Hospital Overnight

Sunday Evangeline fell off a slide at my in-laws house. She fell about 3 feet and hit the back of her head, giving her the biggest goose egg I'd ever seen. My husband immediately wanted to take her to the emergency room, but I insisted you don't go to the hospital just because they get a big bump. You first wait and see how they do. If it was bleeding uncontrollable, she was vomiting, or acting unusual then yes go straight to the ER, but she was her normal self. So we waited and watched. She was slightly clumsier than normal and had a little trouble with her speech that day. However, in a toddler it is hard to say how much of that was abnormal from the fall and how much is just her being tired or silly. Since it wasn't in excess I didn't worry.

However, after we arrived home that evening, probably six hours later, the odd behavior started. She complained of being hot in the car and insisted I get her out of the car seat immediately. I hurried up and got her out, and while we were unloading the car she cried for me to hold her. Which could have been because she was tired. Then I cradled her like a baby as we walked to the elevator in our apartment complex. As I was walking I noticed her eyes were twitching, but she wasn't blinking. She was also shacking a little. I told my husband to come look at her eyes, and I tried to get her to talk to me. She didn't have a binkie in and for some reason she refused to talk to me or she couldn't. All of this is extremely out of character for her! So we were extremely worried.

Both my husband and I decided we should go to the ER or my dad's house (he's a doctor and my mom is a nurse). Our concern was maybe that was a seizure! Just then my mom called and I told her what had happened. She immediately scolded me for not going to ER already! She to thought it may have been a seizure! So off to the ER we went.

I brought her some toys and she doesn't mind going to the doctor so she was ok with the trip, and a little excited since she had never been to the hospital. I was worried because I had heard horror stories from the ER, but they were all great! They got us back immediately and we didn't have a long wait at all. They sent us for a head CT (Catscan). The doctor asked me if she'd hold still. I thought so. They decided not to sedate her which was great. Because she was a perfect patient. She held so still. She likes when we drive through tunnels so she was excited about the tunnel she got to go into. She also likes getting her picture taken so she liked the idea of getting a picture of her "Bad Bump" that was what she called it. She was only upset she never got to see the pictures!

They said it very well could have been a seizure, but there was no way of knowing for sure.
The pediatrician on call decided that even thought the CT came back ok he wanted her to remain overnight for observation. I was horrified what about Christopher at home! Even though daddy was with him I had never been away all night before! He had a rough night, they both did, but they survived! Evie was getting tired and bored in the ER as we waited for them to get her room ready. She was crying "I want daddy!" I felt so bad.

Then they came to take her to her room. She got to ride in a wagon, which she loved! She got 2 arm bands, she thought were bracelets! They put a security device on her foot since she is so young, she also thought this was jewelery! They put a band aid like thing on her finger with a red light on it (pulse oximiter) to measure the oxygen in her blood and her pulse, I guess! She thought it was a sticker and liked that it lit up. All the armbands and finger things she had to keep! She cried when we were leaving and the nurse took them off, so they let her keep them. She was excited about her big white bed! She watched the Land before time and then cars (when she finally fell asleep around 1:30am).

She woke up promptly at 7! Shortly after that they brought in a tray with her breakfast. She asked "What's that mommy!" When I showed her she was so excited, she got her own breakfast and got to eat it in bed! We got discharged to go home a little after nine! Which was perfect because I don't think she was going to sit any longer!