Monday, April 13, 2009

A Trip to the ER

We had our first ever trip to the ER on Saturday night. I've never been quite so scared in my life.

I was in the attic looking for one more Easter basket that I had not been able to find. Our attic has a door from Emma's room, but it also has a pull-down trap door with stairs into the garage. Evan had followed me in from Emma's room, and I took him back out....."Don't come in the attic, Evan. It is too dangerous!". I went back into the attic and was in a corner digging. I did not see him come back in. When I heard the "Thud", I immediately knew what had happened. Evan had come back into the attic and had stepped on the edge of the trap door. It opened, and he fell through into the garage. God was looking out for us though....my van happened to be parked in just the right spot, so luckily he fell onto the hood of the van and not onto the concrete floor!

Regardless, I was scared to death. Emma and I both started screaming for Jeff who was in the kitchen. I looked down and saw Evan on the van, laying on his back, but his arms and legs were moving. Jeff got to him seconds later and he had rolled over to his tummy. I came running down stairs as Jeff was carrying him inside. Evan was not crying at all--his first words were "I need headache medicine!" From that, we knew that he had hit his head. There was a red mark on the back of his head, but no bump or whelp. We decided immediately to take him to the ER to have him checked out.

We loaded everyone in the van and dropped Emma, Ethan, & Adam off at TaTa's house on the way. We were almost to the hospital when Evan said, "Where's Bubba Adam?" (He is not used to being away from Adam!). We told him he was at TaTa's house. He replied, "I need him!"

When we got to the ER and I told the triage nurse what had happened, she told me to hold his neck still. (I had not even thought about his neck....I was more worried about his head!). They immediately put a neck brace on him, and told us that we should have called an ambulance! (Apparently, if your child falls more than twice their height, you should keep them still and call an ambulance...good to know!).

They took us to a trauma room and hooked him up to a monitor and we saw two doctors immediately. Once they saw that his vital signs were all stable, they moved us to a different room (I think they also had a helicopter coming in and needed the room) while we waited to go to radiology for an Xray of his neck. They were not as concerned about his head, and told us just to watch to make sure he was acting normal.

We had to wait a while for radiology, and Evan was quite uncomfortable in the neck brace. He kept saying, "I want to take this off", and "This is squishing my ears!!". Once, he was sitting on my lap and yelled, "Somebody please HELP ME!" There was a big letter "B" on the wall, and he asked, "Are we in Room B? I want to go to Room A!" He was quite an entertaining little patient!

We finally headed to Xray where they took five different shots of his neck. He was such a big boy and was perfectly still for his pictures! For one he had to lay on his back and open his mouth as wide as he could--I bet he was the most compliant two-year-old they have ever seen!

We waited just a while longer to hear that the Xrays looked good. By then, we had been there for more than three hours, and he was acting completely normal. We kept asking him "Where are we?", "Why are we here?", "Where is Bubba Adam?". He would answer correctly every time...."We are at the doctor.", "I step on the stairs and fall on your van.", "Bubba's at TaTa's house". We were feeling comfortable that he did not have a serious head injury, so they sent us home with instructions to just watch him and return if we had any concerns.

I am so thankful that he is OK, and that my van was in just the right spot to cushion his fall. I'll live with the big dent in the hood as a reminder of God's protection for us! This week, my Dad is building me a box to put over those stairs (I've actually been meaning to have him do that since we moved in 5 years ago!), and Evan has promised to never go into the attic again. "It's dangerous!" he says.
"This is squishing my ears!"
Walking with Daddy to Radiology
Waiting in Radiology
They brought us a Spiderman coloring book to pass the time.