Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The uneventful ER trip.


Very strange evening around our home tonight. Around 7 pm, I was reading email... Benson was watching TV, Sweetie was playing the piano, Goose was doing homework and in all the quiet, I didn't notice Tank and Twister were playing on the stairs. I heard a thud and a scream and immediately ran to the scene.

The very creepy thing was that Twister fell silent after that initial scream. He sort of melted into the floor and his eyes rolled up. Horrifying scene. Never want to see that again. I screamed for Benson, and a few seconds later, he sort of came to... though a bit disoriented. Then he started crying again.

I turned my evil eye on Tank and sternly asked "WHAT HAPPENED!?" Apparantly, Twister was on the second or third stair up and was playing with Tank who was sitting a step above him. The game was try to get Tank's toes. When he "got" her toe, he bit down. She instinctively shoved him off of her toe, and straight back onto the ground 2 stairs below. Well, can't really be mad at her for that, can I?

Anyway, Twister came to just fine, and seemed to be acting just fine too, but I put a call into the doctor to see if "watching him" was appropriate under these circumstances. I explained that he was fine now, laughing, playing, no lethargy... eyes not dilated, no vomiting. The doc thought he still needed to be evaluated since he lost consciousness. I have no problems erring on the side of caution, so we packed up and went to the ER.

The ER here has a separate pediatric ER, and they were able to get him in immediately. The nurse came in within 5 minutes and got the history. The doctor came in about 2 minutes after that. She checked him out, got the history again... said he seemed to be acting ok. Yea, I know that... She didn't think a CT or x-ray was necessary, they'd just keep an eye on him for alittle bit. Well, she wasn't kidding about it being for "a little bit". It was less than 10 minutes later that the nurse came in with discharge instructions. Check on him through the night, and watch him for strange behavior, continuous vomiting, or obvious lethargy . Hmm.. sounds familiar.

From the time I left to the time I got home was about an hour. I'm glad I'm somewhat medically inclined and feel confident in my ability to watch him. It seemed a little pre-mature to send him home that quickly, but I'm glad to have the opinion of a doctor behind me in thinking he is ok. I get to check on him every 2-4 hours tonight, but I'm not worried. I'm sure he is just fine.

What a night.

4 comments:

Kim W said...

That must have been the worse feeling ever to see his eyes roll back. I'm so glad nothing worse came of it. Poor little one.

Sean and Hillary Monroe said...

Ohhh! Scary! Hope he continues to do well. Congrats on having such an awesome hospital! Wish we were so lucky...we're there often enough to get our own private room! But, alas, they still make us wait hours on end...

Liz Smith said...

oh good grief....well im glad he's okay. it's amazing how quickly kids can get themselves hurt. my mother always watched me like a hawk and i still managed to slam my head into a nightstand and cut the spot right above my eye open. im sure my mother aged about 10 years that day. at least i got a cool scar to remind me of all i have to look forward to come motherhood. :P

Denise and Brandon said...

Oh goodness. I've had the "eye rolling back in the head" thing happen to me. Not fun. Glad everything is okay.