I arrived home at 10:00 Monday morning from my girls' weekend at the beach. By 11:00 we were rushing to the Emergency Room with Gracie. As soon as I walked in the door I scooped up my almost-three-year-old as she ran toward me and gave her kisses all over her face.
It was sunny so I left my suitcase at the front door and took Gracie outside for some play time in the sun with mom. We played on the deck for a few minutes, and then I asked her if she wanted me to push her on the swing. She eagerly nodded so I took her to the swing set, set her on the swing and began to push her. As she got going higher and higher I noticed that one of her hands was opening and closing and I told her to hold on to the chain. She said "I'm just playing mom." But, I decided I would stop pushing so she wouldn't go so high.
It was too late. On the next forward motion, Gracie decided to experiment one more time- letting go of the chains with both hands. Before I knew what had happened I heard a big thud, and it took a fraction of a second to register that Gracie has just fallen off backwards onto her head. I screamed as Gracie lay motionless in the wood chips. Against my better judgement I snatched her up and as her shock began to wear off her face turned to wide-eyed panic. She started screaming and grabbing the back of her hair. I felt the back of her head while trying to calm her down and scrambled into the kitchen.
While inspecting her I handed her a shot of Tylenol. She was wimpering and holding it in her hand, and I kept telling her to drink it. But, she didn't seem to comprehend what I was saying. She would glance at it and then stare off into the distance crying. Gracie loves taking medicine (she thinks it tastes like candy), so this was really strange to me. I knew she had to be really hurt.
I sat down in a chair rocking her while I called the doctor's office. It went straight to voicemail so I left a message. I looked down to notice that Gracie had passed out in my arms. At this point Greg's mom came downstairs to check on us. No sooner did I ask whether or not she thought I should take Gracie to The ER than Gracie fidgetted a bit in my lap and threw up all over me. Darlene snatched her and I jumped up ripping my clothes off and running to find something to change into- we had to go the the ER NOW.
Darlene drove and I sat in the back seat asking Gracie questions to keep her awake and to assess just how dazed she was. She would mutter responses that were barely audible as she gazed straight ahead with that "three mile stare."
We got the the hospital and Gracie threw up all over again. We didn't even need to check in- they just rushed us back when they found out what happened. Shortly after we were ushered back Greg arrived. Gracie definitely had a major concussion, and they told us that they would need to do a CAT scan to make sure that they didn't have to do surgery to remove any bleeding.
At this point I was holding it together, but I could feel my heart race with adreneline. I followed the doctor into another room, and he instructed me that she would have to lay still for the CAT scan, or they would have to sedate her. I tried to lay Gracie on the table, but she clung to my like a monkey- her arms wrapped tight around my neck- screaming. At least she seemed to be coming to a bit. I told Gracie if she couldn't lay still the doctor would have to give her a shot that would make her take a nap. She was wimpering and pleading, "No momma, No momma," but eventually she lay down as her eyes darted around the room and especially about the big "camera" that was going to take pictures of her head. The nurse strapped her arms and head down, and began to move her under the machine. Gracie started begging. "I'm scared momma! I want to be done momma!"
I held back my tears and promised her ice cream when we were finished. I told her we would count to 50 and then we would be done and could go home. She lay still with a petrified look in her eyes, pleading me to make them stop. But, she was brave and followed my directions the whole time. I was so proud of her! As soon as the scan was done, Gracie began acting more normal- talking and even joking around putting the barf bag on her head. The doctor came in and told us while we would have to wait at the hospital for another hour or so so that they could monitor her, that the CAT scan revealed that there was no internal bleeding and that she should be fine in a few days or possibly weeks.
It was quite a scare, but the next day Gracie asked to go back on the swings again. This time it was I who had to swallow my fear and help her back on. She's our little trooper!
