Here are all the nitty, gritty little details of our not so fun weekend.
Saturday evening, I was getting ready to go out for a belated birthday dinner with a few girlfriends. The boys had been sent to their beds for fighting, and I could hear them in there talking. At 5:30, I heard Kehlton screaming at the top of his lungs. I run in and find him pulling himself up off the floor. Brychan said Kehlton was just sitting on the foot of the bed and then fell. I'm guessing he must have just lost his balance somehow. He also hit his head on a table on his way to the floor.
After listening to Kehlton scream for 15 minutes without easing up at all, I asked David if he was at a point at work where he could come home and help; just because Kehlton was unconsolable, which was making Jessa unconsolable, which was starting to set Brychan off. I didn't think Kehlton was seriously injured; just upset and scared. But, David came right home and took K to an Urgent Care just to be safe. They were home within the hour; Kehlton was nice and calm and David said the doctor didn't see anything wrong; but told us if he started vomiting or getting super dizzy or anything to take him to the ER. About an hour or so later, Kehlton started vomiting. David took him straight to the ER and I waited with the other kids until Ashley was able to get to us.
I joined my boys at the hospital at about 8:45, and found them here, watching cartoons together like it was no big deal.
David told me that the ER doctor had checked Kehlton out and thought he was probably just fine, but wanted to do a CT Scan just to be sure. When she came back and told us that there were two fractures in his skull PLUS two areas of bleeding, I was instantly just sick to my stomach. And shocked. Kehlton was acting like himself, and we were all expecting to just be going home within the next little bit.
Anyway. She told us we had to be transported to Cardons Childrens Hospital for a consult with a neurosurgeon and to be monitored in the PICU for at least the night. She told us that we had about 45 minutes to wait for an ambulance; that one of us could ride with Kehlton, and the other follow behind.
Being wheeled down for the first of three CT Scans
By this time, it was after 10:00 and we were calling everybody we could think of to come down and help give K a blessing. After several phone calls, we reached a member of our bishopric who came to help David give the blessing and sit with us for a minute. Since we had both our car and my sisters car at the hospital, we also had to call somebody else to meet David at our house and bring him back to the hospital so Ashley would have a car and then David would be able to drive our car out to the children's hospital.
Kehlton was finally allowed to go to sleep well after 9:00 PM. They tried doing his IVs while he was sleeping. He slept through their first attempt in his hand, but they blew that vein and had to move to his arm. That one woke him up and he was NOT happy about it.
He also slept through most of his ambulance ride. All 45 minutes of it. He did wake up once and ask me to please just hold him (because my heart wasn't already broken enough!). In the photo below you can just barely see some slight bruising next to his eye. That is the
only physical sign he has of his injury.
And arriving at Cardons. Kehlton is SO proud of this picture. He looked at it for a long time and was sure to show his brother his ambulance. He's also asked me to look at it a couple of times since we've been home. David was right behind the ambulance and was there at the hospital right when we were.
They checked us into the ER, where Kehlton had another CT Scan done of his neck, just to make sure there weren't any injuries there, which there were not. We spent a couple of hours there before we were moved to our room in the PICU.
Sunday morning, Kehlton was finally allowed to try to have water or juice, so he got to have a popsicle for breakfast. He also had a juice box. And then we just waited for the neurosurgeon to come talk to us.
I really, really wish I would have taken a photo of the CT Scan images he showed us of Kehlton's head. He has a fracture right at his left temple that runs vertically, and then another (much larger) fracture that runs haphazardly up and across the top part of his skull. We could also see where the bleeding was taking place. Evidently, there is a major artery at the temple of the skull, right where Kehlton fractured his skull. Luckily, he didn't damage that artery. However, they had to make sure that the bleeding had stopped because in one of the areas, it was pushing in towards Kehlton's brain. If it continued to bleed, it would just apply additional pressure to the brain and they would need to do surgery to relieve that pressure and stop the bleeding.
So, we went in for a 3rd CT Scan. We were never shown the results of that scan, but a few hours afterwards, we were told that we could go home. I have never been so relieved. Neither has Kehlton! He had been begging for awhile to please just go home. He was really, really missing his Bug all night and kept asking for him. Kehlton was SO excited when Lala came with Brychan and Jessa. He jumped right up and started telling his brother everything that had been going on. So sweet.
I was so impressed with the medical staff at both hospitals we dealt with this weekend. They were so good with Kehlton; very reassuring to him and very patient with him. Anytime he showed any amount of fear or pain, they took as long as it needed to talk him through it. And, while I was sitting alone with Kehlton in the first ER sobbing my eyes out (while David was switching cars), the nurses there were just as kind and loving and reassuring to me.
Some of Kehlton's loot he received over the weekend from the medical staff. Anytime he had to do another scan, or do another procedure - he got a new toy. And soon after we unloaded from the ambulance, he was handed more toys. Brychan is a little jealous of all the "fun" Kehlton got to have this weekend!
And, before we left the hospital, we had to stop and check out the little train village. There were 4 or 5 trains running in there, and all the lights on the houses and shops work as well. They boys had a blast watching it.
Once again, I can't help but be so grateful for tender mercies, wonderful friends and family members and a loving Father in Heaven! I am SO grateful that the first ER doctor decided to do the CT Scan even though she thought Kehlton was fine. I'm grateful for all the friends who answered their phones in middle of the night and jumped to help us when needed, and then brought food for us Sunday when we got home. I'm grateful for the non-stop flood of text messages and phone calls Saturday night and Sunday to see how things were going and if there was anything else we needed. I'm grateful for a sister who will drop anything on a dime for the sake of my children and that I know I don't have to worry about them when they are in her care. And more than anything, I am so, so, so grateful that our Kehlton is okay. Knowing that your child could potentially be facing death is the absolute worst feeling in the world. I hope we never have to do something like this again. We always knew Kehlton would be our first ER visit!! I was just expecting stitches. I guess now when the need for stitches arrives, it won't seem like that big of a deal. :)
