennig

100+ Posts
so i went tubing on the guadulupe with some friends this weekend. towards the end of the float, one of the girls in our group ran across a girl who had been stranded from her parents. she was about 10 years old. she said she saw her parents but they were nowhere to be found. she says she is fine but then we were about to go over the waterfall at the 1st crossing and she was headed straight for it.

i am a very strong swimmer so i left my tube and river shoes with my friends and swam after her and pulled her to the part where they built a shoot instead of going over the falls. she was a good 100 yards away but i got her to safety. definitely sad that her parents did this.

in the process i got pretty dirty b/c i had no tube when going down the shoot. this was the end of the float. i decided to jump back in the water to clean off. i saw someone a few
feet from me in waist deep so i dove head 1st. BAD IDEA. in fact likely one of the worst decisions of my life.

it was a foot deep. i cracked my skull and had a 2 inch flap of scalp cut off my head, blood gushing down from my head to my arm as well as an impressive head-butting to a big rock. i got out of the water and felt the 2 inches of my scalp no longer on my head, headed up the stairs and said "hey we need to call an ambulence". this was at the end of float where the rental company was so the ambulence got there fast.

i had to be taken to the emergency room and had 15 staples put in my head. that was the most painful part. at this point my head has gotten worse with regards to the swelling. i surprisingly did not suffer any concussion symptons but the swelling worries me. i am actually heading back to the doctors tonight (appt at 630) to check on the swelling.

other than that, great weekend. ha.
 
i partly posted in here to see if any docs had any thoughts.

other than that, i don't know where to post anymore.
 
If all you have is swelling and a tolerable amount of pain, then that's to be expected. If the swelling doesn't decrease in a few days (not gone, but getting that way), then the hematoma may need to be opened and drained.

The danger of leaving a hematoma like that is that it may provide a breeding ground for infection. Plus it looks funny. The majority of the time, the body reabsorbs the blood over a couple of weeks without any problems.
 
Yup....faced my demon and made friends with it.
My sphincter was clenched as tight as a gnat's *** as I went under that sucker on Saturday, so there was no farting.
15 staples is a hell of a badge of river tomfoolery.
My own divot on the brain bucket only goes to eleven.
They do a CAT scan? I never lost conciousness, so they thought it was unnecessary, probably from an administrative more than a medical position. I still have about a 4 inch square area of numbness in my scalp a year later.
Kudos on watching out for the kid, most peeps would have floated on by.
 
You're lucky that you did not break you neck and be paralyzed. Never dive into water when you do not know how deep it is!!
mad.gif
 
I am sorry. I hope you are feeling better. I went through a similar, albeit less harmful accident. You will never find me in a tube on a river again.
 
There are lots of people in wheelchairs who did exactly what you did. You're damn lucky.
 
Glad everything worked out ok. Sorry for the pain, but it will make you a lifelong preacher about diving into unfamiliar water. You may well save somebody else from a wheelchair as a result of your experience.
 
yeah, i am very lucky. i could have been paralyzed. i could have broke every bone in my face. i honestly don't like thinking about 'what if'.

i will never dive again. i grew up a swimmer and always dive. those days are done forever.

the swelling is dieing down finally. just swelling on top of the head. the swelling on the forehead is done.

how long until i can wear a cap? scrub my hair in the shower? i finally get the staples out on likely sunday...........
 
Don't wear a cap, you need to let the wound breathe.
Resist the urge to scratch. It will itch like a mofo.
 
the only swelling now is the part where the wound is likely from a big-*** bruise.

when can i wear a cap again? staples get out on sunday (7 days). can i swim then? i will ask the doc of course.

surprisingly no pain. surprisingly no itching. i was told that a scab would develop and that i needed that to come off 'naturally'. i have been very very careful wtih my head. when will i know that scab is gone?
 
I remember splitting my head open at age 12. We were playing some game where your friends hold hands and you try and break through. Well I go running full force into them, hitting their arms , which dont give. I go flipping over head first into the sawed off jagged point of a telephone pole. Hit me right between the eyes, then split my forehead all the way across my left eyesocket to my ear. I blacked out to wake up in a hospital with an enormous bandage around my head. The only scar you see is where the point connected. My eyebrow covers the rest pretty well
 
MIA, did your hair grow on the scar in your eyebrow or is it just so thick that you cannot tell?

my cut is in the shape of a V with each leg being about 2-2.5" long. it starts about an inch past where my hairline begins. i have been very careful and thorough so i hope that the scar is minor and that hair can grow on it.

p.s. i am getting married in a month. you think the fiancee is crazy about this? ha.
 
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