The post that already went up this morning is one I wrote and prescheduled last week. But it doesn't really match the mood of the day so I wanted to write this more current post about our weekend we're just coming out of. Saturday evening, Alice took a fall off our patio table onto the concrete below. She had climbed out of her clip-on seat onto the table after dinner, and just as I was reaching over from the other side of the table to lift her off, she slipped backward and landed flat on her back on the ground (or so I thought at the time).
I immediately knew it had been a serious fall. Alice just lay there screaming, not attempting to roll or get up. I ran to get Jared before scooping her up, because I didn't want to risk moving her the wrong way if there was a back injury, and I really value his doctor eyes in these types of situations. Jared picked her up gently and tried to comfort her. Her back was scraped up and so was the back of her head. She looked dazed to me, so my mind went straight to "concussion." Jared got a bath ready for her. I didn't feel comfortable putting her in by herself and she felt pretty limp, not really holding any weight, so I got in with her. She sobbed the whole time and was shaking. I asked Jared to take her to an urgent care, but he insisted that he knew the signs of concussion and wanted to watch her a little longer. It was past her bedtime, but I didn't feel comfortable putting her to sleep in her crib by herself, and she's not a baby who will fall asleep in your arms. I decided to try and get her to sleep in our bed so we could keep an eye on her throughout the night. I turned on a toddler show to try and calm her down, which helped. Within half an hour she seemed more like herself and could answer our questions and point to things on request. It was also clear she wouldn't actually fall asleep unless she was in her crib. Jared assured me he would check in on her a few times during the night and take her to the urgent care in the morning if there were any concerns.
She woke up once or twice in the night and Jared went to check in on her. In the morning when I went to get her out of her crib, she kept pointing to her arm and saying, "Ow, ow." Jared told me she had done the same during the night and he noticed she wasn't using her arm much. He made her a makeshift arm splint and off they went to an urgent care while Jack and I got ready for church. After several hours at the urgent care, it was confirmed that her head and back were fine, but she had broken her elbow. The elbow must have taken the brunt of the fall. It was bad enough that she would need to have surgery to get pins put in. When he called to tell me, I had just dropped Jack off at a friend's house so I could run to a meeting for my calling. The stake center is half an hour from our house and I cried the whole way there. The ladies in my calling were so nice and it turned out to be a blessing to have some alone time in the car to cry while Jack was gone, and have a distraction for an hour or two and some older moms in my calling to comfort me and tell stories of their own children getting hurt and everything turning out ok. I called my mom after and then Jared video called me and I got to see Alice in her little hospital gown before her surgery, in mostly pretty good spirits. I felt a lot better after that and Jack and I had a nice afternoon together, talking and clearing the floor of tripping hazards in preparation for Alice to come home and making brownies.
Alice's surgery went well and she came out of the anesthesia great. She got a cast and was happy and a little loopy from the anesthesia when they got home. It is going to be a challenge to keep her safe and stable and dry for the next 3 weeks until the pins come out--she is not allowed to fall at ALL during that time or the pins might get knocked loose. But I am grateful that the surgery went seamlessly, that Jared is medically knowledgeable and took the lead on the all-day venture of getting our baby fixed up, and that it was an arm injury instead of a head injury. I'm quite nervous about keeping everyone safe and happy when Jack's summer begins next week, but trying to focus on gratitude that he will be in school for another week and a half. We are doing ok. Alice is a trooper. We are going to be more cautious going forward. And now you're all caught up! Should be an interesting few weeks.
^^The two pictures Jared took in the hospital. I feel like he had to have taken this one for irony purposes? I'll have to ask him. He was really impressed with everyone at Seattle Children's Hospital. Our experiences with medical professionals in the Seattle area have been really great so far.
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