Another tooth & a concussion

Early Tuesday morning, I'm alerted to the fact that Hayleah has hurt herself again. She is a rough & tumble girl, but can be very sensitive if the time of day is right. Usually, this early in the day, there's not much that phases her. Just a few days before she skidded across the back patio on her face & barely mentioned it in passing. But today was different.

I could tell she was hurt, but it didn't really register how hurt she was until I spent a few minutes with her.

She likes to perch herself on the back of the couch. It's something we get on all the kids for, but when we're out of sight they tend to do it anyway.

Apparently she fell backwards off the couch on to the tile & cracked her little head. I felt a good-sized knot on the side of her head. It wasn't cause for much alarm. We've seen some knots before & this wasn't the worst yet, but still something was off.

She wouldn't stop crying. She didn't even want her thumb (so rare for her). She was acting really drowsy & it was barely 8 a.m. when this happened. She cried a strange cry for almost 2 hours & protested even more loudly if I dared set her down for even a moment. After about 30 min. of the crying I called Dave to tell him what had happened & to let him know I was probably going to take her to the doctor.



I called the doc's office & got an appointment with our favorite PA there. It was a struggle to keep her awake. Just before leaving for the doc's, around 10, she threw up. That was the final symptom that convinced me it wouldn't be a waisted trip to the doc's. We headed off & I gave her a popcycle to keep her awake in the car (messy but effective).


By the time we made it to the doc's, she was not only forming coherent sentences, but she was singing & acting very much like her self. It was a complete turn-around from earlier so, along with the blessing Dave gave her (he came home from work to help with the other kids while I took her in) that helped ease some of my concerns.


The PA confirmed what I already knew, said she was sure it wasn't a skull fracture since she couldn't feel any fluid on the spot where she hit her head, but wanted us to head over to the ER for a CT Scan "just in case".


I called Dave & told him what she said, prayed about it for a while, & headed home instead of the ER. "Just in case" has its place, but I pretty much knew what to expect the ER doc to tell me to do when I took her home. I knew it wasn't serious enough for them to keep her, so we headed home to keep an eye on her instead of going to the ER. I decided I would take her in if she stopped acting normal & just keep her glued to my side the rest of the day.


When we got home, Jordan proudly showed me his second lost tooth. He was pretty excited about it & the tooth fairy was just as generous with the second tooth as she was with the first. I thought these teeth were worth progressively less more are lost, but what do I know?!

Hayleah is totally fine today. In fact, other than a little extra crabbiness (probably from me hovering over her & not letting her do much other than sit down....that's hard on a 2 year old!) she's been fine since we left the doc's office. Thank goodness for that!

Jo is still thrilled to have lost another tooth & keeps asking deep questions about them that I don't know how to answer. An example:

J: Do teeth grow?

Me: Yes, um, sort of. Well, they don't always grow. But yeah, they grow. (not at all confusing...)

J: Well if they don't grow then how do they come out after the little teeth fall out?

Me: They push themselves out.

J: (laughing) Teeth can't push. What do they push? Each other?

Me: Well, they can push each other out of alignment, making them crooked.

J: (laughing at me some more) What do they shove? Each other? (laughing at the ridiculous image I'm sure going through his head)

Me: Um, sort of.

My lame attempts to explain it in terms that didn't sound ridiculous to him went on for another 10 min., at least. We didn't get anywhere.

It's confusing, trying to explain things to inquisitive 6 year olds. I felt pretty dumb after that conversation. I couldn't seem to find the right verbs to explain how teeth come out & all my attempts were met with his laughter.

Stinkin' kid.