Munchkin bumps

Last Friday morning at work, I got a phone call from Ms. Tori at Kate's school. Tori is a mom too- her son, Jackson is just a few weeks older than Kate and they are in the same class. She calmly told me Munchkin had fallen, hit her head and had a "bump". Apparently, Kate had stepped on a block and fell backwards~ she hit the top of her head on the corner of a bookcase. Tori wanted to make sure I knew about this and carefully advised that I "might want to take her to a doctor". In a small panic, I rushed to Kate's school.

Now, Kate is no stranger to boo-boos. She has had small injuries before- all sorts of bumps and bruises- and they all seem to go away very quickly. So quickly in fact, that usually within a few hours, there would be absolutely no signs of any injury. So, when I arrived at school, I fully expected Kate's bump to be gone and for her to be playing happily. I really expected my reaction to be an over-reaction. Boy was I wrong. She was sitting at the table, with tears in her eyes, eating her pizza (because of course, no head injury will deter her appetite~ just like her mommy!). The moment she saw me she burst into tears and was inconsolable for the better part of an hour. The bump on the back of her head was huge. It was bright red and tender, but luckily there was no cut. Although she was acting somewhat normal, she was sobbing and cranky and clearly hurting.

Once again, we were off to see Dr. A! Although I complain about Dr. A- I am not quite ready to switch to another doctor (although I'm not really sure why I'm apprehensive about switching -probably a subject for another blog!). Kate had stopped crying by the time we got to the appointment. Amazingly, she acted as if she was not injured at all! (it was kind of like when you take your car to the shop for repairs and it stops making "that noise"!) She was smiling~ joyfully running around the examination room. Of course this is when Dr. A comes in and sees her~ laughing and happy without a care in the world! I figured, "here we go again..." Dr. A already thinks I'm a melodramatic, silly first-time parent.

Much to my surprise, Dr. A took this injury much more seriously than I expected, given the circumstances. She acknowledged the major contusion on Kate's head and did a full neurological check-up. She indicated that it was better for the swelling to go outwards (in the form of a lump or bump) vs. if it was inwards (a depression in the skull). She did not think there was any fracture of the skull. She said Kate looked good, but we needed to keep a close eye on her for the next 24 hours. WoW! For once, Mommy didn't overreact! I was so excited! Finally, she sees that I am a smart, responsible parent!

But then... oops... spoke too soon. In passing, I happened to mentioned that I kept waking Kate up on the way over, and I didn't want her to go to sleep until she was examined by the doctor. At this point, Dr. A looks over at me, and snickers (clearly thinking "stupid parent"). For some odd reason this makes me want to justify my reasons-- so I tell her I had personal experience with this... I had a concussion as a child... and I was told I couldn't go to sleep. Again she chuckles and says "you can allow her go to sleep". She then proceeds to tell me the 'warning signs' I should look out for, such as repeated vomiting- which I am informed does not mean just 2 or 3 times- apparently repeated vomiting is 4 or more times. I thought repeated meant more than once, but what do I know? I'm just an attorney. She continued the mini-lecture on what I should look out for before I overreact again.

After the doctor, we took Kate home and she took a nap. She was not happy that we had to wake her up every hour, for the rest of the day and every 2-3 hours that night. Kate seemed in much better spirits the next day, despite her interrupted sleep. She was pretty much back to normal~ thank goodness!

On the upside... Kate was weighed at her doctor visit~ she's up to 20.5 pounds! She finally hit the 20 pound mark and can now ride with her car-seat facing forward! Doesn't she look proud!