Hononegah football coach Brian Zimmerman talks about his life-changing health scare
Hononegah trailed at halftime, but took control in the third quarter and beat Freeport 42-22 in Week 4 of last year’s football season. Coach Brian Zimmerman made a joke of it when his wife called him on the bus ride home.
“I think,” Zimmerman said, “they tried to give me an aneurism at halftime.”
He will never make that joke again.
The 53-year-old Zimmerman, who looks fit enough to play on Hononegah’s line, developed a severe headache when he got home that night.
“It was like somebody hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat,” Zimmerman recalls. “Intense pain started in back of my head, then went around the sides to the front. It felt like I pinched a nerve in my neck or something. I didn’t lose consciousness, but I saw stars.
“I thought maybe this is a migraine. I never had one. I don’t know what it feels like. My head was pounding so badly. I put ice packs on my head and laid down.”
It was the beginning of the biggest health scare of Zimmerman's life, something that would take him out of commission for months and give him a newfound appreciation for his health and the people around him, especially his wife.
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One night turns into a week
It was his wife, Zimmerman said, who wanted him to go to the hospital that night. He didn't listen. He took Ibuprofen instead.
“I am not one who rushes off to the hospital,” he said. “It had been several years since I even had a check-up. Because I was conscious and clear-headed, I didn’t think it was a medical emergency. My wife kept urging me to let her take me to the hospital.”
Finally, after two days, Zimmerman let his wife take him the emergency room at Swedish-American Hospital.
Zimmerman had suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage. A stroke. His brain was bleeding. A quick trip to the ER turned into a week at the University of Wisconsin hospital near Madison, where doctors gave him a CT scan, an MRI and two angiograms to determine the extent of the damage.
That was followed by several more weeks recuperating at home.
“I finally had an opportunity to sit in my recliner, yet it was so unsettling,” he said. “I didn’t want to be there. Normally after a long day, that recliner is salvation. But when you have no other choice, it becomes a negative.”
A daily walk with his wife to the end of the driveway to get the mail taxed his limits.
“I would be wiped out and have to sit and rest,” he said. “It’s overwhelming to not have the ability to do the things you are used to doing. And it was frustrating because I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick fix, and anything that takes time was going to take me away from the things that are important to me, my team and my students."
An eye-opening experience
Zimmerman said he knows better now. You have to take the time.
While he's considered one of the lucky ones — he didn't suffer any of the common stroke symptoms like facial droop, paralysis or memory loss — it took months get to get back to his horticulture class in Hononegah's science department and even longer before he could return to coaching.
Talk about a wake up call.
“I learned a quarter of the people this happens to — that’s it. They are done,” Zimmerman said of possible fatal consequences. “I want people to be aware of their health. If you don’t have regular checkups, the consequences could be dire.”
Listen to your wives, Zimmerman said, and your doctors and your own bodies when they're trying to tell you something isn’t right.
“This experience was an eye-opener,” Zimmerman said. “It made me cognizant that I do need to get yearly check-ups and physicals. I am on blood pressure medication now. And I check my blood pressure frequently at home. The root of my whole medical situation was my blood pressure."
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Hononegah football coach Brian Zimmerman embraces health after stroke
