Thursday, 2-26-09
Wow, I never thought I would end up calling 911 and taking Elissa to the ER today. Does anymore ever think that....of course not, so it is so overwhelming when it happens. We woke up to snow this morning and the kids were excited to go out and play in it. They ran in and out all morning long. Of course there was the usual fights and crying and giggling and playing happily together. The kids ate lunch and then watched some cartoons before nap time. Though Elissa is 4 1/2yrs, she still takes a nap on non-Preschool days. She definitely needs her sleep. She fell asleep on the couch around 1:30pm, so I woke her up and had her go to bed as I put Zachary in his bed. Zach woke up around 4pm. He helped me finish the cleaning I was working on and then he opened Elissa's door and started playing in her room. I let him stay in there because it was getting time for her to get up. I even vacuumed in her room. Around 4:45pm Elissa still hasn't gotten up, so I go in her room and tell her that it is time to get up. I see her open her eyes and look toward me, but then lay back down. I walk away for a couple of minutes to give her time to wake up and then go in and tell her it is time to get up again. She won't get up, so I climbed up on her bunk bed and tried to get her to wake up. She would open her eyes and look at me and then fall back to sleep. This happened a couple of times and of course I'm starting to get worried. I told her that she needed to come down so momma could take her temp. She got up a little and then layed down and went back to sleep and then she would crawl a little further and go back to sleep. By this time it is obvious that something is really wrong. I get her down the ladder and help her go downstairs. She is really wobbly walking. I sit her down and take her temp and it is normal, but she is still not staying awake. I call my pediatrician's office and talk to the nurse. I tell her that Elissa just got immunizations on Tuesday and has a runny nose, but she hasn't fell or anything like that. I'm asking Elissa questions and she is answering and then goes back to sleep. I tell this to the nurse and she says, "You need to hang up and call 911." I replied, "You want me to call 911?" and she says, "Yes, you need to call 911." I'm crying now and say that I will. I call and they are on their way. I call Darin and tell him to come home that I just called 911 for Elissa...it is now a 15-20minutes after 5pm. I also call Nana to come up in case I need to go to the hospital with Elissa....she is the closest to us. Two ambulances and a a fire engine show up at our house. A thought did cross my mind that Chrissy and Amy Jo really needed to be here to talk to all the cute guys in my living room....around 8! I told them everything I knew and they checked out Elissa. They tell me that all her vitals are checking out fine. They don't see anything wrong with her. His evaluation is that I just have a really tired girl. She must just need to sleep - though by this time she has been sleeping at least 4hrs. I start crying again and tell them that this is not at all normal. She is still waking up and answering questions and then immediately going back to sleep. I knew that something was wrong and I didnt' want them to leave and then something go terribly wrong. The one medic takes me aside (he doesn't have kids) and tells me that Elissa is checking out fine and they will bring her in if that is what I want, but he doesn't think there is anything else they can do. He says again that she just looks to be really tired. He said that he is more worried about me and my state of mind. They will take her in if that is the only thing that will help me to settle down (please note that I was just crying, not hysterical). I couldn't decide what to do, so I called Darin and had him talk to the medic. We decided to keep Elissa at home and just watch her. The medic "prescribes" a glass of wine for me as he is leaving. She is still sleeping. I sit down and rack my brain about what has happened with Elissa all morning and I finally remember that she had come into the house crying and saying that Zachary had hit her on the head with the kids croquet mallet. It is wrapped in foam, but has a plastic core. I had taken it away from him and felt Elissa's head, but there were no lumps. It really had just left my brain because there are so many disputes during the day. So now I'm thinking that Zach must have hit her really hard and she might be suffering a concussion. Darin finally walks into the house at 6:30pm and I tell him about the mallet incident. He sees that Elissa wakes up and says Hi and then goes back to sleep (5hrs later). With Nana's pushing :0), we decide to take Elissa to the ER and get a CT scan because she is not getting any better.
