Monday, February 18, 2008

my weekend: co-opted by circumstances

if you notice the last post i made i said not much was happening. how that can change in such a short time.

friday nite #1 son came home from his special needs program crying. turns out he fell in the bathroom and bumped his head.

dh and i monitored the situation, checked the internet as to how to care for someone with a concussion. i knew he wouldn't feel like eating so we just settled down in front of the tv, making sure he could rest. soon tho he was throwing up and after an hour his crying hadn't ceased. when you're dealing with a non-verbal child it is so hard to know what he is experiencing. it is a very helpless feeling ....

so we headed off to the ER. even tho the ER was being slammed, they got him in quickly. we weren't sure what to expect since everything we had read said that docs can't really do much for a concussion. the ER doc finally got around to seeing #1 son. after checking his ears, nose and eyes he told us there was blood pooling behind his left ear. so he wanted to proceed and order a CAT scan. he asked if our son could hold still for 5 minutes while in the machine---HA! so first they had to give him some drugs. oh how i hate to see my son poked and prodded and drugged up. when he came out of the CAT scan his eyes were glassy and darting everywhere as he tried to shake off the effects of the drugs. and he was still crying.





we soon found out from the results of the scan that he had blood between his brain and skull, not a good thing. and the pressure that ensued was causing the pain which was resulted in the crying ....

what we weren't expecting were the next words out of the doctors mouth: "we can either send your son to salt lake or boise" what?!? i thot we were going to be sent home and told to rest for a couple days. but no, because of the blood and the pressure our son needed to be in a larger hospital in case it didn't go away on its own. so, they ordered a helicopter to take our son up to boise. we decided that dh should ride along with them and i would drive up and meet them at the hospital.

i kissed my son goodbye, watching him being carted off to the ambulence, and rushed home to toss a few clothes and necessities into a bag before heading out. of course, i forgot a few things, like a change of clothes for hubby! oooops!

as i drove the 2 hours to boise i prayed, i sang along with worship songs, i prayed some more. i had made a few phonecalls already to let others know what was happening and put our son on their church's prayer chain. as i flew along the freeway i felt the wings of the angels holding me up and keeping me awake. i knew the Lord had heard my prayers and others and was anxious to hear what this hospital in boise would say and do.

they had admitted our #1 son into the ER and i connected with dh and son. he had been given some anti nausea meds so he wasn't throwing up as he had been doing the previous 5 hours. later that night he was transferred to a regular room in the pediatric ward. dh and i decided that he would stay and i would drive over to my brother's and bunk down there for the night. i am so thankful that my brother and sister in law moved to boise 2 years ago. and not just so i had somewhere close to bunk down for the night.




the next day #1 son seemed to be getting better and then took a turn for the worse in the afternoon. so we as his parents, along with his doc and the main nurse who had been caring for him decided it would be best to stay one more night.

finally sunday afternoon we were released and headed home. #1 son is no longer in pain, is holding down light foods, but is still a bit unsteady on his feet. we had a low key day today and hopefully he'll be ready to go back to school tomorrow.

i have pics and hope to download/upload? some and get them on this blog. and now, i'm ready for a weekend! where did mine go?

2 comments:

*carrie* said...

Gail,

Oh, my! Hope you can get rested up after all this. Glad you're home safely.

Peapod Four said...

Oh my goodness! Is he doing better now? How scary!