Jeremy Cameron column: My memories of being concussed and my recovery

In his exclusive column, Jeremy Cameron details his memories from being concussed and his steady road back to getting on the field.

My memory of the hit and the aftermath is really patchy.

As you probably know, I was knocked out during the round 15 game against Melbourne and stretchered from the field.

Back in my second year with GWS Giants, I had a bit of a knock and I could remember all of it but this one was different, it was definitely a larger one.

My teammates have been telling me stories about talking to me on the ground as I was being taken off or in the rooms afterwards, but I only remember bits and pieces of that night and nothing about the game even before the collision.

I don’t remember any of the game. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

I was even told later on that I was yelling to our player welfare manager Mark Worthington in the rooms waiting to go to hospital and I was asking him to call around the important people at the club and because I wasn’t sure how to tell everybody that I had been in a serious car crash and was badly injured!

That clearly wasn’t the case and while those little stories are good for a chuckle, being concussed like that does make you think about how important the brain is.

Injuries like that are incredibly serious and these days we know not to take any risks, which is why we decided it was best for me to have another week off and not play against North Melbourne on Sunday.

I got great care on the ground. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos

I was given the best care at the ground and once we got to hospital to do a couple of scans, I didn’t want to get too caught up in the details, I just wanted to know if I was OK or not.

After we got the thumbs up that there was no serious damage, we left the hospital and didn’t get home until about 2am, so it was a long night.

I mentioned ‘Wortho’ before, he does a brilliant job on game day looking after us players.

I had my mum and dad at the ground for the Melbourne game and he knew that and brought them down to the rooms almost before I got there.

I’m looking forward to getting back on field. Picture: James Elsby/AFL Photos

My partner Indi was at home with her parents and her sister – thankfully she wasn’t at home alone watching that – and Wortho called her quickly with all the information and to reassure her that I was going to be fine.

I think its harder for the people watching in that situation than the player, because I wasn’t too worried and knew I was getting good care, but it is extremely stressful to watch on and Wortho did a great job communicating with everybody, because obviously I couldn’t.

The next day, I was pretty tired and had a slight headache.

I found myself sleeping a fair bit and just resting, the medicos tell us to avoid watching TV and screens where we can and I was actually affected more from noise than anything, but it wasn’t too bad.

I got checked up again a couple of days later and then you are in the AFL’s concussion protocols.

You have to tick off certain things on certain days to be able to play after the 12 days.

You probably don’t realise how serious it is until you go through it and I have opened my eyes a bit to how important recovering properly from concussion is.

Being honest with yourself is the most important thing so you don’t rush back and you have to work through it with your doctor.

It’s all about communication and having a steady build back to when you are playing.

I have spoken to my mate Gary Rohan about the incident and while he feels really bad, from my point of view, stuff happens.

Gary felt bad but I told him ‘stuff happens’. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos

He obviously didn’t mean to run into his own teammate like that and knock me out.

That is just football, he is a quick player and I love the way he really launches at the footy, that is a great part of his game and helped us win a grand final.

I want him to move on super quickly from it and I was proud he was able to put it behind him in the Dees game and kick a few goals and help us get what was an extremely important win.

As I mentioned before, we decided to stay on the safe side and take in another week before I get back on the field, just to see how I recover.

I will be going through a pretty strong session of running on Saturday as the boys do their captain’s run as I try and build up some fitness for the back half of the year.

But I won’t be too excited to sit down and watch the boys on Sunday, I am not a very good watcher, I never get nervous on the field but I start stressing a bit in the stands.

Hopefully the boys can take care of business against the Roos and I can get back into it soon.

Originally published as Jeremy Cameron column: My memories of being concussed and my recovery