A Whole Lotta Scares and Prayers

On May 22nd, we celebrated Grandma Yospe's 85th birthday. It was a really fun Hawaiian Luau party at a church in Taylorsville, with all of Jake's family and relatives. We ate lots of yummy food, watched Grandma open all her special memory charms for her new bracelet, played games and chose paintings to keep that Grandpa Yospe professionally painted. It was a great time and we enjoyed being together with the whole family.

The downside came at about 3:15 pm. Jake was holding Cami on his shoulders in the hallway, and she was playing with a blow-up fish. Apparently she dropped the fish and bent over to get it, and completely fell off Jake's shoulders, hitting a door handle on the way down. It happened SO fast. I was standing right next to him, along with 2 of his cousins, but none of us realized what happened, and all we saw was a little crumpled body on the floor. Jake scooped her up and she started crying, and I just saw that her lip was bleeding. I went into the kitchen, still unsure of how bad it was, and said "We have an injury." I started dabbing at her lip and Jake was cradling her and trying to comfort her, but she wasn't crying as hard as she normally would when she gets real hurt. She was just crying slowly and weakly, and then her eyes started to shut, like she was super tired. Granted, she had missed both her naps, but she does not fall asleep in the middle of action. So I started to panic and said, "Something's not right, something's not right!"

She couldn't keep her eyes open. Her lips were getting pale. Jake's cousin, Brooke suggested that we might want to take her to Instacare to get her checked for a concussion. We rushed out the door and strapped her in and I sat with her in the back seat while Jake drove like crazy to the nearest Instacare in Taylorsville. I'm glad he knew where he was going. But I was not very comforted at the time because she would NOT stay awake. I tried tickling her feet, playing with toys, rolling down windows, singing to her...but her little eyes kept shutting. That's the only thing I know about concussions: that you need to keep the victim awake. Finally when we got there and I walked in holding her, she threw up in my arms. They took us back and knew that this was beyond them, and told us we needed to get her to the ER. I asked "Ok, where's the nearest one?" She said "Oh, you'll need to go to Primary Childrens Hospital downtown. They are the only ones who are equipped to treat small children." She said it wasn't such a big deal that she wanted to sleep, but the vomiting was the worrisome part. She offered to have an ambulence take us there if we felt that we couldn't drive, but we got in the car and headed downtown.

It was about a 20 minute drive, and I couldn't keep her awake again in the car until she threw up all over herself and her seat. Poor thing. By the way, Jake and I were praying fervently in the car, and I called our parents to let them know what was going on. Jake's dad said they would be right over to meet us there. Once we got into the ER and registered, me with this little pink princess wrapped in a blanket and listless in my arms, Jake gave her a priesthood blessing in the corner of the waiting room. Then they took us back to a room. Jake's parents got there at the same time, so it was a great comfort to not be alone in that room for the 4 hours that we were. They hooked her up to an IV (twice, because the first one ripped out right after they took some blood), felt her head for bumps and found one on the right side, and checked her eyes and everything. The nurse said it was up to us whether we wanted her head scanned, and we wanted to make sure everything was ok of course, so she had a CT scan. Luckily, she was asleep for the whole thing, and they wrapped her up in blankets and strapped her to a little table, and then it moved through the big ring. We didn't find out the results for quite a while, so it was a big waiting game. She threw up a few more times, and then she had nothing left in her little body. She was exhausted, and just kind of slept in our arms, wrapped in the hospital blanket. She liked cuddling with Daddy. She started to become more aware of things and liked looking at the kiddie pictures on the wall, and holding the remote.
At about 7:30 pm, the CTscan results came back. Diagnosis: Mild traumatic brain injury and R parietal skull fracture.

The nurses brought the images up on the screen, and were trying to find a good shot of the fracture that was found. Here's the best one: It's a view of the back of her head, and that squiggly line going down diagonally is normal. But then there's a little straight hair line about an inch long going down from that in the middle off to the right, into the white area. That's the fracture. Pretty crazy, huh?

The good news was that her brain looked fine, and there wasn't any bleeding or swelling in the pictures, which meant NO long term effects. YAY. After we found out it was a fracture, they told us she would need to stay overnight to receive fluids and be monitored to make sure she'd be ok. Jake's parents left, after many hours of keeping us company and comforted. As Jake walked out with them, I rocked little Cam in my arms and sang lullabies, and was so happy when she looked up and pointed to my nose and smiled. Then she said baba and dada. She was coming back!

They put a neck brace on her so that they could take some neck x-rays, just to be safe. She didn't like it one bit and kept trying to undo the velcro. Notice her poor wounded hands.

We had to keep her entertained while we waited forever for the results, and then when they came back with no further injuries, they took the dumb brace off. They were really nice though- the nurses gave Cami some beanie babies- a ladybug (Lucy) and a sparkly purple bear (Sparkles). :) At about 10 pm, we settled into our room in the short term unit where the less serious patients stay. Cami hadn't eaten anything, so I nursed her and we got her dressed in the little hospital jammies to go to bed.
Jake made a cafeteria run at 10:50 and got soup and rolls, but my stomach was weak and my nerves were still high so I couldn't eat much. Jake and I both decided to stay for the night, since either of us would have been lonely by ourselves. So we cuddled on the little cot in our jeans and tried to get some sleep. My mind wouldn't let me sleep much though, and we both perked up every time we heard Cami rustle around in the crib. So it was a long night.

They hooked Cami's toe up to a monitor, which they covered with a sock after the first time she got it off. They also unhooked her from the IV machine after she'd gotten some fluids, but she didn't like the needle so apparently she pulled it out in the night. That's the little blue padded thing in the picture. Silly girl.

Little sweetheart.

She got off and on sleep, but they came in every few hours to take her vitals, and at 2 am she was wide awake, standing in her crib and pointing to the sippy cup. So we fed her graham crackers and apple juice. She never threw up again, so that meant we could go home today! She was back to being herself, except for being fussy when the Tylenol would wear off probably from a severe headache (I can't even imagine). And it was sad but kind of funny- every time a nurse would come near her with any object, she'd start bawling because she thought they would all hurt her. But she wanted to walk all around our room and the halls, play with everything and could talk and eat again, so we got to go home today at noon.

They gave her a cute little sundress and a fleece blankie to wear home, since she didn't have more clothes, and now we're glad to be home and doing well. They just told us to watch her carefully over the next 4-5 weeks and make sure she doesn't have any falls. It takes that long for her skull to heal itself. I wish they had sent us home with a mini helmet! We are SO grateful that Cami is ok and back to her little self, and for all the wonderful people at Primary Childrens who helped us. What a blessing to live so close to this hospital of expertise for children when we needed it most. I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for hearing our prayers, and the prayers of so many others, and helping us get through this. Jake and I were so scared at first, but we know that whatever happens is up to Him and that He has a plan. I'm so thankful that Jake holds the Priesthood and was able to give her a blessing, and that we were comforted by the spirit. What would we do without the Gospel?

It's crazy, cuz I was just saying this week how I'd never really had any huge adversity in my life and how that is kind of scary cuz I didn't know what the Lord had in store for me. And then this came along. Granted, it is a small trial compared to some, but I think it was the scariest time of my life, and I'm glad we got through it and are a little stronger because of it. And hopefully Cami will not remember this incident, but will someday read this and realize how blessed she was, and how much we love her! We're so glad to be home, but now we wish she didn't like to toddle around so much and that our whole house was padded.