Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Head Bump

Reason 138942 why letting your kids run around is not always a good idea.


Yeah.

This happened when we were waiting at PreK for her teacher. One minute she was racing around playing (you guessed it) Rapunzel, the next she went face first onto the concrete.

Natalie is my accident prone child. She’s been in the ER three times. First, for a cyst on her leg. Then, for a cut on her side that needed that special glue to close. Finally, a hole in her head.

Now this.

On the plus, at least there wasn’t a hole.

On the negative…what if she got a concussion? I wondered if I should take her to an ER to get it checked out.

“Mommy. I want to run,” Natalie sniffled.

Uh? What?

That’s when I figured she’d be okay. Still, she got an ice pack from the nurse and her teachers assured me they’d call if she was acting funny.

When I picked her up, the teacher said she was fine, she behaved normally in school. No issues. But I was still worried about a concussion. I’ve seen Grey’s Anatomy, head injuries can suddenly act up at ANY TIME! On the drive home I kept asking Natalie how she was feeling.

“Fine. Ugh!” she huffed.

Then she started to meow. For no reason. I immediately panicked. CONCUSSION! This wasn’t normal!

“Darling?” I asked nervously. “Why are you meowing? Is your vision okay? CAN YOU SEE ME?”

“MEEEOOWW,” Natalie answered.

Oh my God. Something was wrong. Her speech was gone. She’d have to have an operation and—

“I’m being a CAT, Mommy,” Natalie said as though I were a moron.

Of course.

Still..

“How old are you?” I pressed.

“Five!”

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Purple today. Green yesterday.”

As soon as we got home I was like, “Put your backpack by that wall, put your shoes over there, and touch your nose.” Just to make sure she could still follow basic instructions.

“You’re weird,” Natalie muttered, but did as I asked.

I knelt down to her level to make sure her pupils looked normal.

“Is everything okay?” I wondered.

“Yes!” Natalie promised.

She played like she usually did. She went to ballet and did fine. Then we came home and she suddenly started crying.

SOMETHING WAS WRONG!

“Is it your head? What’s the matter? CAN YOU SEE ME?” I asked, rushing over to Natalie. I was prepared to scoop her up and race her to the ER.

Natalie hung her head. “Rapunzel would have never done this.” She pointed to her head.

I was speechless for a few seconds. “Well, I mean, I’m sure she went through her own injuries,” I explained.

“I want Rapunzel to like me,” Natalie sniffled. We’re going to Disney next year. She’s been obsessed with meeting Rapunzel ever since she found out.

“She’ll love you,” I assured her. “You’re a great kid who just happens to get hurt a lot. But that’s okay. It means you’re adventurous. Rapunzel loves that.”

Natalie sighed. “I hope so.”

So thankfully, her head was okay. But really, this kid seems to get hurt every week!

Do you have an accident prone child?

22 comments:

  1. We're on our 3rd set of stitches for our son's head. His legs are covered (understatement...no words would do justice to just how covered they are) with bruises. And his poor head has suffered more than just the stitches; black eye, scratches or bumps almost weekly. He's 3 going on 5 trying to keep up with his older brother. Just as an example, he's been riding a 2 wheel pedal bike with no training wheels for a year now. Sigh.

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  2. Both of my children inherited my complete lack of grace. I had them into the ER within 3 months of each other for stitches, and the list keeps growing.

    If I can just get them raised and under their own medical insurance someday, I will count my parenting as a success.

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  3. Both of my girls - their middle names are Grace. I see the irony now.

    And with head bumps like that - just remember she's likely to get black eyes as the bump goes away. (Coming from a mom has had more than her fair share of kids with cuts and bumps to the head :-)

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  4. I've never had a clumsy child (no children to be clumsy!) but I am and always will be THE clumsy child. However, great news is I'm clearly alive and well so have hope. :) She will survive.

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  5. I couldn't help but chuckle at Natalie's responses to your questions :) She definitely sounds a bit accident prone.
    My little guy just turned two, and he has definitely had his fair share of bumps, bruises, cuts, and black eyes. He does it to himself though, he is such a little dare devil!

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  6. Yes...he's been to the ER for stitches or glue 3 times...the last time was to fix the crescent shaped cut in his scrotum (yes...scrotum...*sigh*) he managed to get climbing a tree. THAT was a fun trip..they had to put him out to get the stitches in...I was there for 8 hours. Oye. Luckily he doesn't like climbing trees anymore :P

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  7. OMGoodness! I'm sure that was scary! So glad she's okay!

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  8. You could have reminded her that Rapunzel nearly drowned in a cave with a fugitive once...

    but bless her little head...it does look like a scary bump! Kids are crazy, and for the most part, resilient!

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  9. *Knock wood* my kids are not too accident prone. But I was as a kid. Rapunzel will love her. She is one tough chick.

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  10. I just had a subdermal hemotoma in Feb. and I'm still having headaches. All my life theres always been something that hurt(I having two energectic brothers one 16 and one 8 and I'm 13.

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  11. We have gone through 2 boxes of band-aids in the past two weeks.

    Annabelle can't wait to meet Rapunzel either but she doesn't yet know about our trip in November. But hopefully she won't have a big old goose egg on her head when she meets Rapunzel

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  12. It's like when I cop pulls you over and puts you thru the paces to determine if you are drunk or not. Ha!
    At the very least, you might want to think about moving within walking distance of an Urgent/Immediate Care facility.
    My grandson Nate-we call him our "special" kid-used to fall off chairs and stuff. He'd tumble down stairs and be just fine.

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  13. That girl definitely has her priorities in order!
    Hope she enjoys Rapunzel.

    Yes, accident prone kids......I owned them too.

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  14. I have an accident prone husband!

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  15. Ouch she is really a trooper!

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  16. bless her heart! i'm glad she's ok. I love that you referenced grey's anatomy :)

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  17. Yeah - this was my Mother's Day this year: http://adulcia.blogspot.com/2012/05/happy-mother-day.html

    The same child has also had a broken wrist (on the other arm), an over-extended elbow last year (the same one that now has pins in the bone), a hole in the head a few years back the day before we were due to go camping for a week, ... I think our first trip to Orthopaedics was when she was about 9 months and fell off the sofa (only a sprain that time...)

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  18. She used to trip over her feet because she in-toed so much, but (knocking on wood, literally,) we've not had to hit the emergency room. I, however, landed on my head the one time I tried to flip around a playground bar, so I never learned that maneuver. And there are home movies of me walking around looking like I wandered out of a hospital.

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  19. I missed this post somehow. An accident prone child isn't necessarily a bad thing. I mean it isn't the greatest thing either, but it means she's getting the most of her injuries out of the way. As she gets older she'll learn to feel her own inner balance. Like riding a two wheeler. You reminded me of my sister though. Made me laugh. I have a blood clotting problem, and my sister is constantly worrying about me getting a stroke, ok. She and I text back and fro, and that auto correct jacks up my language so bad it caused her to think I had a stroke. It took me a long time to get her to believe it was the stupid auto correct thingy on the phone that was spelling things that way and sounding so weird. Not me. I'm not sure she believes me still to that day. I love her for her concern though.

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