A Scary Moment

 On May 9, we all got home from school around 4. I sent the kids outside to play as I began prepping dinner, since Hunter had a baseball game later that evening. Hunter came running in at 4:12 saying,

“Mom, I told Katie to move but she didn’t, and I hit her with the bat!”

I didn’t think much about it and told him to tell her to come inside so I could see. I figured maybe her arm was hurt. He went back outside and I looked to where she was I the yard, and saw she was laying in the ground not moving. I ran outside to her, and didn’t see any blood. I told her to get up, and she didn’t move. Her eyes were open, but I thought she was being silly. I asked her what happened, and she sort of flailed her arms and made some mumbled noise that wasn’t words. Inside, I panicked. I called my husband but the call didn’t go through. I called my neighbor, and sent my older daughter to go meet her. Hunter was still right by me, and I could tell he knew something was wrong. I was afraid to move Katie, because I wondered about neck injury. I asked her again where she was hit, and her arm moved like slime sliding as she flopped it on her face. I checked again,  it didn’t see any bleeding. My neighbor and I sat her up, and Katie immediately began throwing up. I knew this wasn’t good, but I stayed as calm and cool as I could. I called my mom and told her what was happening and she said we did need to get her to the hospital. My neighbor helped me get Katie to the car and I called my husband’s coworker at 4:15, who was in the lab with him, and told my husband what happened and where we were going. My neighbor sat next to Katie to keep her awake.

Luckily for us, we live 5 minutes from the hospital, so I didn’t bother to call an ambulance. My husband was at the door when we arrived, and helped get Katie in a wheelchair. My wonderful neighbor drove my car back home with my other two kids. The hospital took our information and got Katie into a room right away, where the team began assessing her. I told them what happened, as Katie still wasn’t making much sense. She was still throwing up and trying to fall asleep. At about 5:00, they took Katie to get a CT scan, and husband went with her.  After they wheeled her out, I melted on the floor of that hospital room in tears. I had held in every emotion up until then, and it overflowed. One of the ER techs came in, helped me up off the floor, gave me tissues and a big hug, telling me she was going to be ok. I began saying the Rosary. 

They wheeled her back in, husband told me that from what he could tell the scan looked ok, but he isn’t a radiologist. I continued to pray, as they got Katie hooked up to the blood pressure machine and took more vitals. She was starting to make a few more noises and sounds, but still not coherent. And she was very sleepy. By 5:20, the radiologist came back in and told us the scan did in fact look clean, meaning no bleeding,  nothing broken. She does have a mild concussion, and they will keep her a bit to try to get the vomiting to stop. They gave her some dissolvable medicine to stop the vomiting, but she threw that up. 

At this point, my mom let me know she was already on the road heading over. I was relieved a little on the inside.

We waited and tried to get Katie some sips of water, but she threw that up. We tried an oral dose of vomit meds, and she was able to hold that down. Around 6, husband left to go with our older two and check on Hunter. By 6:30, Katie was complaining that her head was hurting, and after they tried to give her medicine orally, and she threw that up, they went ahead and gave her an IV in her arm. She cried and my heart broke, but it was necessary. They were able to give her pain meds and nausea meds, as well as fluids. 

At around 8, we decided to take the IV off to see if she could walk around on her own without throwing up. She was very wobbly, just from having been on the hospital bed, but got around fine. The moving off the bed and walking made her head start hurting, so we tried to give her pain meds by mouth, and she threw that up again, so we got her hooked back up on the IV. We stayed with fluids for another 45 minutes or so to get another dose of pain meds in her. My mom made it to town around this time, and met my husband and son at the baseball field.  At 9, my husband came back to the hospital to get us and bring us home, while mom stayed at the field with Hunter and Jeanne. We eventually pieced the story together that Hunter was fixing to hit a ball off the tee to practice, and when the bat came around (at full 8 year old speed and strength) is caught her side of the head, from jaw to temple.

We were sent home with no pain meds, no nausea meds, and just told to watch her and give Tylenol and Ibuprofen as needed. We tried to get “back to normal” with the older two, making them go to school. I stayed home, meaning I had to prep sub lesson plans. Mom stayed and helped shuffle kids back and forth. Over the next few days, we kept it dark and as quiet as possible. Her head injury caused pain that I would relate to a migraine. Lights bothered her, sound bothered her. Even moving her eyes around the room made it hurt. She still wasn’t talking much, which was terrifying because Katie talks a lot. I gave Tylenol every 5 hours or so, but it wasn’t touching the pain. I let her sleep, because when she woke up, her head hurt but I couldn’t give her more meds. At one point, my normally super chipper 6 year old told me she didn’t think she could do this anymore. That killed me inside.

By Wednesday, we made an appointment at the pediatrician because she hadn’t held down any food or drink (we only tried bread, waffles and Gatorade). She got some vomit meds, which seemed to help. The doctor told us to rotate Ibuprofen with the Tylenol, but I told her that my kids throw up Ibuprofen which is why we needed the nausea meds. So, we got her the nausea meds, and she was able to hold down a few bites of food that evening. At 11 PM that night, she woke up in pain, and without thinking, I gave her food, then ibuprofen, then the nausea meds. At 3 AM, she woke up vomiting again. I gave it in the wrong order, but regardless vomiting at this point is not good. So we made an appointment (with the help of friend) at a children’s  hospital in Jackson for later that day. I gave her meds again, in the right order, and the morning started off decent. She held down a bit of waffle, and by 11:30, she had drank 12 oz of Gatorade without vomiting. So after continued prayer (i don’t think I stopped praying since Monday evening), we decided to cancel that appointment and see how that day went. By the end of the day, she had drank 20 oz of the Gatorade, eaten a whole waffle, and was carrying on conversations. Praise God. She still had pain, and we kept it dark and quiet still, which was fine when the kids were at school, and by evening time, we just moved her to the bedroom (she slept best to me). 

Mom left on Friday, after I got the other two kids back from field day. Katie’s pediatrician said no school until Wednesday, so we just started trying to get her back to normal. She missed field day and would miss Father Daughter dance. We let her get dressed for a picture with her dad before he took big sister to the dance. We did a little outside time, a little hand eye coordination, no iPad for a few more days. By Tuesday, she was full circle. After talking to the doctor that evening, we decided she would go back to school next day with a few restrictions, but she was ok.

We now have a plastic bat for outside, and have thoroughly talked to all children about paying attention to their surroundings, of who is around them before they do something. This was a tough lesson, but it could have been so much worse. Those few days of her not talking and not smiling were so hard. I praise God that she is ok.