So now back to the beginning of the story: We were to head on a family walk Friday evening around 7:30 a week ago. The kids were outside and I was upstairs putting my shoes on. Andrew came in to tell me Patrick was hurt. I rolled my eyes because Patrick had had a drama filled day with no real need for it. Then two neighbor ladies brought Patrick in and proceeded to tell me how worried they were because they heard his head hit the asphalt. They said it was horrible! When I tried to take him to the couch he told me the room was spinning. Hmmmm. Anyway, he vomited and there was blood. I took him to urgent care. They said he had blood behind his eardrum and wanted me to take him to Cincinnati Children's hospital to check for fractures. I chose to go to the smaller branch because it would be less busy. Sure enough, they got us right in. Patrick continued to vomit. By 11:00 p.m. we knew he had a fracture - two to be exact. We were heading downtown to the main hospital campus for observation and admittance. The next morning I had to prove to Patrick that he had ridden in an ambulance with pictures. He slept like a rock through the whole thing. The ER in that building was FREEZING! I've rarely been so cold indoors. I tried to sleep in the chair. I tried to share Patrick's bed. I could not get comfortable or over the splitting headache I had. They finally moved us upstairs to a room at 4:30. I answered questions for the 4th time and when they asked if they could get anything for me, I simply looked at the bed made up for me and weakly answered 'no'.
Fortunately for us/him, the fractures were still aligned. There was no loss of consciousness. There was no fluid on the brain. His skin wasn't even broken. Basically, he did the most severe damage he could do without putting his brain in serious jeopardy. But now he's out of school for two weeks. He can't be on anything with wheels or run around like a normal 6 yr old. He can't have too much noise (though after this weekend, I'm not sure if that one will fly). And for several days he couldn't even do normal lighting. He had to keep his food down before they would let him come home. He finally made it on Tuesday afternoon. It seemed like a switch had been pulled. Once he got home his appetite picked up and his tolerance for light and noise increased. But things are still slow. We have to be careful while his skull heals. If he injures it again while it's vulnerable it would be very bad. He has to be cleared by Rehab before he can go back to school, but then they are worried about the cafeteria noise and the playground. So he may not visit either for the entire month of September. He has to rest his brain and he's proven that 45 min of TV at a time is too much. He gets a headache. So our paradigm of fun and relaxing has shifted. Thanks to my SIL we didn't go nuts this week. We do a lot more games of war and a lot less TV. We do a lot more audiobooks and a lot less running. In ways it's been fun. In many other ways it's been hard. But mostly it's been good for all of us to pull together.
2 comments:
I love it when you post :) I'm glad the family is on the mend :)
Oh my goodness! What a night that must have been. I hope that Patrick goes quitely (heehee) all September. My papa was kicked in the head by a horse at about the same age and he spent a whole summer in bed at his grandmother's house and wasn't any worse for the wear. Good luck!!
Post a Comment