Emergency Room Visit #3

Visit #1: Easter weekend, 2006. Ethan was throwing up in the middle of the night, no fever, no other signs of illness, a slight bump on the head earlier in the evening on the changing table; nurse on the phone advises us to go in and get it checked out. Result: After waiting so long we might as well have just called the dr.'s office in the morning, and a CT Scan, as we were leaving he finally showed signs of a fever and it turned out to be a virus.

Visit #2: Summer 2006 (I don't remember the month, it was either May or July, I think July). We were in Colorado and Ethan was really sick with his respiratory stuff. He was wheezing and had a 103+ temp.; nurse on the phone advises us to go in because of the high fever. Basically, it was just sickness. He got a breathing treatment and some medicine.

Visit #3: Tonight (or last night I guess). Sunday, July 27th. We had just gotten home from the pool. The phone rang (it was Rick) and Ethan ran to the phone. I answered it, Ethan ran the other direction toward the laundry room (in his not-so-good-for-actual-walking pool sandals), tripped, and took a header into the corner of the dryer. I got off the phone with Rick to comfort Ethan. I picked him up, kissed his head and started to walk toward the couch for a cuddle. He said, "I hit the dryer." and then put his hand up to his right temple and, "OH MY GOD!" I kind of half shrieked, half whispered and then put my hand over my mouth trying not to freak him out.

He had a goose egg the size of, well, I don't even know, bigger than a giant jaw breaker, smaller than an actual egg on his right temple, with a bright red streak going across it and bruising already showing. It was also sticking up like almost an inch from his head. EWWW, ICK, GROSS, and just plain OMG!!! I tried to put some ice on it, but that just made him cry harder, I tried to look at his eyes, and he said, "DON'T LOOK AT IT!" So, I just held him for a bit. I decided to call the pediatrician's answering service, to have them remind me what to be on the lookout for. I could hardly talk to the person for all the screaming. At this point Ethan was being very indecisive--he wanted ice, he didn't want ice, he wanted milk, he didn't want milk, etc. etc. I couldn't get it right. While we were waiting for the real nurse to call back, Rick got home and had pretty much the same initial reaction that I had.

The nurse called back and we went over all the details. He seemed like he could walk okay and move all his limbs, and his speach was okay, and his pupils appeared the same size. Of course, it was hard to tell, because in the middle of me talking and him crying, Ethan started to fall asleep (not surprising since he skipped his nap today). The creepy, eyes rolling around in his head sleep. The nurse said that was okay. She asked if his eyes were crossed. It did seem to me that his right eye (the side he hit) was kind of rolling in a little, something just didn't look right. So, based on that, she advised that we have him checked out at Cooks.

So, we gathered stuff together: snacks, pajamas, extra diapers, the portable DVD player. And off we went. Ethan fell asleep in the car, but woke up when we arrived. He was crying and saying, "I want to go back!" (I think he meant back to the car.) We got taken back pretty quickly and got Ethan in a gown and relatively settled watching Charlie Brown (he had some occasional outbursts, but was mostly okay). The doctor came to look at him (he liked watching her "flashlight") and said she was pretty sure his brain was okay, but they were going to take x-rays of his head to make sure his skull was too.

We waited over an hour before a nurse came and said that x-ray had been busy with a trauma and they hadn't forgotten us. We thought that probably meant we'd be waiting quite a bit longer, but they actually came for us just a few minutes later (which was good, because the battery on the portable DVD had worn out a while before. Rick had been entertaining Ethan by jumping to whichever colored square tile Ethan called out.). Ethan was really good getting his "pictures" as the nurses called them. He was very still and looked where he was supposed to look and didn't cry. He got lots of stickers.

The x-rays were clear, so we got to come home. It was only just over 2 hours, which for an ER trip, isn't half bad. He's got a big bump, and the blood may spread down around his eye and give him a shiner, but he's going to be okay. He came home, ate a hot dog, watched a video and went to bed, so all's well that ends well, and we're grateful for that.