Saturday, July 07, 2007

Dramatic Story here for ya

Thursday we went to the mall to get Cole's pic taken. He is 6 mo. old now. We rented one of those $5 strollers that looks like a car, b/c I forgot Cole's stroller and Mahna has always wanted one. Well he can't sit up all the way and was really doing well leaning back in one corner of it, but along the way somewhere he pulled himself forward and must have bonked the side of his head. I didn't see it happen, I just assume. So he is asleep w/ his head on the side and I am showing Tina & Mahna stuff at the Disney store and I see him sleeping so I go to put Mahna's sweatshirt under his head. I feel a big bubble of liquid under his skin on the side of his skull. It is the wierdest and freakiest feeling ever. I figure he must have bonked his head on the side, but how could it have done that much damage??? So I grab both girls and we drop everything, running toward the other end of the mall where we are parked. Tina is saying "Why are we leaving? U said we could throw pennies in the fountain" Mahna is crying "You said I could get an umbrella". My head is cold and I am just trying to figure out what to do and I want to scream at them to be quiet but I know it is not their fault and I feel like I am the worst mother in the world for letting him sit in that stroller and for shopping and not looking at him for a few minutes. He is asleep. I get them in the car, I feel his head and the liquid has spread up to the top of his head a little bit, too. I drive home, which is 5 min maybe but it felt like 30. Jarrod comes out to the car, like usual, to help me w/ the kids and stuff. I said you have to keep the girls, I have to take Cole somewhere, something is wrong with his head. Jarrod felt it and took the girls and I think he asked me what happened and I said I think he hit his head on the side of the stroller. Jarrod was calm and I am thankful for that. I drove straight to Lewisville Hospital, which seemed like an hour but was maybe 10 min. The whole time I was driving, I was calling his DR's office, and calling the insurance's nurses hotline. Everything was taking too long, and truthfully even if they had told me that it was not a big deal on the phone Iwould have taken him for an actual DR or nurse to look at themself. I get in the ER (it's raining). I signed Cole in, took him out of his seat and walked around the waiting room, holding him and he was awake and acting pretty normal. I still keep touching that bubble on his head, wondering if his skull is cracked and that is leaking fluid and is he going to be mentally messed up from this day on, etc etc. Why didn't I bring that blanket with me, it's so cold in the waiting room. Why are they taking soooooo long to see my little baby, he is just a 6 mo old baby. When we came here for his RSV, they took him straight in! Finally after 30 min they take him in, look at him, say it may just be a hemotoma and to wait for a room to open up so the DR can see if he needs a cat scan. Cole falls asleep again and I am holding him crying (not hysterically or anything) calling Jarrod every five minutes and talking to a big funny black lady sitting next to me. A room opens up and we get in. After another 30 min a DR comes in and says since Cole keeps falling asleep we need to do a catscan. An hour goes by sitting in this tiny curtained room, listening to all the other patients coming and going. There is a man a few curtains down moaning in pain, he didn't know why his back hurt so bad and said the pain was moving back and forth. Turns out he had a kidney stone. It was hard to listen to his moaning. At first you wonder if a person is faking it to get pain medicine, then you think, that must be pretty bad pain for a grown man, business man, to be crying out and moaning like that in a public place. SO Cole gets a cat scan. The nurses all loved him and his big blue eyes. Said he was more cooperative than the adults that day. They promise me that results will be back in 30 min. 2 hours later........a DR comes and tells me Cole is fine. He has swelling on his head, but no internal bleeding, no fractures whatsoever. He is fine. And in the future I can avoid a multiple hour wait at the ER by knowing that a serious head injury would involve lots of unstoppable crying and puking. Good to know. Cole still has the swelling on the side of the head, and if you felt it (GG did yesterday) you would see how freakishly squishy it is. I still can't believe it is "nothing" but if a catscan shows that, I have to believe it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh how awful for you. So frightening. You've no reason to feel like a bad mommy - you did a phenomenal job of taking charge, not losing control and doing what was right for Cole.

Glad 2 hear he'll be fine.

Miss u guys
Lori & Spencer

Brent said...

That was awful for you...but I'm glad it ended as well as it could have!

Kendra said...

You are SUPER MOM - even to kids that aren't yours....i'm sorry for your freaky experience at the mall.

Joye said...

I agree, you are an excellent mom. I'm glad little Cole is okay. It's hard not to imagine the worst when you don't know what caused the boo-boo. I can't wait to see you Thurs.

Steph said...

how's the hematoma? i hope he's ok. i know it's freaky but hematoma is just a fancy word for bruise. since it was on his head and he's so tiny, that would cause the pooling of blood. i hope you never have to go through that again! aren't healthcare people insensitive sometimes? geez. sorry.

Anonymous said...

So scary! Omy gosh. It sounds like you did everything right, though. Gasp. I'm glad it is going away, now.