For a Healthy 8 month old, Addison sure has spent a lot of time hanging out in hospitals. When she was
born she had jaundice so I didn't have to take her to the hospital, but I did have to take her to the doctors office every day for over a week to have blood taken out of her foot. Then in January we had to spend a few days in the hospital because
she had RSV. And again last month when we found out she
shouldn't be eating strawberries. And most recently, this week when we had to take her back because of a rather large tumble she took off the bed.
On Tuesday morning I was in my room putting on makeup and Addison was sitting on the floor beside me playing. Her sweet big brother who loves her so very much picked her up to play with her. He sat her on the middle of the bed and then turned around to turn the fan on. Those few seconds were all it took for the little get around girl to fall off the bed. Zac and I both had our backs to her so we didn't see it happen. We both rushed over to pick her up. She was crying, naturally. My bed is really high, it comes up to my waist and we have a hardwood floor in our room so I knew she had to have hit hard. I looked her over and didn't see any bumps or anything. She cried for less than a minute and acted like nothing had happened the rest of the day, so I though that miraculously she had come through it pretty undamaged.
Later that afternoon we drove to my parents house. It was Kristy and her kids last night in town and we were having a big family dinner. When we got there I was sitting on the couch and Addison was on my lap. I was looking at the back of her head and noticed a big bump. I felt it and it was very smushy. I called her doctors office and they said to bring her in so they could look at her. At this point I was about an hour away from my doctors office and they closed in 45 minutes. They told me to take her to an instacare nearby my parents house which I did.
The doctor there gave her an exam and said that she looked fine to him. He said the smushy swelling was bleeding, like a bruise. He said that there was a chance that she could have a fracture or bleeding on the brain but that we couldn't tell unless she had a CAT scan. He said that he didn't feel that was necessary because for the injury to be that bad she would be acting like it hurt. He said that if they did a CAT scan on every kid that bumped their head they would be doing them all the time. I felt like he was right. She was acting fine.
Well on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning she was acting a little fussy. This is a child who is NEVER fussy. I thought maybe her head was hurting, you know how things sometimes hurt worse a day or two after. Well on Thursday afternoon she was sitting in her highchair and I was feeding her. I was looking at her and thinking something didn't look right. That is when I noticed that her ear that is on the side where her bump is was was sticking way out from her head and was hanging lower than her other ear. I started freaking out. I called her doctors office and they told me to take her to the emergency room. Well, she ended up getting the CAT scan after all. And we found out that she has a skull fracture. My sweet little tiny baby. I was so upset and so mad at myself for not taking her right to the hospital when she first fell. They said that it is blood and fluid causing the swelling and that it usually gets worse on the 2nd or 3rd day and then starts getting better.
They wanted to keep her in the hospital overnight for observation. That was a fun night. When we were there in January we had a private room. This time we got to share one. Stupid. Who makes a children's hospital and puts shared rooms for infants in it? They came in every 4 hours to check Addison's vitals. The baby in the room with us got his checked every hour. We were right outside the nurses station and as nice as the nurses were, they were also very inconsiderately loud the entire night. When someone would come in to check on the kids they would leave the door open which let in horrible nasty light and loud loud nurses talking. Oh, and the baby in the room with us, his oxygen level kept dropping so the nurses kept coming in to check that. And they and the mom in the room would just talk right out loud. And the baby kept waking up to eat and he would cry and the mother would try and soothe him and once again she would do it very loudly. At one point they woke us up and all four of us in the room were awake and watching TV from about 3:30-5:00 am. Addison and I probably got about an hour of sleep total in 20 minute increments. Several people called me the next morning to see how things were and how we slept. I said not so great but couldn't explain why because I was still in the room with our roommates. So now you know why.
Thankfully we got to leave the next morning. I was so glad to get out of there. They said that Addison looks fine. The neurosurgeon said that they see this type of thing 4 or 5 times a week. It should heal on its own. Everyone at the hospital kept saying that they couldn't believe that she had a skull fracture because she was acting so fine and being so cute and friendly. They just want me to keep her at home for a few days and just let her have some quite time (sure no problem, have you ever been to my house?). We have to be really careful and make sure she doesn't bump her head on anything (easier said than done, she is at the stage where she does not want to sit still for more than 2 seconds). If the swelling gets worse or if she starts acting different I have to take her back in for another CAT scan. They also said there won't be any long term effects from this type of accident. I want to believe them, but I also want to know how they know, ya know? That is one thing I am worried about.
Hopefully this will be the last time she will have to go to the hospital for a while.
