Just a general question,which is generally better after a head injury, an appearing lump or no lump at all? What does it mean if no lump appears?

Rather than the physical appearance of the injured area, the real question is what symptoms have appeared? Even if no lump appears there can still be serious injury (shaken baby syndrome is a sad yet all too common example).

A concussion or other TBI can have no outward sign but can still cause headaches, vision problems, fatigue, confusion, sensitivity to light and sound, memory loss, cognative deficits and other problems. If any of these exist a visit to a doctor (preferably one who specializes in brain injury) is in order, or the ER if the symptoms are sudden and severe.

I wondered about this too. I had no lump and I credit my helmet for that. It did what it was supposed to and cracked on impact, breaking in multiple places.

My old family doc (who I'm no longer seeing) told me if I didn't have a goose egg, then I didn't hit my head at all and therefore no concussion.

I'm sure the er doc checked but I don't remember much of being in the er.

Sorry that probably doesn't help you. Best of luck.
Starr

When my son came home after his bicycle accident (no helmet) he did not say that he hit his head. He only said he had lost his house keys, went back to where he thought it happened, having remembered hearing some glass breaking. (ummm... egad that must have been his head?!) Later in the ER, the doctor said he didn't have any obvious goose egg. But the CT showed a fracture and a lot of intracerebral bleeding. A few weeks later when I was trimming his hair to even it up I came across a ridge in his right temporal area... the fracture line... that was freeaaky.