After my initial moment of shock, I threw the kids in the car and headed for the urgent care/emergency room. I got the story from him that he was walking (but he HAD to have been at least running) and ran right into the side of a bookcase. I figured it'd be best to make sure he was okay and get any stitches if needed. Better to be safe than sorry.
When we arrived they did a CT scan of his brain. Ethan was so brave and did so well during this even though he was so scared. They allowed me to hold his hand and comfort him throughout the scan, so that was a huge blessing. This was the first CT he's been able to do without loads of sedatives! The radiologist immediately called me in the back room and showed me white spots on the base of his brain. He said it looks like he has a brain bleed. After some deliberation they decided to transport us to another hospital that specializes in brain injuries and neurosurgery. We have never been to this hospital so of course I wasn't thrilled at all with this idea. Ethan was acting like his normal self so I didn't really see tremendous danger. I was really nervous about him being treated by people that don't know him at all. I called Dr. Z (our cardiologist) and let him know what was going on. He also was shocked and angry that they weren't going to send him to the Clinic where we normally go. He told me to use my best judgment in what I let the doctors do. If anything seemed wrong, he told me to make sure that we get him to our hospital immediately. The opportunity came up right away when the ER docs wanted to give him meds to counteract his Coumadin. They wanted to stop whatever bleeding was happening in his brain. Thankfully we vetoed that since that could have had horrible consequences with clotting off the stents in his heart.
After a short time the Life Flight helicopter arrived to take us downtown. Ethan was obviously scared and anxious, but it was pretty exciting. Luckily I was able to ride along - even though there was a question about it since they didn't have a chance to refuel before our trip. *gulp* That made me extremely nervous during the flight! Thankfully it was a quick and uneventful ride. The transport team was amazing with Ethan and kept him as calm as possible for the trip. Ethan told me to take pictures so he could show his class. Unfortunately these were the best I could get in the lighting and bumpiness. :(
We arrived at the hospital and sat in the ER for hours waiting for a room for the night. The neurosurgery team met with us and reviewed his scans. They said it did NOT look like a brain bleed! Praise the Lord! I was so relieved! Apparently the white spots were a thickening of the skull that is common in children. They still wanted to observe him overnight though and make sure he was okay.
We got to our room around 3am, then had to wait for his meds for another 30-40 minutes. We finally were able to fall asleep even though they had to wake him up to do neurological tests every 2 hours. At 7:30am he was up for the day and feeling pretty good - surprisingly even with that little sleep. We did some morning meds (only the cardiac ones) and then ate some breakfast. They wouldn't give him his Aspirin or Adderall meds since they weren't written up critical ones for his heart.
A teacher at the hospital came to our room to work with Ethan on his kindergarten activities. Ethan definitely was bored and wanted to have something to do, but still didn't want that to be education! He was a bit ornery and refused to work on letters and numbers with her. He would only play games (Memory and puzzles) and draw pictures. He wouldn't even let her read a book to him while he colored. Grumpy little man!
After she left, Child Life delivered some Legos and more paper for him to use. They wouldn't let him leave to go to the playroom much to his dismay. They said we had to wait for the docs to round and say it was okay. They never bothered coming until 5 minutes before we were discharged! Ethan was not happy about that - and neither was I!
After a LOT of waiting around all day, finally they discharged us! We have to return to neurosurgery for an evaluation in 2 weeks. We'll probably just go to our current neurologist since he knows Ethan. We also have our cardiology appointment coming up on the 11th. By the time we got home Ethan was beyond exhausted. I made him take a bath, but he complained of feeling awful. He was getting a slight temperature (100-101F), shivering, saying his stomach/heart hurt, and his head hurt. I think it mainly was just sheer exhaustion after so much happening and such little sleep. I put him down to sleep and he was out at 7:45pm! I pray that he sleeps through the night and wakes up feeling healthy and good again. He had such a good day today that I really hope he doesn't get sick or anything at this point!
Please keep us in your prayers. I am so thankful to you all who were following us on Facebook and praying for us! I also thank my family for taking Callie home from the ERs, keeping her overnight and making sure she got to school and picked up after school today, and for driving me and Ethan back to my car from the hospital today! I'm so lucky to have all my family, friends, and church around who will help with whatever I need - thank you!
I'm going to try and get some sleep since I'm pretty exhausted too! I can't wait for John to get back home tomorrow - he's been in South Dakota this week. We've certainly missed him especially with all this going on this week!
I'm also hoping his face heals up fairly quickly since we received the notice for Kindergarten pictures! They will probably be next week. Eek! Should be interesting school pics this year!
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