My First 911 Call

We woke up yesterday morning at 7:15 and Elizabeth went in and woke Grant up.  I followed behind her and carried him downstairs.  We stood at the back door watching Jack take care of his morning business and Grant fell backward.  At first I thought he had just lost his balance, but he didn't even try to catch himself and his head hit the hardwood floor hard.  I immediately reached down to pick him up and his eyes rolled back into head, his head started moving from side to side (not violently, but still moving right to left) and he was mumbling.  I laid him on the floor, reached for my phone and called 911.  I calmly explained what was happening and the operator dispatched the ambulance.  I am thinking he has had a seizure. Grant was just laying on the floor with a very blank stare.  While I am waiting for the ambulance I ask Elizabeth to go get my robe, because I am in my pj's.  I tell her to unlock the front door.  I asked her to kennel Jack so he wouldn't be in the way. She did everything perfectly.  It felt like forever for the ambulance to arrive.  I later looked back at my phone and the call lasted for 10 minutes.  The operator stayed on the phone with me until the paramedics got there.  Ten minutes isn't that long, but it felt like forever. When they arrived and Grant saw three strange men in our kitchen he got up and crawled into my arms.  They asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said yes, but I needed to change first.  As I am changing clothes I realize that if I go in the ambulance I have no way to get back home.  Brandon was in Georgia, my parent's are in Florida, Robin was getting treatment and Kenny had hammer toe surgery on Monday and can't drive.  Needless to say for family so close, they were not able to help me on this one.  Because Grant was coming around I decided I could drive him to the ER.  I asked Elizabeth to put clothes on and have now learned that all of her good/nice clothes are out of her reach.  She came down wearing pink sweats and a pink tye-dye shirt that I would no way let her wear to school, but she gets a gold star for trying - bless her heart!  While I am grabbing a few things Elizabeth asks if she can go downstairs.  I tell her that's fine.  When I come down a few moments later she is striking up a conversation with these guys. "I go to school 2 days, I am learning my letters, my friend goes 3 days." It was like she was entertaining guests in our home and it was rude to leave them by themselves so she felt compelled to make chit chat with them!  Is this really my shy, reserved Elizabeth?!  This girl is coming out of her shell! My two phone calls to my friends went like this, "Today I need you.  I need to get Grant to the ER, I am sending Elizabeth next door, come pick her up there and get her to school for me."  and "Grant fell I have to get him to the ER, I am sending Elizabeth over." I had a plan of what needed to happen and bless my friends they just listened and executed.  I sign the refusal papers, sent Elizabeth next door (with new clothes) and off to the ER we go.  I should mention I had two other neighbors see the ambulance at our house and they came over to check on us.  We are SO LUCKY to have such awesome friends and neighbors.

We get checked into the ER.  They put a neck brace on him since he fell, as a precaution.  I had to take a picture because I thought it was a little silly.  Grant is still pretty quiet at this point, but he is such a trooper.  They did a basic examine and were able to remove the neck brace.  They needed a urine sample and through the bribery of a popsicle I got him to pee in a urinal.  They took a rectal temp and he didn't even squirm.  He had an IV put in and he didn't even flinch.  The nurse even said he was the easiest two year old to put in IV in.  Three popsicles later all of his tests came back normal.  That was great news!  The bad news is we don't really know why it happened.  The doctor didn't want to do a CT scan because of the radiation exposure and he had no other symptoms...not even a fever and has been healthy for weeks.  They don't believe he had a seizure because of how quickly he came around.  He said usually kids who have seizures will be out of it for hours after an episode.  We will follow up with our pediatrician today.

To make this even stranger I was on FB last night and a friend of one my friends (you know how that FB networking goes!) had an 8 year old taken by ambulance to the hospital for the same thing.  I don't know if there is some weird virus out there or what.  I am anxious to talk to the doctor about it.

Grant's camera smile. EB later commented. "I knew they would put him in a bed"

He had cherry and orange

IV in - popsicle was at the other end, that's why his tongue is out!

I called my grandma last night and told her that I learned two important things. One, I need to step up my pajama wardrobe so at least I am presentable in case you have an emergency!  Two, when your family isn't around, your friends are priceless!  They were right there for me and I could never thank them enough. Of course I am very proud of Elizabeth for following all of instructions and just going with the flow.  Later we discovered that she thought there was something going on with Grant's belly button.  When I had him laying down his stomach was drawn in and I was worried about his breathing, well his belly button (which is normally out, because he has an umbilical hernia) was retracted.  I don't know if she thought, Wow it's a miracle his belly button is fixed or Wow that is not what my brother's belly button looks like!  At any rate when she saw that my friend was picking her up from school her comment was, "Grant's belly button must really hurt!" I am also very proud of Grant, he was such a good boy and so brave.  I held it together pretty well and felt like I didn't cave under the pressure.  One of the nurses did come pat me on the back and say, "it's ok now mom, you can breathe, you are in good hands." I did sigh a breathe of relief.  Later my neighbor said the look on my face was pure terror.  I was scared for my little guy.  I have never been so happy to see Brandon walk into the house last night.  I melted into his arms.  What a day!