Wow, it has been a stressful week around here!  How are you doing?  Here’s the summary of the excitement around here.

First off, Matt and I started a new Lifestyle Change (read between the lines – diet).  It is the Prism Weight Loss Program.  So far so good.  I will probably post more about it on my Menu Mom Blog in another day or so. 

But that has been the least of our worries!  We hardly have had time to worry about eating (although we have… don’t worry..)

So Tuesday as Matt was cooking dinner and I was in the dining room organizing some homeschool stuff, Annika was crawling up and down chairs on the table. (This is a normal thing… she is a climber, and usually does just fine.)  Suddenly we realize she has fallen – neither of us saw it happen, but she is on the floor, trying to get up, and crying.  I rush over to pick her up and she begins her typical open her mouth to cry and nothing comes out cry. (This is also a normal thing for her – although not something I like…) She has always done this where she doesn’t breathe for a few seconds when she is really upset and then finally breathes and either lets out another cry, or just stops crying all together.   Only this time… it lasted longer than I cared for – her lips were turning blue and she was not breathing.

I handed her to Matt (yes he remembered to turn off the burner of the stove thank goodness) and she did finally take a bit of a breath, but then her eyes started rolling back into her head and her arms tightened by her face, almost seizure like, and again she wasn’t breathing!  I grabbed the phone and called 911.  Matt continued to talk to her and she came to, but then did the same thing again.  All I could think is “Oh my goodness, we live out in the country with volunteer EMT’s – they are never going to get here in time to save her!”.  It was a terrifying moment.  I do not wish that upon anyone. 

Thankfully, after the 2nd round she came to.  She was pale – yellow instead of blue, and was alert.  The ambulance crew arrived – first a neighbor down the road who just drove straight here when he heard the page – instead of going into town to hop into the ambulance; and shortly after the ambulance.  It was an approximately 10 min. wait from the initial call to 911.  FAST for the country, as the station is 7 miles away and the crew has to get to the station and then head out, but it felt like an eternity. 

So I had my first ambulance ride.  They strapped me down to the gurney – we’re talking fully strapped, ankles, hips, and arms/chest.  The heat was turned up in the cab, I had my coat on, they put a hot blanket over us and you travel backwards, with the bright lights shining on my face.  (I was praying not to throw-up from the panic and motion sickness….  I didn’t – thank goodness)  Annika laid on top of me, responsive but very serene.  They hooked her up to the oxygen and heart monitors and all was normal.  They checked her eye dilation – normal. 

We rolled into the ER as the only patients there at the time.  Unfortunately, I never have been too impressed with our little town hospital.  It’s good they are there for emergencies, but if I am driving kids (or anyone) to the hospital, I am heading to the one Annika was born in a bit further away.  Anyway… once again they seemed like they had no clue what to do.. which made me a bit nervous!  Thankfully she was perking up by the moment, so I wasn’t quite as worried. 

Meanwhile, choir was starting at church, so a few people had seen the ambulance, and one asked if they could watch the kids for Matt.  So, he headed out right away, and arrived within five minutes after we did. 

They took all her vitals, and within a half an hour or so, she was pink again and looking good.  They decided to just observe her for an hour and a half to see how she did.   She decided to get down and wander the hospital halls for the next hour.  She hadn’t had dinner yet, so Matt went and got her a cheeseburger at McD’s and she gobbled that up just fine.  She didn’t have any signs of a concussion, and seemed great.  So we were sent on our merry way with instructions to check in on her throughout the night.

When we got home Christian informed us that he was right next to her when it happened.  (remember, we didn’t really know what had happened – we knew she was on the chair, but we didn’t know if she was sitting or standing.)  Turns out she was only standing on the crossbars under the chair, so only 6” or so off the ground.  He said she fell backwards and hit the back of her head. 

We followed up with our primary doctor on Wednesday and all looked good.  She said sometimes when kids are sensitive to stress, their endorphines over-react and produce the type of symptoms we saw. 

So… the good news is that she doesn’t have a major head injury.  Bad news is.. that may be how she reacts when she gets hurt!  I’m hoping to not go through that again!  I’m thinking if she was hurt somewhere else – that it would have still been scary, but maybe not quite as scary.  But when you think it is a head injury, and then she started acting like that – it totally freaked us out! 

She has been great the last couple days – her normal busy toddler self.  Her parents on the other hand… have been a bit paranoid.  We give praise to the Lord for protecting her.

So…. that is the BEGINNING of our excitement this week… (oh yes… there is more…) but I think I am going to make that another post because this is getting so long!
 
Stay tuned…

c-

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 10:48 pm and is filed under The Menu Mom Chit Chat. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.