Hit on the head with a wrist wallet carrying a lot of loose change
 

Note: By 'wrist wallet' I mean those rectangular shaped wallets that have a dangling strap that women wrap around their wrist and are generally used to hold their ID, credit cards, cash, etc.


The wallet itself is fairly light and had about a dozen various ID, credit or store gift cards and some folded bills but also had a decent amount of loose change in there... several quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. Maybe about 20 coins in all. The material of the wallet itself is pretty thin; it feels like it's made of a heavy cloth and so you can easily feel what items are inside.

My gal is a bit of a short-fuse type of person and can get upset or triggered pretty easily. Sometimes she'll take sarcasm as a personal insult and tonight was one of those moments where I made a silly remark and she responded by slapping me on the side of my head with her wrist wallet. Maybe or maybe not it was harder than she intended but I don't know.

It happened in the car as I was driving about 40-45 mph and not really paying attention to her in the passenger seat, so it really caught me off guard and by surprise. We were obviously both seated as it happened. My head snapped/moved a little because I wasn't anticipating it at all and it scared the heck out of me in the moment. Couldn't tell if her hand or palm was holding it to deliver the blow or if she just swung it freely by the strap with a frisbee-like motion. We're also around the same weight, 150-155 lbs, despite me being taller since she is a bit petite/curvy and I'm a skinny guy.


Brain or science related discussion:


I recall reading that a slap to the back is around 4 g's.

- Would a moderately hard slap or slinging of hand/wrist wallet with a bunch of loose coins to the side of the head be any reason to suspect much higher g forces than an open or closed hand slap? Have measurements of hard slaps been measured as well? Would holding the wallet make a difference versus swinging it by the wrist strap?

- Subconcussive impact range or even possibly concussion range? Low chance of any bleeding in the brain?

I played around the wallet a bit when we got home and it definitely does sting when I was even playfully testing it out and hitting myself on the arm, wrist, chest etc because the coins are in the front and so it's easy to feel them. Even just fairly light hits hurt enough to where I didn't want to increase the speed.

Resulting:

The actual hit left some tenderness that still lingers a couple of hours later. I don't appear to have light sensitivity or the terrible mental fog of from when I had previous concussions (2 with LOC and another two or three without LOC but bad, lingering symptoms for over a month). The main symptoms for this event would be site tenderness and an upset stomach but no vomiting or change of smell or taste. Pupiils are of even size and appear to properly dilate. I can walk heel to toe in a straight line without any apparent balance problems and can touch my nose with an outwardly stretched hand, etc. Can also remember the events before and after OK. Obviously the biggest problem is my partner's behavior and she needs to think before she acts and not occasionally behave this way, even if she doesn't intend harm, but for purposes of this post I'm only going to focus on the actual hit to the head.

You issue should not be worrying about the hit to your head.

You should be considering whether she puts your life in danger with her domestic violence acts, especially while you are driving a car. There are many objects that can stop your car quite quickly with high G decelerations.

At 40 mph, you travel 60 feet per second. Oncoming cars can be 1/2 second away. 80 mph head on impact speed would be devastating. 40 mph into a pole would be 80 Gs.

A slap to the back of the head is not 4 Gs. There is no way to calculate such a hit.

This concept of trying to score the damage from any contact to your head will destroy your life. What matter does it make? It already happened. You can do nothing to reverse time.

You can make decisions about any future risk of her hitting you.

You need to tell her that hitting you is wrong. I had a girlfriend like that and she hit me on the side of the head. I eventually broke up with her because of this..

Don't over analyze the hit to your head because your gonna make yourself go crazy. Ultimately, for nothing. Avoid these situations.