At 4:30, I heard the scream and cries. I ran to the door where Braden met me with an already tear streaked Kaybrie. He has dribbled in for a shot, she walked in front of him, and unfortunately was knocked flat on her back hitting her head in the concrete driveway.
I did all the things I was supposed to. Looked for dilation of her pupils, asked how many fingers I was holding up, made her follow my fingers and checked for bumps. All of the checks were perfect. I held my crying baby for an hour. She complained of a headache in the front of her head and said the TV looked funny. She even managed to eat a honey bun through the sniffles.
At 5:30, Jason came home from work. We no more told him what had happened and the vomiting started. I immediately called the pediatrician on call. He told me she probably did have a concussion, but to monitor her closely. More vomiting=Go to Emergency Room. At 7:00 we were dressing for that trip.
We were taken into an ER room quickly. A CT scan was ordered. The scan showed two small spots of inner cranial bleeding. They admitted her for overnight observation. At this point you seriously would not have known anything was wrong with my almost six year old daughter. Other than the occasional complaint that her head hurt when she would lay on her tummy or her right side.
When the injury occurred, the force on the back of the head knocked the brain forward causing it to hit the front of the skull. Similar to whiplash. She was monitored overnight. Her neurology tests were all perfect and she was released the next day around one. She was given strict instructions to rest & limited activity for four weeks. No horseback riding, wrestling, hockey, bull riding or cartwheels. She is rather concerned about the cartwheels since they play a part in an upcoming dance recital, she claims that the show WILL go on with her though. That's my girl.
It evidently is going to take LOTS of rest for my princess to fully recover from this injury. She only stayed for 1/2 day at school today. After seeing her pediatrician today, I am told it is normal to have headaches and tummy aches from a concussion, it can even last months. So a few more half days have been ordered.
Now, after the four weeks is over I will be faced with a few new challenges.
1) Make sure she never gets in the way of a basketball game again.
2) Wear her bike helmet on all concrete surfaces.
3) Learn to block her brother's shot while wearing that helmet.
For more information on head injuries/concussions be sure to visit: http://www.webmd.com/brain/concussion-traumatic-brain-injury-symptoms-causes-treatments
And always, always take any type of head injury very serious. I think I always was prepared for such an injury in sports with my son, but not a simple at home accident involving my daughter. It can happen anytime, anywhere.
8 comments:
I'm so glad she's okay! Head injuries are scary!
My mom tells this story: She was the baby of the family and had 3 older brothers. I think Kent, the closest, is 3 - 5 years older than her. So he was 8 or 9, running out to play some sandlot baseball. She ran out behind him hearing their mom yell from the kitchen door, "Stay close to your brother." She played in the grass when he was in the outfield and in the dirt when he was on the bench. When it was his turn to hit ... she followed him there too. I don't know if he didn't realize she had followed there or not ... probably not due to what ensued ... He got himself all set on home base, nodded to the pitcher and whipped his back backwards to prepared to hit the coming ball. He could tell he had hit something and his little sister immediately began cry so he whipped around, without dropping the bat, to see what was wrong. And hit her in the other eye. With the same bat. I'm never sure which of them I feel worse for in that story! They survived it though and they still love each other.
I have the same story with my little brother. To this day, he swears I did it on purpose and I deny it. I swear I told him to move before swinging that bat backward and knocking him cross eyed and giving him a huge goose egg. Funny how the dr's then just took you into their office, had you follow their fingers and all was fixed.
Oh that poor thing! I hope she feels better real soon!She is a real trooper, but so are you - I would have been a wreck!
So scary. Everytime my kids hit their head, I am worried about concussions. You must have been so worried!
OMG! I am so glad she is ok! And what a sweet brother to call and check on her!
Glad she is okay! Some mommy moments are so scary!
That must have been super scary. I freak every time my kids get hurt.
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