First trip to the ER

[mightymulhern]

Well, I guess it had to happen eventually although I would have been happy to have had it not come so soon.

Last night we went out to Leona's for dinner in downtown Des Plaines. We usually try to eat out once a week, and we've taken Sydney there a few times.

So we're all sitting at the table, Meghan and I on opposite sides of the booth and Sydney in a booster seat next to Meghan. I commented... maybe they need to make taller booster seats. She's still really short. Meghan said, most kids this size probably sit in high chairs. We shrugged that one off and went about waiting for our food. After all, this is the way we almost always do it. It works really well. Perhaps that conversation was some kind of twisted prophesy. Who knows.

Sydney was extremely good and either sat on Meghan's lap or in her booster seat. Then the food came and we started eating. Sydney had some bits of potato wedges and chicken strips. We all ate happily with little fuss. And then out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur and heard a thud along with the booster seat hitting the floor. Sydney had just leaned over to look out around the back of the booth and did a header onto the tile floor.

Meghan quickly scooped her up. She was of course crying although not too hysterically. Most shockingly was that she instantly had a golf ball sized purple bump growing on her forehead. I've never seen a bump rise that quickly or one that big. Meghan carried her up to the front of the restaurant (away from the people) to get her settled down and she did settle down remarkably quickly. The waiters brought us some ice which we tried to put on her head, but she wasn't having any of that. She wouldn't let us near it. She did however want to keep eating. Shockingly, not a single patron in that restaurant looked at us or said a word.

After maybe 5 minutes, we decided to get our food to go, go home, and call the doctor. We figured we could get some ibuprofen in her to stop the swelling and get some ice on her head. On the way home, she almost fell asleep on us, we kept her awake fearing the worst. Once at home we fed her some applesauce and yogurt while waiting for the doctor to return our call. I also restrained her for awhile and held an ice pack to her forehead (amid much screaming). Eventually I gave up on that. Meghan also discovered that Sydney had a bloody nose which had us even more concerned. A few minutes later, the doctor called and wanted us to bring her in so we headed out to the ER.

When we got to the ER it wasn't very busy. They had us sit in the triage area and everyone made over how cute Sydney was. Sydney was remarkably good and didn't cry at all. It was kind of funny because they tried to use the finger meter to check her pulse and her little finger was too small. She watched contently while they tried though.

We ended up waiting for at least 30 minutes in the waiting room and eventually got led back to a room where we were met by a nurse and 15-20 minutes later by a doctor. By the time he came in Sydney was in "crazy mode". She was overtired but extremely hyper. The doctor examined her and found no signs of permanent damage. He told us that under 1yr old, they always do a CT scan. 1-2 years is a gray area. 2yrs+ they typically don't do one unless there are additional symptoms to justify it. He gave us the choice and we opted not to do it. They would have had to have sedated her and we would have been there a lot longer. Plus she was actually perfectly fine (despite the massive goose egg). The doctor said that he would have made the same choice for his kid but made us wait another hour before releasing Sydney.

While examining her on the bed, the doctor asked us to help put the rails up to help contain her. We both felt a sense of irony on that one since she had just fallen out of a booth. Later we discovered that she could easily climb under the rail so it really wasn't going to provide much containment.

While waiting that last hour, Sydney slowly ran out of gas. She went from running around to putting her head down. She tried to lay down on the floor but wouldn't lay on the bed. Later she sat in my lap for awhile watching tv. Eventually Meghan got her to lay down by laying on the bed with her. When the hour was up, Sydney check out just fine but was extremely tired and barely awake. ...it was probably 9:45 by that point so she was just out of gas. Our nurse gave her a teddy bear beanie baby as a parting gift and we left. As we walked out, we noticed that that the ER was now packed with people. I guess we timed our visit right.

It was after 10 when we finally got home and Sydney went to bed immediately. I checked on her at midnight when I came to bed and we both got up to check on her again at 4am. All signs pointed to a healthy baby.

This morning, Sydney woke up at 6:30 and has been running around and playing as if nothing happened last night. The goose egg is mostly gone but the bruise remains. Hopefully this will be our last trip to the ER for awhile.

[Mom&DadMulhern]

Well, I would love to say this was your first and last trip to the ER with your child. Unfortunately, no matter how careful you may be as a parent, you can never fully protect children from everyday accidents. Sometimes I marvel at how children escape some of the dangerous things they encounter in their young lives. We certainly had our trips to the ER when Michael and Jenny were little, from torn off toenails, cuts on the head, infected chicken pox, and scarlet fever. All seemed so tramatic for me as a mom, that I thought I must be doing something wrong. After all, it didn't seem like my friends kids were in the ER. Then one day, when we lived in Huntington, WV, Michael and his friend Matt were playing in the driveway and Matt's hand went through the glass window on our garage door. Talk about feeling REALLY bad. This wasn't even my child. While Matt's mother drove to the hospital, I held Matt in my arms and held a towel over his badly severed hand. I don't know who was more upset, Matt's mom or me. When it was all overwith, Matt proudly displayed his stitched up hand, vowed never again to try to knock my garage door down, and eveyone got back to normal - or so I thought. While all this went on, my neighbor looked after Jenny and Michael . Michael was so upset at witnessing the whole thing, that he had nightmares for a week. He kept seeing Matt's bloody hand and said, "Mom, his blood was red like apples!" Then I felt really bad that I was totally thoughtless about how Michael might feel about the whole thing. I think he thought he was partly responsible for the accident, and he had no idea when we went so quickly to the hospital and left him behind, how serious Matt was. He just remembered that there was blood everywhere, and that his mom was cradling Matt and running to the car. So, while I thought I was doing the right thing in this instance, I totally neglected my own child in the process.

Moral of this story is that I know you must feel really bad, and you probably are both beating yourselves up because Sydney took a fall. You can be too over-protective, which isn't good, and you can be under-protective, which isn't good, but you can never be perfect. No matter what you do, accidents happen, so be very relieved that Sydney is fine. She couldn't have parents who love her more than you two do. Dad and I are so proud of you both, and very glad that Sydney is okay. As for Michael, I'm sure he had forgotten the whole tramatic event, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

Love,
Mom

[mightymulhern]

Thanks Mom. I'm pretty sure the experience was harder on us than her. Fortunately she's back to her crazy happy self.