Ashley Wagner discusses head injuries

[ChristyRN]

So it is your belief your memory loss was due to the concussion, not the anaesthesia?

I didn't have surgery--at least not after my concussion. I said I was close to it. I was apparently talking long before my memory returned. My daughter says I kept asking about school (I was at the end of my last semester and had three weeks of class left). I complained when they were stapling my scalp closed.

I've had multiple surgeries, dating from 1980 to 2013. None have caused memory loss. I've also had other concussions without memory loss. This particular injury was worse and whatever happened inside my skull when it hit the ice caused pretty bad memory loss--about four days prior and about six hours after. It isn't coming back.

[amy1984]

It seems to me that if the impact did the damage, I wouldn't have been able to function pre-surgery as well as I apparently did, so I think it must have been due to the drugs.

I'm not a medical professional.  Just someone with an interest in concussion info.  But what you're saying - that you got up and were verbal and able to interact after the accident and then had memory issues post concussion - isn't completely odd.  Your brain is complex.  I'm not saying it was the impact and not the drugs, because as I said, I'm not an expert, but what you recount is certainly something I've heard other people recount after hitting their head.  IE: 'they say I was up and talking after I hit my head but I don't remember that.'  Personally, I have hit my head and the events around it are 'foggy' - so not completely gone - though my coach says I was up and talking and insisting I was fine and to be honest all I remember is some sort of foggy moment where I was sort of coming to and then walking to the bench (baseball).  But apparently although I dropped like a sack of potatoes after being hit and all I remember is sort of sitting on the bench being confused with this odd foggy time in the middle, I was able to convey how I felt and actually insist that I was okay to keep playing.  Which I obviously was not.  Anyways the tl;dr is our brains are complex and who knows what's going on in there most of the time.