A worst nightmare realized

Most of you who are reading this know by now, but Grant had an accident on Friday morning. He's fine now (thank God!), but it was probably the most horrible 6 hours I've spent in my life. For all the details, read on (I'm writing it largely for myself, to have an account of what happened). If you don't want to read it all: Grant fell from the kitchen counter and has a small skull fracture. But he seems to be healing fine and it doesn't look like he has any serious injury from it.

At 10am, Grant had just had his morning snack of cereal, and I put him in his bumbo chair (on the kitchen island.....big mistake) while I cleaned up. Earlier that morning, he was sitting in the same place, and Dean and I mentioned that we probably need to stop putting him up there, because he's tall enough now that his legs touch the countertop and he can push himself. Well, of course you say those things but don't think that ONE more time is really going to hurt. I turned to grab a sippy cup out of the cabinet when I heard a "smack." I turned around and saw Grant and the bumbo on the floor. He started crying immediately, and I picked him up and called 911 (the first thing I thought to do). They asked if I wanted an ambulance, and I figured that was the best idea. That way, they could check him at the house before taking him to the hospital. And I didn't want to risk putting him in his carseat and taking him myself, where he might fall asleep on the way there.

The thing that worried me the most over those next few minutes (it took about 10 minutes for them to come) was that his cry didn't sound really normal....very low-pitched, almost a moaning sound. And he'd stop crying and just put his head against my chest, like he was just trying to go to sleep. I paced the floor, going inside and outside, and just prayed that he'd be okay.

When the ambulance finally arrived, we were outside. The men got out and just asked if I wanted Grant to be transported to the hospital. I asked if they needed to come in first, and they said there was probably nothing they could do.....he'd just have to be examined and possibly have head scans run. This was a little irritating.....I had waited 10 minutes just to have someone else show up to take us to the hospital?! I thought this was wasted time and that I should have just taken him myself.

Anyway, we got to the hospital and were checked in, then sent to a "minor care" room just as Dean arrived. There were other kids and babies in these rooms, so we thought "minor" here referred to children! Luckily, it meant that they didn't see Grant's case as requiring immediate attention. I wish I had known that at the time, because we waited for a while before even being seen by anybody. The whole time, I'm just worrying that his head is filling with blood or something, and nobody is coming to help us! But the physician's assistant finally did come, and his check of him was positive. He noticed some swelling on the side of his head but said that with massive head injuries, there are usually more obvious signs that Grant wasn't exhibiting. But still, he recommended a CT scan just to be sure.

We waited probably another hour before finally getting the CT scan done (at around 1:15). It was so scary seeing him swaddled up in all of those blankets (to mobilize him)....and he didn't like it one bit! But Dean said that during the CT scan, he stopped crying a few times to look at all the lights above him. Dean said he was fascinated by them! And the technician said that he did a great job....I was worried that he wouldn't be still enough to get accurate pictures, since any time he left my arms that morning he erupted in tears.

Anyway, after the CT scan, we waited another hour before hearing any definitive results. The PA came in at one point and said that he didn't see anything on the images that looked worrisome, but we would wait until the radiologist gave his report. A while later, the PA came back in and said that the radiologist did notice a small linear fracture on the right perineal part of his skull. There was no bleeding behind it, just some swelling on the outside. If an adult had this injury, they'd send them straight home and just tell them to watch for signs that bleeding might be occuring later. But he did give us the option to admit Grant, since he's an infant and can't tell us when he feels differently. But our doctor (who the PA called on the phone) was very positive, and said that he trusts us to watch out for signs at home over the weekend. He also said to tell me not to be very hard on myself, because this type of fracture is fairly common in children.

So we finally left the hospital at around 4pm, and just watched him closely over the weekend. We woke him up every two hours at night, but we never really noticed anything out of the ordinary. Then I took him to his pediatrician yesterday, and everything seems to be fine....she saw no signs of internal damage or bleeding. We are so thankful that God spared him from a more serious injury in all of this. Of course I blame myself because I did know better than to continue putting him in his bumbo on a raised surface (the bumbo even warns of this on the outside of it!). But it's one of those things that you just never think is going to happen to you. And everyone has been very encouraging and has shared their stories of stupid things they've done to allow their children to fall or be in accidents. In hearing these, I've learned how amazingly resilient our bodies are. And I'm so thankful that God watches out for our babies and gives us grace when we do stupid things!