Two ER Visits In One Day

Max was very excited about his hospital bracelet from his first ER visit. He didn't even want to take it off. Every once in awhile he'd try to get up off the couch and run around. But it only lasted a few seconds and he'd be back on the couch again complaining that his head hurt again. I was surprised that I got such a smile out and it only lasted long enough for this one picture.

These picture was taken less than fifteen minutes after the above picture. And he was back on the couch looking like this again complaining that his head hurt. This is what he looked like most of the time other the couple times that he tried to get up to play but those really only lasted a few seconds.

Most of the time he'd lay there like this with his eyes half closed. He looked absolutely miserable.

Hailey brought him a bunch of books to read. He tried sitting up for awhile to read them but only got through the first book and then had to lay back down again.


This morning, the kids had fun helping daddy wash his car. They loved when daddy would spray them with the hose. They would get laughing so hard as they came running to get sprayed. Max was also really into helping daddy wash the car. Daddy gave him a rag and he was very serious as he scrubbed the car. He helped until they were finished. I think his favorite part was when daddy gave him the hose and let him spray the car. Hailey helped a little too but had more fun sneaking up on daddy hoping to get sprayed. While they were finishing up with the car, Bruce got a phone call. So Bruce was on the phone and I was just around the corner talking to Ken, our neighbor. All of a sudden Max came walking up to me and asked me to hold him. He was acting weird. He layed his head on my shoulder. I asked him what was the matter and he wouldn't talk. Ken tried to cheer him up by tickling him. Instead of laughing like he usually does, he started to get irritated and told us to stop it. (He didn't even like me talking to him when I was trying to be silly with him to get him to smile.) Since it was almost naptime, I asked him if he was tired and he said "I don't feel berry good." I took him inside and he layed on the couch while I got Jack down for nap. I thought it was weird how Max was acting so tired all of a sudden. He wasn't acting just tired like he normally does when it's naptime. I knew something wasn't right. I went over to check on him and that's when I noticed that he had a scrape and bruise on the side of his head (right on his temple). I asked him what happened and he said he fell. After asking him where he told me "on da rocks and da hard thing." He said "I fall down in the rocks and hit my head really hard on dat hard thing." We took him outside and asked him to show us where he fell. He showed us right where it happened and pointed to the wood flower box along the driveway. Bruce said he had been balancing along it and must have fallen when he had his back turned as he was walking back and forth in the driveway talking on the phone. Max didn't cry or anything when it happened so neither of us knew he even fell. We both thought that was a little weird too that he didn't cry. As we walked back in the house, Max threw up which was within an hour of him hitting his head. So we called the doctor and they said to take him straight to the ER. There they checked him over and said that it was pretty normal for young kids to act tired and throw up right after a head injury even if it wasn't serious. They gave us the option of doing a CT scan or taking him back home and having us watch him closely, which is what the doctor recommended since it was probably too early for anything to show up anyway. They said that they are more concerned about these symptoms when they occur a couple hours after the head injury. And since we live so close to the hospital, the doctor said he felt comfortable sending him home without the CT scan, but told us to watch him closely over the next 24 hours. They told us not to let him play on swings, climb, or ride his bike for the next 24 hours cause even after a mild head injury a second one can be fatal. The doctor told us to try to keep him kind of quiet for a while and suggested we put a movie in for him when we got home. He fell asleep on the way home before we even got out of the parking lot. When we carried him back into the house he started crying and wouldn't stop for anything. He kept complaining that his head hurt. He cried for about 20 minutes and then finally laid back on the couch and calmed down. I turned on the TV and asked him if he wanted to watch Cars, his favorite movie. He then threw a fit asking me to turn the movie off. His head must have really been hurting. He pretty much just layed on the couch until bedtime, only getting up a couple times to try to play with the puppy. But right away, he would get right back on the couch and say "I gotta lay down. I too tired." As I was getting him ready for bed at around 7:30, he threw up again. The doctor said to make sure we brought him back in if he had any more vomiting, so I called Bruce at work. He came home and my mom came over to stay with Hailey and Jack. As soon as we got to the hospital he threw up again all over the floor. They got us back right away and ordered a CT scan. Daddy was trying to explain to him what a CT scan was like. He told him "It's like a big wheel and it's going to take a picture of your head." Max was very excited about going in "da big wheel." He smiled big as they rolled him down the hallway on the bed. When he got back, he was eating a popsicle as they wheeled him back into the room. He really enjoyed his ride on the bed and told us "I ride on dis. It even gots wheels." He told me all about going in the "big wheel" too. They said he did really well and he didn't even complain when they put the blocks around his head and then buckled it down. He was excited to get two stickers, one for him and one for his "Nunkie fwiend" (monkey). He loved his police car sticker and picked an Elmo sticker for his monkey. He had thrown up again on his way to the CT, so they gave him some medicine to help with the nausea. He started feeling much better after that and was being very silly. He asked for a drink (he wanted milk but they would only give him water) and they also gave him another popsicle which made him very happy. They came back to tell us they didn't see any bleeding into the brain on the CT scan but wanted to observe him for a couple more hours. With how Max was acting when it happened, they said it's very likely that he lost consciousness for a short while when he fell. They discharged us with a diagnosis of vomiting due to a concussion. And gave us more papers on head injuries telling us to bring him back in if his symptoms get any worse. When we got home, as I tucked him in bed, he said "I got a popsible (popsicle) at the hosibal (hospital)."