Another day...another hospital.

Let me just start this off by saying- I do not have some strange hospital fetish. Quite honestly, I'd much rather scope out the local shopping than the local neurosurgeons when I go on a trip. That doesn't seem to be what's in the cards for me at this point, though, LOL. So on to the explanation!!

Gracie starts school on September 8th. SCHOOL!! Until then, she is on "summer vacation" from all of her therapies. So, we decided to do a bunch of fun stuff in the next 2 weeks, beginning with a trip to PA to see my brother and his family. We got there on Monday, and she was beyond excited. She talks about my niece and nephew incessantly, so she's always excited to get to see them. The plan was to stay until Wednesday morning, then head straight to Rochester for an EEG. We were having a TON of fun, the kids were playing and having a great time--then Gracie fell. I was right there and saw the whole thing. She was crawling up the 2 small steps to Cassie's bed, lost her footing, and fell. I reached out and caught her, but not quick enough. She, OF COURSE, came down on the shunt side of her head. After close inspection, I decided she had hit her ear, because it bruised up quite quickly. She needed some comfort, and then she was right back to jumping in the bed and playing with the kids. Like I often do, I shelved the injury. I knew that I would be doing neuro checks later on, though!

 

Fast forward to the next day. We went to Sonic ( a drive up restaurant) with the kids. They don't have bathrooms, so I walked her to a grocery store across the parking lot. She was dragging quite a bit, and I asked her if she hurt, but she said no. Then when we got in the store, I told her to look up at something on the ceiling. She looked up, and then quickly said "Mommy, that hurts." and looked down. I asked her over and over if it hurt to look up and she continuously said yes. She hadn't had a nap though, so again, I shelved it. When she gets tired, she often says that things hurt, just as a way to get out doing it. Half an hour later though, we were playing putt putt golf, and she just suddenly threw up. That's when I started to worry. So, I packed her up, amidst many tears, and took her to the hospital. We got there and it was crazy!! The hospital is right in Harrisburg, and it's not a great neighborhood. After we got triaged, the people in the waiting room told me they had been waiting 8 hours. I felt terrible, because I knew we were going straight back- but thankful at the same time that the hospital recognized the time sensitive nature of her problems. Within 1/2 hour of being there I was really wondering why I'd even brought her. She was acting perfectly normal, she was able to look up, she hadn't thrown up again. I decided to stay though, just because of all the DIFFERENT symptoms. We went up for a CT scan, she had some blood work, and a chest x- ray ( for what I have no clue- I think all of her DX's scared the poor doctor!)...and then waited. And waited. And waited. Just when we thought we couldn't wait anymore ( 3 am), the doctor came in. I FULLY expected him to say that the CT looked fine, and that we could go home. Instead, he told me that the radiologist had found a subdural hematoma, and that we would need to be transferred to Hershey to be followed by a neuroSURGEON. The radiologist had even called in a second opinion. So, of course, I got scared. The doctor set up an ambulance, I paced, my mom and Josiah came, I paced. The ambulance got there and I walked her out, kissed her and jumped in the car to do chase. It was quite a chase too...she drove like a madwoman. 

We got to the Penn State Children's Hospital and went to the 7th floor PICU, where we were met by a neurosurgeon. He looked over the scans right away, scheduled another CT, and made her NPO. Basically, he was planning on surgery. Her blood pressure kept raising with each new reading, which is not a good sign. We got her settled in, and I settled in for a very fitful night.

My poor little sweetie in her straightjacket so the nurses could take her blood. This BROKE my heart. We were taking pictures to try and calm her down, but it didn't work.

 I will finish tomorrow!