If you lot hit your head and don't accept immediate symptoms or even symptoms for a few weeks after, you can still develop symptoms of bleeding in the brain at to the lowest degree six weeks later that are the direct result of striking your caput.

Hit your head but everything is fine and you accept no symptoms?

Mark the date y'all hit your head because y'all tin still develop symptoms weeks later – six weeks afterward, even, from a very slow bleeding in your brain acquired past the blunt trauma to your head.

This is what happened to my female parent.

She blacked out (from a blood pressure drib) while continuing in the bathroom, and collapsed from the loss of consciousness (which lasted only moments, but long enough to plow her torso into dead weight) — hit her caput on the bathtub on the way downwardly.

I heard the awful "THUD!" and rushed into the bathroom to see her lying on the flooring (witting), with her shoulders propped up against the side of the bathtub.

There was no style she could have ended up like that without hitting her head. I examined her head and discovered a generous-sized matting of blood in her hair.

A few hours later in the ER she had a CAT scan that was normal. The True cat scan was to encounter if at that place was haemorrhage on her brain (subdural hematoma).

Upwardly to that point my mother reported no symptoms, not even a headache.

There was no nausea, dizziness, unsteadiness, slurred spoken communication, vision problems or alter in mental status.

She stayed overnight for observation and next morning, another CAT browse was normal.

I expressed business organization well-nigh the possibility of a very tedious bleeding that might start showing symptoms "a few months out."

Merely the ER doctor said the chances of this were very tiny, and that the next-morning Cat browse results were very encouraging, and that in that location probably wouldn't be any complications — but to keep a shut watch on my mother over the adjacent few days.

Over the next few days I kept a close watch: no symptoms, no headache, gait problems, slurred spoken communication, cognitive changes, nothing.

I and so completely forget nigh the idea that her hit on the caput could cause any bleeding in the encephalon.

Until 6.1 weeks afterward.

The symptoms came out of the bluish. She awakened at seven am with a headache so bad that she was weeping.

It persisted. I did not connect the dots and think of the autumn on her head half dozen weeks prior.

I just idea it was ane of her bad headaches (every now and so my female parent has always reported a bad headache), and that the weeping was just her being overly-sensitive (she'd had quintuple bypass surgery 12 week prior and the recovery had been very bumpy).

The headache was and then bad that my mother was unable to get fix for the day.

But I noticed that she had difficulty walking across the room; very weak. And then she upchucked.

Then I noticed her left leg had a slight drag to it.

It yet did non occur to me that these symptoms were the upshot of a tiresome, delayed brain bleed from hitting her head six weeks ago. Instead, I thought it was a mild stroke.

So did the ER doctor. A True cat scan was ordered and the surprised ER doctor informed us that at that place was bleeding in the brain.

"Did you hit your head recently?" She asked my mother.

I said she cruel nearly six weeks ago and hit her caput on a hard surface.

The diagnosis was a chronic subdural hematoma.

Arrows show the bleeding in a patient with caput trauma. Source: Lucien Monfils

And ultimately, the medical reports from ii ER visits (this ane and another 1 when the brain bleed recurred after the fluid was drained) named the autumn in the bath as the cause of the chronic subdural hematoma.

Between the time my female parent had striking her head, and the night before she awakened at 7 am with an excruciating headache, she had shown absolutely no symptoms feature of bleeding in the brain or head injury!

"Yeah, everyone who hits their head traumatically should be evaluated by a md," says Danielle DonDiego, DO, a family unit medico with SteadyMD, an online program where patients tin telephone call, text or video chat with their doctor anytime.

"If there is any loss of consciousness, 'worst headache of their life,' defoliation, feeling faint or vision changes — these are all major signs to go to the ER immediately.

"Even if someone loses consciousness and regains consciousness speedily, they could still have a head bleed that tin can be deadly. It's always best to be evaluated," specially if the individual is elderly, fifty-fifty if initially they don't seem to have whatever symptoms and insist "I'1000 fine."

Dr. DonDiego continues, "If a CT caput is negative initially, especially in the elderly or someone taking blood thinners, and a boring worsening headache persists for days to weeks, information technology is possible there is a boring bleed, and a re-evaluation is necessary.

"Our veins weaken as we age, so they are probable to be higher risk for hemorrhages."

If someone hits his or her head, they should tape the engagement.

Any peculiar symptoms that occur even weeks subsequently should be documented.

This includes nausea, airsickness or lingering dizziness.

A normal True cat scan 24 hours after getting hit in the head doesn't hateful that bleeding in the encephalon won't eventually occur.

Dr. DonDiego, who'due south likewise a certified personal trainer, focuses on weight management, fitness, nutrition, reproductive health, preventive medicine and managing cease phase illness. Learn more about SteadyMD.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of manufactures for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She's likewise a former ACE-certified personal trainer.

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Meridian image: Shutterstock/Syda Productions