Denton County Living Well Magazine Summer 2015 | Page 32

Brain Injury:
How to Protect Your Most Valuable Computer

I

By Richard C. Senelick, MD

t is a typical, bright, spring day at a
very active retirement community. Anthony and Carmen head out on their daily
bicycle ride, which always includes a
brief side trip to look at the brightly-colored Azaleas and a stop at the community
mailboxes to grab their mail. They have
traveled this same route hundreds of times
and Anthony always tells his “nagging”
children that he doesn’t need a helmet—it
just isn’t very far. But, this day is different.
His front wheel grabs a jagged crack in the
pavement. In an instant he is on the ground
with a nasty gash on the side of his head.
Anthony quickly became a traumatic brain
injury survivor and his children were right.
I don’t know any woman who doesn’t at
some point worry about breast cancer, and it is difficult to find
anyone who doesn’t know someone who has had a stroke. Many
of us routinely go to our medical screenings and can rattle off
a list of tips to prevent a heart attack, but it may surprise you

that there are more than two million traumatic
brain injuries each year—and only 795,000
new strokes. As we age we worry about our
cholesterol and blood pressure, but we should
also take precautions to prevent a traumatic
brain injury.
More than Just a Bump on the Head
When Anthony fell, his wife only saw the
blood seeping from the cut on his head. She
did not see the changes taking place in the
millions of cells in his brain. Even a mild head
injury can affect us in several ways.
• Physical Potholes: We tend to focus on
the more obvious physical manifestations of a
head injury, like external bleeding. But after a
mild head injury, it is common to experience
headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, neck pain or ringing in
your ears.
• Cognitive Canyons: It is bad enough that we “lose a step”
in our thinking process through normal aging. However,

Advanced breast cancer screening
designed with you in mind.
Women are faced with a myriad of challenges in their
daily lives, one of which is the real possibility of
developing breast cancer. According to the American
Cancer Society, 1 in 8 women will develop invasive
breast cancer in their lifetime. But thanks in part to early
detection through screening, death rates have been on
the decline since 1989. An annual screening mammogram,
recommended for women age 40 and older, can help
detect breast cancer at its earlier stages.
Schedule your screening with us today by calling
469-322-7700 or by visiting our website at
TexasHealthFlowerMound.com/Mammogram.

We’ve got the tools
for early detection.
30

DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | SUMMER 2015

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound is a joint venture owned by Texas
Health Resources and physicians dedicated to the community and meets the definition
under federal law of a physician [