How do you examine the areas on your body that you can't see?
I took a little 27-mile jaunt on the Appalachian Trail this weekend. It had everything: rain, fog, bear hounds, a sizeable blacksnake keeping the trail shelter mouse-free. A lot of it was ridge-walking, which means slabs of sandstone underfoot tilted every which way and covered in a green mossy slime (due to all the recent rain) that is as slick as ice.
So, I managed to take a tumble and hit my head on a tree as I went down. As I sat there for a few seconds, taking stock and deciding whether to backtrack to the last road or go on, I ran through the checklist:
Nausea? No.
Blurred or double-vision? No.
Discoloration under the eyes? Blood in the ears? Hard to tell, since I was alone and didn't have a mirror. I did, however, have a digital camera, so I took pictures of my face, ears and the impact spot on the back of my head. Everything was fine, and I eventually wandered on my way.