On Tuesday night, my sister and my friend Kristin and I were shopping at Wal-Mart. I had Kas and Leini with me, and Leini had been really fussy and didn't want to sit in her carseat, so I had been carrying her throughout the store. We had been there about an hour. I needed to pick up something off the shelf, and by this time, my arms were so sore from holding her. I set her in her carseat(which was fastened on the shopping cart) so I could reach something off the shelf and put it in the cart. In literally 5 seconds, the carseat fell over the side of the cart, and Leini fell face first on the hard linoleum floor. The carseat fell right on top of her.
=( Honestly, it is an image that will be burned in my mind for the rest of my life...and something that I have had a hard time forgiving myself for. It only took a second, and she was seriously injured.
So, she screamed for a good 20 minutes or so, while a huge goose-egg appeared on her forehead. Her nose and forehead took on a weird greenish-yellow tone. We applied some ice, and I called my Dr.'s office to see what I should do. They told me the signs of concussion to watch for...and we waited to see what would happen. She kept gagging like she was going to throw up, but she never did. After the initial screaming, she went completely limp in my arms and I could not keep her awake, which is very unusual for her. After about 15 minutes of falling asleep, she woke up and was very somber. We decided it was better to be safe, so my sister took me to the ER. I was crying so hard that I couldn't even check her in, so my sister was explaining to the nurse at the check-in counter what had happened. It didn't help that when she told them, "It just happened so fast," the nurse looked at me and said, "It only takes a second." That only made me cry harder. I felt as though I was a horrible parent!
They kept her to be monitored at the ER for several hours, but they told me it was probably more harmful for her to have a catscan done at such a young age because, "the amount of radiation she would receive would be equivalent to the amount of radiation from the Hiroshima bombing." That completely freaked me out, so I opted not to have a catscan done.
When we got home that night, she started vomiting. She wouldn't really eat, and by the following morning, I called my Dr.'s office and they told me I needed to take her immediately to Primary's. To lighten this story up a bit, when I found out I needed to take her back in, I started crying again, and Abe was standing by me holding her. When she saw me crying, she reached out for me and said "ma ma." This was something she said about a month ago for like 3 days straight, but had refused to say again, even after much prompting. I thought that was sweet! Anyway, back to the story.
So, on Wednesday morning I took her to Primary's and they told me that they would need to do a catscan...which freaked me out because of what I had been told at the other hospital. They told me they could lower the amount of radiation she received to a safe level. They found out that she had a skull fracture that started right below her soft spot, and went half way down her forehead. The good news was that there was no damage to her brain, or no inner bleeding. So they kept us overnight to watch her. She continued to throw up and then had diarhea, and they were worried about her becoming dehydrated. She started eating 1-2 ozs every 4 hrs or so, which is not less than half of what she usually eats. After an eventful night, where I had to share the room with 2 seperate patients, they discharged us the following afternoon. I really thought she was doing a lot better, even though she wasn't eating much. And then yesterday came and she stopped eating completely.
I took her into my Dr.'s office and he told me she wasn't dehydrated YET and to try giving her Pedialyte, Gatorade, even a Slurpee (WHAT????) to get her to drink something....anything. After many prayers, I thought we were headed back up to Primarys. She refused to eat anything all afternoon. Finally, around 9 o'clock last night, she was screaming, and she finally took a couple of ozs in a bottle. Last night, she did much better. She started drinking her formula again, in small portions, and she seems like she's slowly starting to return to herself. Hopefully it gets better from here! The hard part is reading the information they sent home with me that talks about future problems she may have with learning, etc. My trauma neurologist at the hospital feels that she won't have any future problems though, and her outlook was very positive.
Ok...sorry for the long story, but my reason for sharing was to make you think twice before you set your child in their carseat, even for a second without buckling them. The ER said they see more head accidents in infants from carseats. Please, please, please don't ever put the carseat on the bed, a table, anywhere higher than the ground. It only takes a second for a fall. And last but not least, carseats and Wal-Mart carts are evil! lol But seriously, they said that most accidents with carts have happened at Wal-Mart. Please learn from my mistake and don't let it happen to your child. It has been horrible! But, I'm hoping someone can learn from my mistake.
Here are some pics from the ordeal:
This one was taken after we got home from the ER the first night...and the swelling had already gone down a lot...
Kicking back in her metal cage at the hospital...she doesn't look very upset, but I assure you, the smiles were few and far between...
Her poor arm after they popped her blood vessel when they were trying to take her blood...
Happy to finally be home from the hospital! The sticky tape that was on her was what they connected the monitors to. Before we took them off....(notice Kas in the background dressed like she's ready to go swimming! It was bedtime, but she was convinced she should be going swimming instead! lol)
After we took the tape off...the red marks are still there!
My poor baby! Hope you never have to go through this! Although, it did give me a better perspective of what some of my friends have been through with their kids. It also makes me SO grateful for everything I have.
