The Head Injury

Some of you have asked for a more detailed explanation of the head injury this week, so here you go....

I was in my room changing clothes Tuesday morning, and the kids were in the living room watching their absolute favorite morning cartoon. I heard a HUGE thump! and then Az3 started screaming. I ran in there and found him laying on the floor with his head in his hands screaming. I asked him several times what happened, and he didn't acknowledge me. (His sister then chimed in with "He fell Mama and his head hit the floor and his feet weren't under him"....or something to that effect.) I then asked Az3 to look at me and again no response - like he wasn't even in the same room as me. I really got scared and started clapping my hands right in front of his nose (he should have been flinching) and yelling at him to look at me, and still no response. Finally after a good two full minutes, it's like he "snapped out of it" or something, looked at me and focused, and then said "Mama! my head hurts so bad!" and started crying again.

It took probably 5-10 minutes to get him calmed down, and then I checked his head and found a small bump on his left temple but nothing else. I had him go to the kitchen and got him some breakfast to eat as well as some Tylenol. He had a really hard time eating - I had to force him, and he continued to cry how badly his head hurt off and on. Once he had enough that the Tylenol wouldn't make him sick, he went to his room to lay down. After about 30 minutes, he ran to the bathroom and started vomiting. I got on the phone (with my Mom and MIL) to our Pediatrician's office, and she said that with the vomiting and the confusion he needed to go to the ER and get checked out - possibly a cat scan also.

I got everyone in the car and took the girls to a friends' house from church. (They thought they were getting to have a playdate and were fine.) We went to a local hospital recommended by the Pediatrician and went into the ER. Initially, the guy checking us in said he thought it was nothing to be concerned over, but we would get to see a doctor. After putting us back in the waiting room for an hour, we got into an exam room, and then saw a wonderful doctor. She put him through some paces, and said he definitely needed a cat scan, as she saw the confusion (at this point he was not able to follow some of her simple directions still) and the vomiting as red flags. So we had a cat scan shortly after that, which came back blessedly clear, thank you Lord! After that, the doctor wanted him to drink some juice to see if he could keep anything down, and when he could for 20 minutes, we were discharged.

On the way home, we were about 2 blocks away, when suddenly Az3 said "Mom pull over - I'm gonna be sick again!" and he profusely vomited all of that juice back up. I called the ER back, and the dr that saw us said to come back immediately, and that he would probably need to be admitted for overnight observation. Since we were 2 blocks from home, I stopped in real quick and threw together a couple of bags for each of us. (If we were going to stay, we were going to be comfortable!) We got back up to the ER and were checked back in. When we got back to the room, the same nurse that had seen us the first time asked why we were back - by that time, the first dr that had treated him was gone for the day. I explained what she had said, and the nurse frowned but said "okaaaaaaayyyyyy....."

We had a new dr this time, and he looked over Az3 again, and said that yes, the continued vomiting was a concern, but he still thought we had a chance of not being admitted for the night. We tried a gel medicine on Az3's wrists (which was super cool!) and it took effect immediately. His biggest problem became whether or not he would get to finish watching Star Wars before we left. ;) After that, we stayed another hour (to ensure we could keep the juice down this time!) and finally got home that night around 8pm.

The next day he was on bedrest, and our neighbors across the street became lifesavers! We borrowed 8 or so movies from them, and he stayed in bed most of the day and watched them. However, he was feeling so good around supper time, I let him get up and eat with us. After dinner, we all hung out in the living room watching a movie, and when it was over, I offered the kids ice cream. He refused, and then ran to the bathroom and was sick again. Apparently he had been wrestling with his sisters while we were getting the ice cream ready! UGH! So on day 3 of the saga, he was on bedrest again, and I threatened him with "BIG bad trouble" if he did anything other than lay down. He did fine, and we haven't had any problems since. He's still not able to run or do anything "vigorous" or winding until Tuesday, but I'm okay with that, as he'll be ready for school to start on Thursday. He is expected to make a full recovery now, and I'm glad to just put this all behind us.