I did take a picture after the medics left....my scrapbooking mind never leaves me. :0)
As soon as we entered the Good Samaritan ER Elissa perked up....of course. After triage she was ready to go back to sleep. The nurse said that she would get us in line for a CT and if the CT wasn't bad then she would send us over to the clinic and if there was something wrong, then we would stay in the ER and it would be a very long night. After an hr or so we finally got a CT. Elissa did very well having the CT done with nurse Caroline by her side. The gal that admitted us gave Elissa a bear that she named Carla and nurse Caroline held her while Elissa had the scan done. Elissa was now more alert and wanting to walk around. After awhile we got word that we were going to the clinic so we knew that her CT came back ok. As we were waiting to see the doctor at the clinic, Elissa was ready to sleep again but she threw up before laying down. This is another sign of a concussion. The doctor came in and I told him what happened and he tells us that her CT scan was normal and he doesn't think a 2yr old could cause a concussion (he doesn't know Zach). He checked her out and could find nothing wrong with her except that she wants to sleep.....maybe she is fighting a virus. Well, he let us go and as we were leaving Elissa threw up again. Darin carried her to the car and I checked us out after about 3hrs. We got home and made her a bed on the floor. It was around 12am by this time. Thank you Nana for staying with Zach!! We woke her up a couple of times to make sure she was still coherent. At 6:30am we heard a child calling and I got up and it was Elissa. She was wanting to know if she could get up from her nap - she still thought it was Thursday. I told her that she had taken her "dark nap" and that it was now morning. She was fully alert and acting pretty normal. She remembered the medics in our house and going to the hospbital (as she says). My little girl was back!
Darin and I had been planning to go to Seattle for the day and night for my birthday and since she seemed to be fine, we decided to still go. Nana came back and watched the kids. She kept Elissa by her side the whole time and they slept together in our bed. She was fine the whole day, just a little more subdued. She was a little off all weekend. The biggest difference has been her new overwhelming fear. She has come to us quite a bit and said, "I'm feeling fearful." She doesn't want to be by herself and insists on several night lights and doesn't want to be in a room by herself. Her fear is so much that her cousin Cole called her a scaredy cat on Saturday when they were playing, which has never happened before and is not Elissa at all. The whole experience definitely was a bit overwhelming for her. I'm just encouraging her to talk to me and express her feelings. She seems to be getting better every day.
P.S. Zach was going up the stairs this evening (3/2) and Elissa kind of pushed him back down with her big fluffy chair she was bringing down the stairs and he fell backwards and bumped his head on the hardwood. So now he has a big goose egg on his forehead and we will be waking him up several times tonight to make sure he is ok.......life as a parent is SO stressful! :0|
I did take a picture after the medics left....my scrapbooking mind never leaves me. :0)As soon as we entered the Good Samaritan ER Elissa perked up....of course. After triage she was ready to go back to sleep. The nurse said that she would get us in line for a CT and if the CT wasn't bad then she would send us over to the clinic and if there was something wrong, then we would stay in the ER and it would be a very long night. After an hr or so we finally got a CT. Elissa did very well having the CT done with nurse Caroline by her side. The gal that admitted us gave Elissa a bear that she named Carla and nurse Caroline held her while Elissa had the scan done. Elissa was now more alert and wanting to walk around. After awhile we got word that we were going to the clinic so we knew that her CT came back ok. As we were waiting to see the doctor at the clinic, Elissa was ready to sleep again but she threw up before laying down. This is another sign of a concussion. The doctor came in and I told him what happened and he tells us that her CT scan was normal and he doesn't think a 2yr old could cause a concussion (he doesn't know Zach). He checked her out and could find nothing wrong with her except that she wants to sleep.....maybe she is fighting a virus. Well, he let us go and as we were leaving Elissa threw up again. Darin carried her to the car and I checked us out after about 3hrs. We got home and made her a bed on the floor. It was around 12am by this time. Thank you Nana for staying with Zach!! We woke her up a couple of times to make sure she was still coherent. At 6:30am we heard a child calling and I got up and it was Elissa. She was wanting to know if she could get up from her nap - she still thought it was Thursday. I told her that she had taken her "dark nap" and that it was now morning. She was fully alert and acting pretty normal. She remembered the medics in our house and going to the hospbital (as she says). My little girl was back!
Darin and I had been planning to go to Seattle for the day and night for my birthday and since she seemed to be fine, we decided to still go. Nana came back and watched the kids. She kept Elissa by her side the whole time and they slept together in our bed. She was fine the whole day, just a little more subdued. She was a little off all weekend. The biggest difference has been her new overwhelming fear. She has come to us quite a bit and said, "I'm feeling fearful." She doesn't want to be by herself and insists on several night lights and doesn't want to be in a room by herself. Her fear is so much that her cousin Cole called her a scaredy cat on Saturday when they were playing, which has never happened before and is not Elissa at all. The whole experience definitely was a bit overwhelming for her. I'm just encouraging her to talk to me and express her feelings. She seems to be getting better every day.
P.S. Zach was going up the stairs this evening (3/2) and Elissa kind of pushed him back down with her big fluffy chair she was bringing down the stairs and he fell backwards and bumped his head on the hardwood. So now he has a big goose egg on his forehead and we will be waking him up several times tonight to make sure he is ok.......life as a parent is SO stressful! :0|
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