Head Trauma? More like Drama!

Don't let his cuteness (or wild black raspberry stained face) fool you: this guy is trouble. Here's how our lovely 4th started...with a head injury scare. The night before, Thomas was being his typical self, jumping off the bed onto the well-padded, carpeted basement floor. However, his last attempt went horribly wrong, as he timed his jump perfectly with a passing yoga exercise ball (launched by Allison), which he clipped on the way down...and he landed on his head. He cried and cried and wasn't distactable, but we looked him over for signs of a concussion or worse and he seemed fine. I wasn't there to see the fall but Paul said it sounded bad. We worried a bit, comforted him for awhile, then put him to bed as it was bedtime. We left his door slightly ajar so we could check on him throughout the night. He went right to sleep but we weren't sure if it was because of an injury or just plain old fatigue.

Well, he slept fine and seemed fine until he woke up at 5:15am and immediately started complaining that his head hurt. We were worried, to say the least, since he never complains that anything hurts. Then he barfed and we launched into action. I was shaking so hard as I searched for our nurse hotline number (for our stupid insurance) while Paul half held him, half got dressed to rush him to the ER. Well, since the lovely nurse hotline put me on hold, I decided in a panic to call 911. By now we were convinced he was bleeding inside his head somewhere. The dispatcher connected me with our local paramedics who told me not to move him and that they'd come to check him out. Meanwhile, Thomas was fine...trying to pet one of the cats, not crying anymore from his little barfing incident. I was calm but scared as they arrived...the fire dept. and paramedics. Our house was full of them. Thomas just sat there on my lap, letting them look him over. It was surreal. Turns out he was fine...if the injury was severe he would've shown signs right away when it happened. The barfing was still alarming, so even though they told us he was probably fine, I made Paul take him to the ER anyway. Again, he was totally normal by this point but there was a big "WHAT IF?" hanging in the air and we'd never forgive ourselves if we didn't at least check it out. The ER doc said he most likely had a minor concussion which can cause some dizziness after waking up the next day, which explained the barfing. It was a tiny bit of barf, at that. If the injury was severe it would be A LOT of barf and it would be immediate. He didn't think a CAT scan was necessary so Paul brought him home, taking him for a special McD's Egg McMuffin pitstop on the way.

We were SO relieved but it left us so drained...all day long we were exhausted. Meanwhile, Thomas bounced back like it was no big thing. He was even climbing where he shouldn't have been, making us chase him around like he was a toddler again. BOYS! UGH! Thank goodness the other two are girls....