Monday morning, J slipped on an icy sidewalk on her way out to the car (from dropping the kids off at the babysitter's house). She landed on her hand and head, breaking her wrist in two places and giving her a severe concussion. Neighbors driving by noticed her laying on the ground. No one knows how long she was unconscious, though the neighbors do say she was out. They helped J up onto her feet and walked her into the babysitter's house.
Nearly immediately, she started showing signs of a concussion. She became confused and dizzy, then vomitted. So the babysitter and her husband took her immediately to the ER.
When I had reached the ER, J had a huge goose-egg on the side of her head the size of my fist. I spoke with the ER physician. He told me that she had failed all of his questions, among them the basic what day and month is it? Upon further questioning, everyone realized, especially me, that her short-term memory was gone. Specifically, she could not remember anything that occurred after Thanksgiving day.
Good news came our way around 1:00 that afternoon. Her CAT scan results showed no sign of fractures to the skull; nor were there any signs of internal damage or bleeding.
We were in the ER until 4:20 that afternoon. It took her that long for her memory to start clicking and her nausea to recede to the point that she could sit up long enough to get home.
When I took her home, I had to monitor her. At first, I checked in on her after her first one hour sleep, which the doctor requested she take. And then, I had to check on her every four hours. This is a critical time for patients who have suffered concussions. Once patients recover their memory in the ER, there should be no signs of regression after that. So I got little sleep that first night.
Today, J is walking around without assistance, eating normally, and able to do as much as she can except for things requiring her right hand, which is in a soft cast.
In closing, I witnessed something in my kids behavior that was odd. When the kids first came home that first evening, I had J sleeping in the LazyBoy chair that we had moved into the living room. They didn't go over to say "Hi" or to hug her. They barely looked at her. I have brought this up to friends and I have to agree with them on their impressions--I think they were afraid that J wasn't doing well. Maybe they were protecting themselves from the darkest of possibilities, wondering "What if she doesn't make it?"
Once J was more talkative that next day, they were more relaxed and talked to her. Truly an odd thing to see. I have every intention on asking them their thoughts as soon as things calm down.
If I don't get time to post, I wish you all a very happy holiday season!
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