Should I Go To The Doctor?

Hi. It sounds to me like you clearly have two separate problems, both of which MUST be evaluated by a doctor in the ER!

1) You have a concussion, probably a mild one. Being dizzy and having a headache after hitting your head really hard is a classic sign of concussion. You need to go to the emergency room right away to see someone about this. You're almost certainly fine, yet you NEVER mess around with concussions. You don't know if you're bleeding in there or whatever. You need to get an MRI of your head or CAT scan or something like that to make sure everything is fine. Don't mess with this. Don't wait, don't wonder, don't delay, just go. You've already waited too long--you need to get head injuries checked immediately. This is what emergency rooms are for! But like I said, though the responsible, smart thing to do is to get such things checked out immediately, it's also likely you're fine and just need a bit of bed rest and you need to avoid any athletic activities for a month or two, because even if this one concussion is no big deal, you are now at risk of a second concussion, and that could be considerably worse. What they've been finding now is that when someone with a concussion, even a very mild one, doesn't wait for it to heal, they risk serious brain damage that can cause permanent memory problems or depression or other cognitive problems.

2) Hard to say exactly what is going on in your abdomen. Obviously I, random person on the internet, cannot diagnose you. But I'll give you an idea of what I think it could be, and that will hopefully convince you you need to get that checked out in the ER as well. I had a surgery similar to yours when I was 16, though I had the entire ovary removed. I think your docs didn't explain things in absolutely the best way because when a doc says that there's a risk of something, they don't necessarily convey to the person the level of risk, so the person doesn't know if it's something that's going to happen really soon and they should be terrified, or if it's something that almost certainly won't happen and they should relax, or if it's something that will happen soon yet it's no big deal anyway and they should relax and not worry about it. The point is: you only need 1/2 of one ovary in order to have normal ovarian function for the rest of your life until menopause. There's a huge redundancy built into the human body, so just as you only need one kidney to do all the work of kidneys that you need, you're really fine with just one ovary. Yes, there's a remote chance that the one ovary you have will stop working, but it's a small chance, especially at your age. In other words, it's not something to worry about. However: you are still healing from your surgery 10 weeks ago. The fall sounds like it might have torn something internally, and that's not good. It could mean more pain, some complications, or the formation of some painful scar tissue. Laughing or sneezing or tightening abs all use the abdominal muscles that were cut when you had surgery. Then they were put back together with staples--you might very well still have staples inside you. Depends what your surgery was like--nowadays they're less invasive, so I dont' know what you had done. For my surgery, while I had staples on my skin, I discovered when I had an x-ray years later that there is also a long row of metal staples internally as well, that joined together the layer of muscle or fascia internally that had been cut. These kinds of things (plus internal scar tissue, called "adhesions") prevent smooth flow of body parts when they receive a major jolt, like you did the other day. Has this caused any long term problems? No way I can know, but the doc should be told so he/she can check. Personally, even though I knew intellectually that my one ovary could do the work of 2 ovaries, I became protective of my one ovary to make sure nothing happened to it.

I just gave you a really long answer and I wouldn't have bothered to devote so much time to one answer unless I thought it was really important advice. I hope you heed it. Good luck!

When in doubt, go to the doctor. Especially if there is a chance of head injury. People can go for weeks after a head injury thinking they are fine, and then the symptoms of a concussion, etc. set in. If you are concerned enough to write this long and detailed an explanation about your injury, and list these kinds of symptoms, then definitely definitely get yourself checked out.