I love fighting. It's a drug. Everyone told me that but I couldn't fathom that until I experienced my first fight. It was a loss but I was still hooked. There is no other high like stepping in that cage. That rush.
But in April I started getting headaches. I didn't get hit hard. I didn't get knocked out. They just started. I talked to my coaches and made a conscious decision to go through with my fight anyhow. This wasn't just any fight. This was my first pro fight. This was 2 years of only fighting 4 times and countless fights that had fallen through. Fallen through as I walked the steps of the ring with my gear on after waiting for two days. I wasn't backing out. I was taking this fight because I wanted to fight and I love fighting. And I was tired of missing fights.
I kept it to only a handful of people, not even all my coaches knew. I didn't take any head shots during the training cycle and the headaches stayed at bay. But then I took some hard shots in the fight. And I had trouble remembering things and the headaches wouldn't go away. I finally went to the Doctor and he confirmed what I already knew but it was worse than I thought. I started the treatment process for a concussion 5 months ago. Treatment has included all kinds of fun things including cortisone injections into my occipital nerve, physical therapy, cranial therapy and vestibular therapy along with a multitude of drugs to help with my memory and headaches. There are a lot of simple things that are now far more complex than I ever imagined. Sometimes I make forward progress and sometimes I go backwards.
I haven't had a headache in 22 days and that's the most normal I have felt in the last 5 months. I am now up to a whole 20 minutes of low heart rate rowing or stationary bicycling without headaches.
Despite all of this, it's still hard for me to say that I won't be fighting again. Some of you I have been able to tell this to, others I haven't and just say I'm dealing with some other injuries. Which I am but for some reason, sometimes I just can't say "I'm not fighting again". I know for my long term health, it's the right decision. But she has me in her grip. If someone came up with a miracle drug that would let me fight without any long term brain damage, I'd be like a crack fiend trying to find a way to get my hands on it. So I'm not fighting again and I'm still trying to find my place in the gym again.
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