Sunday, February 20, 2011

First Real Injury Complete With Ambulance Ride and Hospital Stay

Last month I got my first part-time job since having Violet. It is the position of librarian at a small college in the area where I am to build the library from scratch. Wednesday morning I had only been to work 15 minutes when I got the dreaded call from daycare. My daughter had fallen on the back of her head in the playground and had cried for 15 minutes but at that point she was only sniveling and they told me they were watching her closely. I was slightly worried but not too much at this point. Another 15 minutes go by and I get another call. This time the director told me that Violet said she wanted to go back to class with her friends and on the way there she threw up. Instantly I knew it was a concussion and I flew out of work to go and pick her up. When I get there I see her sitting with her sippy cup and her teacher told me she had just thrown up again. Violet told me she fell on her noggin and she tripped on a ball. I scoop her up put her in the car-seat and head out of the parking lot. While all this is going on my parents happen to be in town to help us with another issue with our house. They met me at the daycare and my mom hopped into the car to talk to Violet on our way to the pediatrician.

On the way she threw up again. I had my husband call the pediatrician back and ask if we should go to the hospital instead. They said we should and I immediately took her to the ER. When we walk in a triage nurse immediately takes me to the back room without even filling out paperwork. While giving them all the information she vomits again. We get back to an ER room and I lay down with her on the gurney. She vomits 2 more times and she is super lethargic. They order a CT scan and we immediately go back and get it. At this point we have only been at the ER for an hour. Since I am of child rearing age and you just never know I can not go back with her and my dad does instead. She is wrapped in a lead vest and sits perfect still through the whole thing. About an hour later we get the good news that her CT scan shows no internal bleeding or cracked skull. During all the waiting V takes a long nap in my arms. We are then told that they have called her pediatrician team and the trauma team and we will either get to go home while monitoring her, she will be admitted to the hospital for observation or she will be sent to a hospital with a children's ward an hour away. Two long hours later I find out that she is getting transferred to the other hospital. My husband is there at this point so I rush home to get an overnight bag for myself and Violet and I get back to the hospital after picking up a quick lunch for myself. While I was gone V had to get an IV put in for the ambulance ride, multiple tubes of blood taken and she had to have a catheter put in for a urine sample to make sure she was stable for the ride. Thankfully my husband and mother were there for her because she cried so hard. I felt just awful.

An hour after that the ambulance transfer team arrives. She is put into a car-seat which is then strapped to the gurney. All of a sudden at this point she starts smiling and she proceeds to chat away on the hour journey to the other hospital. First ambulance ride for her and for myself. I am not a fan of sitting sideways as I tend to get motion sick. We arrive at the other hospital and we go to the pediatric ER where we wait for hours till they decide what to do with us. The trauma team comes in and says that they are going to release us to go home and to monitor her. At this point I am just like why the crap were we transferred all the way down here then. They consult with the trauma attending and he disagrees. We are to be admitted. We wait a couple more hours and finally her room is ready. Complete with crib and bubble top because under 3 they have to be in a crib and the bubble top is so she does not crawl out in the night. Exactly 12 hours after the accident happened at daycare she is admitted to the hospital. Visiting hours are already over so my parents kiss her goodbye and head to my house. I lay her down in the crib after she tells me she is really tired. I had just got in the mail a woogie (which is a stuffed animal to hold an ipod touch with speakers inside) from a giveaway win and she cuddled right up with it while it played rock-a-bye baby music. Only one parent can stay overnight so my husband heads home for the night. I fall asleep right after he leaves. Every 4 hours they wake her and take vitals and check her pupils. It is an uneventful night.

In the morning my husband brings me a much needed sugar free vanilla iced coffee from McDonalds. Violet devours the fairly tasty hospital food and we sit and wait. Thankfully at 10 the playroom down the hall opens up and Violet spend her time playing with all the toys and puzzles. Then a nice gentleman comes in and shows her and 2 older kids some sea life. Violet gets to hold a starfish, whelk and poke an anemone. She loved every second of it. The guy let her touch and handle everything. Violet shows no fear. Then my parents show up with balloons. After playing for a while and a quick lunch and she is out for a nap. Matt and I go for lunch in the cafe while my parents watch her sleep. After lunch my husband heads back to work to prepare for a big case he has in the morning. Around 3:30 the trauma team checks on her and she is released. After all the tape that holds the IV is painfully removed and the tears fade away we scoop her and everything up and head out of there.

She is already back to her normal self as if nothing happened. I am more concerned with the radiation she received during her CT scan. In fact I cried about it once we got home and all was well. I have to look at it by seeing there is nothing that I can do now and she needed it to check for issues in the brain. It still scares me to think about her major dose of radiation but right now I am just happy to have my baby girl napping in my lap. 2011 is proving to have one surprise after another for our family. Hopefully all future surprises will be happy!

10 comments:

Suzanne

Glad Violet is okay! That sounds like it was very scary.

J

Glad she is Ok, that must be traumatic.

Peggy

I'm glad your daughter is okay! I hope only good things are to come from now on! =)

Tina Michelle

That is so scary. Glad everything is okay now.

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin

Oh good grief...you poor mama. Thank goodness she's ok!

Martha

What a scary story! As a mother I can just feel all your pain as I read this! So glad she is ok and all is well!

Thanks for stopping by to enter the giveaway - good luck and have a wonderful weekend :-)

Barbara

A frightening experience for all of you! I'm pleased she's fine now.
I really think with head trauma there is little choice about ct scans. I pray this will be her first AND last.

Kiran @ KiranTarun.com

Katrina,
Thank you for visiting my blog. And thank god Violet is feeling better. I was so tense reading through this blog post.

http://kirantarun.com/blog

StarTraci

Oh my goodness! I hope that all has been well since. What a Mommy Gulp moment!

My best to you all for a calmer 2011!
:-)
Traci

Megan

Oh wow. That would all be so scary, but I'm so glad to hear your little Violet is doing ok. I'm sure the doctor's wouldn't have done the CT scan unless they truly felt in necessary, and wouldn't have done so if they thought it would be harmful to her.

Hope you have a restful and uneventful week ahead of you!

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