Concussion #2

Zachary got his second concussion last night. As he was getting out of the tub, he slipped and hit his head on the tile floor of the bathroom. My mom was right there with him so she scooped him up and handed him to me. He cried really hard at first, then went silent and pale. He had a very dazed look on his face, he wouldn't make eye contact with me and his body was limp, but he was breathing. Of course I flipped out and ran to my phone to page Sloan, who was on call at the hospital. He called back immediately...I added 911 three times after my number...and told me to take him to Texas Children's. As we (my mom and I...Charlie stayed home and put Grant to bed) were driving, he started to perk up a little and even gave us a few little smiles. But, as we were walking up to the doors of the emergency room, Zachary vomited more than I would have ever imagined his little body could hold...at this point I lost what little composure I had regained. We were seen immediately in triage and taken to a small room within the emergency department. This was where Sloan, thankfully relieved from his case in the OR, met us. By this time Zachary was back to his normal self and was climbing all around the bed. He passed his neurological exam and it was determined the he had a concussion. We were given the option to monitor him or have a CAT scan to see if there was any bleeding in his brain...which the doctor determined to be very unlikely due to the velocity of his fall (he fell from standing vs. from a high place). Since a CAT scan has the radiation equivalent of 250 chest x-rays, we declined and agreed to monitor him closely..as in wake him up every 3 hours to make sure that he makes eye contact and reacts normally (yeah, that was not fun since he shares a room with his brother).

This morning, Zachary woke up as his normal self. Despite being a little fussy, he was just fine. I assumed the fussiness was due to a headache (who wouldn't have a headache the next day), and after some Tylenol, he was laughing and playing with Grant.

Here are some pictures from the hospital (the pictures aren't great because they are from my phone):

Being a ham for the camera:

Making his goldfish swim:

Trying to make an escape (we finally left at 9:00pm...well past his bedtime):