My life is crazy with three boys and a girl… two teens and two tots… homeschooling and homemaking… cooking gourmet meals on a budget. This week was no different. On the heels of my last two event photography gigs: Blissdom and Capitol Days, Easter, and the full swing back from Spring Break… we didn’t need any more drama. God has a sense of humor, though. And thankfully, He has my back. So very thankful that my four year old is OK this morning.

We spent last night in the ER with Koko. The little guy was running around like Rambo Sunday afternoon and smacked his head on the buffet table corner in our dining room. The swelling was instant, but he never got disoriented, sleepy, slurred his words, or stumbled… so we kept ice on it for about thirty minutes, watched him closely, and assumed he didn’t have a concussion. I had always been told that if the bump goes OUT and not IN, it’s not serious. He was talking (a lot – as usual) and being active, so I wasn’t that worried.

The next day came and went without event. Then Tuesday morning, Koko was saying he was cold – despite having no fever. He had dark circles under his eyes (a constant character trait in our family with seasonal allergies), and was sniffling off and on. He told me he had a bit of a sore throat, so we used a cherry throat spray on it a few times. I figured it wasn’t related to his head injury. He wasn’t eating as much as he normally would, either. I imagined that the front blowing through must have had foreign pollen to aggravate his sinuses and possibly cause mucus and make him feel yucky. I’ve told you before that we are the poster family for allergy problems, so this would have been nothing new.

At bedtime, he went to bed at 9 PM without putting up a fight (he’s a night owl, so this was a little too easy – and out of character for him). An hour later, he awoke screaming that his sister’s room was bad and spinning (he motioned around and around with his fingers). We picked him up and moved him to his bedroom and he proceeded to vomit all over mama and the edge of his bed.

I wasn’t sure if the head injury was related to his nausea, but with his comment about the room spinning, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

I took him to the ER. After a quick check-in, the nurse gave him something for his nausea, and some ibuprofen in case his head was hurting. Two minutes after he took the ibuprofen, he threw up what seemed like a gallon of liquid… more than he had consumed all day. It took two bags and a towel to clean up the mess. Poor thing was beside himself. I was thankful I had taken the time to grab an extra set of clothes for him and another towel. We left my green bath towel in the hospital trash can.

His nurse told me it was common for little kids to show head trauma differently than grown-ups. The doctor said he felt it was a mild concussion (even though they didn’t do any scans). He said a low grade fever (which would explain why he felt cold), and dizziness and nausea were common, too.

Being the germophobe that I am, I asked her if she was sure he didn’t have a virus on top of the head injury. They didn’t draw his blood (thankfully, because he would have put up a fight). She said that if his fever spiked, it was probably a virus, but if not, it was most likely just his head. She said just to give him nausea meds every eight hours until he felt better, to prevent him from being too active, and to lay off the milk for a while. I hadn’t ever heard of limiting milk during head injury recovery.

And have you ever tried to keep a four year old boy still? Especially one with a nickname like “The Viking”? The second the Zofran kicked in, he was practically dancing a jig and talking so fast I couldn’t pay attention to the Animal Planet show about Madagascar any more. He made me turn it off, though, when they showed the cicadas molting – saying it was going to make him get sick again. Apparently, Zofran has it’s limits.

We pulled in to the Walgreens drive-through at 2 AM for our nausea meds (and to have our wallet picked clean – “you call that a co-pay?!”) and crawled in to bed at nearly 3.

Needless to say, we are DRAGGING today. I’ll be happy if I’m able to just get the bills paid, and dinner on the table. No big plans today other than reminding big kids to finish homework, doling out Ondansetron (had to get the generic) and snuggling with babies. With the rain and wind outside, and the events last night, it’s a perfect day for being cozy and still.

Thank God for homeschooling and having the liberty to stay home in my pajamas when I want to. If there was ever a good reason for a pajama day, I think we found it…

{ Praying my little Viking and his hard noggin get better, and that we all don’t end up hugging the toilet. }

In Him,

Heather

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