I was giving report to the on-coming shift last Friday at about 3pm when I got a call paged overhead. I picked up and it was the school nurse calling to let me know that Abigail had taken a fall at recess; she had split her lip and banged up her face quite a bit, as well as skinned her right palm and knees. She was okay, but had found the whole experience to be fairly traumatic. Could I pick her up from school rather than send her home on the bus since her lip was swollen and she was pretty shaken up. Okay, no problem. I headed over after leaving work.
When I saw Abigail, she was pretty swollen and bruised on her lip, but she seemed okay. I had already picked Anna up from daycare on the way to get Abigail, so we took things easy and headed home. We made plans to have dinner out with John when he got done with work. We ran a few errands. I noticed that Abigail was really favoring her right arm... she was having difficulty buckling her seat belt, opening doors, zipping her coat, etc. She didn't want to use her right arm at all. She denied pain, but something was not right...
When John came over, he examined her and decided that she did have an excessive amount of tenderness to her right arm; from what we could tell, she had face-planted during her fall, but tried to catch herself with her right arm. Concerned, we took her to the local "walk-in clinic" where she could be examined and have an x-ray while avoiding the ER. We anticipated that the wait would be long since there were several people ahead of us, so John and Anna took off to pick up some dinner. Abigail was pretty wiped out, so she laid down to take a rest while we waited, and I worked on a paper for school.
John came back with dinner, we ate, and we remarked on how lethargic and emotional/weepy Abigail was getting. It was then that we started worrying that she may have hit her head when she fell. We questioned her some more about how exactly she fell (apparently none of the recess aides witnessed the fall) and we just kept getting "I tripped and fell and then my lip was bleeding!" Could she have hit her head and even lost consciousness for a few seconds? Hard to say.
This is where it gets fun....
So, we finally go back into the exam room. Abigail is running a low fever when they take her vital signs, and her heart rate is fast. She is so lethargic she has a hard time walking to the exam room. (BTW- she weighs 65 lbs.) The NP comes in to do the exam. Quick flashlight to the eyes, quick squeeze of the arm, quick look in the mouth. She decides that Abigail's throat looks red, so they do a rapid strep test which comes back positive. A few minutes later we are leaving... with a script for antibiotics, but no x-ray and no instructions for what to monitor in case of concussion! Needless to say, since Abigail never once complained of a sore throat and was eating and drinking without difficulty, we decided she was probably a carrier (as I am sure we all are in my family) and did not give her the antibiotics.
Saturday comes around and we have our
second post-placement visit in the morning. It goes well but leaves me exhausted. We spend the rest of the morning being lazy then decide to get out of the house. We head to the mall and stroll through a few stores. We go to the indoor kids playplace. Abigail still won't use her right arm, even when she is running around and playing with the other kids. It also looks more swollen. We decide to head back to the clinic and demand an x-ray.
The clinic's hours are noon-8pm. We arrive at 6pm and are told that they have "met their quota" and will not see any more patients for the day. I got a bit Momma Bear on them. They agree to see us:)
We get the x-ray and head back to the exam room to await the results. The x-ray is read by the radiologist in the hospital who calls over to ask if Abigail had a previous injury to that arm, which she has not. We are told that they can't identify a break, but if she continues to have pain, we should have another x-ray in 3 days. Right.
We go home and put the kids to bed. I am working on my paper and John is doing homework as well. At 10:30pm I get a call from the hospital. Unusual. It was the radiologist; they had reviewed the x-ray and Abigail did indeed have a buckle fracture and needed to come into the ER immediately to have a splint placed until she could be seen by the pediatric ortho doc on Monday for a cast. Nice. Thankfully, John was able to take Abigail over to the ER while I stayed home with the sleeping Anna. Abigail was a champ and didn't complain at all, according to John. She was pretty excited to hear that she could get a hot pink cast on Monday:)
All's well that ends well, right? Maybe. But this wasn't the end.
Sunday morning. It was a late night for everyone (Abigail and John didn't get back from the ER until after midnight.) Everyone except Anna, that is:) I cuddle the girls and try to get them to sleep in with me as long as possible. We move slowly out of the bed.
Abigail has a few intermittent episodes of forceful vomiting. I make her sit on the couch with a puke bucket because she has no warning when she is going to puke. Her stomach doesn't hurt and she doesn't have any nausea... John is consulted. Meantime, Abigail is having difficulty following directions and is just not herself. Off to the ER we go- too many signs of a concussion or other brain injury to ignore!
While in the waiting room, her pupils are dilated and she starts having blurred/double vision. We finally get a CT of her head. It is negative for any bleed, thank God, but she does have a concussion. Good times.
Abigail will have the cast for 5 weeks at which time they will re-check the x-ray and decide if she is okay. She is also off gym/recess since she is at risk for falling again and since she really can't afford to fall when she already has a concussion! She had some ongoing symptoms of concussion on Monday and Tuesday, but mostly her symptoms have all resolved now. She continues to deny any pain in her right arm.
So, to highlight a few of my favorite moments:
1. Our first visit to the clinic was for arm pain and increasing lethargy following a traumatic fall. We left with a diagnosis of strep throat. Someone doesn't know what they are doing.
2. We had 2 ER visits in less than 24 hours with a $75 co-pay each time, and 2 clinic visits in less than 24 hours with a wait time of 2-3 hours each visit. If we would have just gone to the ER on Friday night, our total wait time to get the x-ray, splint, and CT would have been a lot less (and a lot less expensive) than the 2 clinic visits + 2 ER visits. Lesson learned: sometimes it's better to go straight to the ER, especially if your situation will require a specialist. The walk-in clinic is good if you have a sore throat and are concerned for strep.
3. Apparently I do a good Momma Bear.
And here is how it looked when he asked...
2. Khaki - I like these because they are a bit darker and more like the champagne color we have chosen. Also, being darker, I am more likely to wear them more for non-wedding events. I love brown shoes and wear the same 3 pairs of brown shoes almost every day that I am not at work (unless I am wearing black shoes.)
3. Glitter- A bit more wedding-ish! I love the gold glittery-ness of these shoes! I am not sure how often I would wear them, but I might buy new clothes just to have something to wear them with. Or I might become one of those people who goes out in jeans, a sweatshirt, and glittery shoes. Because these are that cute!
4. Blue Polka Dots- Something blue! These are a-dorable! I love that they would be fun and unexpected while also achieving my "something blue" for good luck. Plus, I love polka dots. Never wear them, don't even own a polka-dotted item, but love 'em!
