This is the other half of what happened on Cameron's birthday...
After Cam had picked out his new bike and drove it up to the front so we could continue our shopping, Gavin announced that he had brought a $5 and he'd like to buy something for Cameron with his very own money. We went up and down the toy aisles but couldn't find anything Gavin was satisfied with. I had both babies in the back of the Wal-Mart cart because, honestly, what are my other options? Strap one in the seat of the cart and carry the other? Okay, that would've worked but it's hard to say the least...
Anyway, we drove past the clothing area and Gavin spotted some shirts on Clearance. He got so excited and started jumping up and down. We went over to them and began looking for Cam's size. All of a sudden, Harrison was on the ground, crying. I'm not sure if he was reaching and overextended and fell out or if Madi pushed him out or what. But he was on the ground. I picked him up so fast and immediately there was an employee asking what she could do to help, "Should I call a doctor? Do you need ice?" etc. Harrison wasn't screaming, just crying, and he settled down quickly so I really didn't think there was anything wrong. But that employee got another employee who called for her manager to check out the baby who'd fallen out of the cart. They all offered to call a doctor or get ice or anything else I thought Harrison might need. By this time, though, Harrison had quit crying so I said he was fine and continued our shopping. We purchased the bike & other items and came home. I fed the kids lunch and put the babies down for their nap.
That evening, while I was working, Gavin sent me a text that said Harrison was sick. I called Spencer and asked if I needed to come home. He said Harrison had just eaten a lot at dinner and eaten it quickly and had thrown up a little. No biggie...
Two days later, December 22, I got home from work around 8 pm. As I walked in the door, Spencer said, "I need you to feel something but don't freak out." Then he had me feel Harrison's head, which was, for lack of a better word...squishy! We immediately knew we needed to take him to be checked out and went straight to an InstaCare. Both of the babies were ready for bed and Madi had a fit when we thought about leaving her home with Spencer so we left the boys, with Cam in charge, and took the babies. The InstaCare staff was fabulous! I can't say that enough. They took us into the triage area where both of the doctors were standing. They both inspected Harrison and then told us that if it was their son, they'd take him to Primary Children's to have a CT Scan done to make sure there was no bleeding on the brain. They told us that there is something about the height of shopping cart baskets that cause serious injury when fallen out of and, although Harrison was acting perfectly normal, they wouldn't take a chance. They kept saying it was probably JUST a skull fracture but they wanted to be sure. JUST a skull fracture? On my little boy? They also told us they would refund our $20 copay!
So off to PCMC we went. Meanwhile, I started calling friends and family to see if anyone could go sit with the boys, not knowing how long we'd be. Callie & Mike were on their way to Idaho. Emily & Jeff were already in Idaho. Dave & Tisa were in bed (they get up at the crack of dawn on Friday mornings to go serve in the temple) but we woke them up and they got ready quickly to go to our house. I got in touch with my friend, Whitney, whose family was in town for the holidays but said she could go so that my in-laws didn't have to drive over. We told Dave & Tisa to go back to bed and were thankful that Whitney's family was understanding of our emergency.
When we arrived at PCMC, they were waiting for us. Because of the time of night we had to go to the Emergency Room...scary! They started looking Harrison over in a triage room and asked us what had happened. Then they moved us into a real room and we were seen by another set of nurses, doctors, interns, residents, etc. Seriously, we told the story of what had happened no less than 6 times. Harrison was getting pretty bugged by this point and they wanted to do the CT Scan. They explained that they would try to do it without sedation but if he didn't calm down we could either sedate him or wait for him to fall asleep. He needed to be perfectly still. So Spence kept Madi in the room and I carried Han down to the CT Scanning room. I've never seen a CT scan performed and was quite surprised at what it entailed. They strapped Harrison's arms down and secured his head between some supports, then Velcro-ed it so he couldn't move. Then they wanted him to quit crying so they could get clear pictures? The tech told me I could touch him and talk to him or sing to him, anything I could think of to calm him down. I started talking to him and then decided to try and sing. First I sang "I am a Child of God" but couldn't really get through it (I'm an emotional wreck!) so then I started singing the lullaby my mom made up to sing to her babies..."Don't you cry my Harrison, Little Tiny Baby. Mama loves her baby, Mama loves her dolly. You are very pretty and Mama loves you so. So don't you cry and don't you sigh, my Little Harrison. Don't you cry and don't you sigh, my baby boy." Not sure how I could get through that one but it worked and Harrison held still long enough to get the scan done.
Then we started waiting for the CT scan to be read. They told us that there could be three results: 1- If there was no bleeding, we would be released. 2- If there was a small amount of blood, we would be admitted overnight for observation. 3- If there was a blood clot, he'd be rushed to surgery. After waiting over an hour for the results, I finally went out to the nurses station to find out what was taking so long. They'd gotten the results back and forgot to come tell us! Grrrr. After all was said and done, it was JUST a skull fracture! I never thought I'd be happy to hear it was JUST a skull fracture...but we were released and told to follow up with our normal pediatrician after Christmas.
Harrison has healed extremely quickly. The swelling went down within a couple of weeks and he is perfectly healthy now. We are so thankful that it didn't end up being more serious. We are so thankful for friends and family who helped out that night. We are so thankful for the many prayers that were offered in our behalf. We hope we never have to spend time at Primary Children's again. That is such a sad place but we are grateful that we were treated well there.
0 comments:
Post a Comment