Trip to the Hospital

Ethan, Eli and some other boys in the neighborhood like to get off the bus at the top of the hill.   Then they proceed to ride fast down the hill to our house, trying to beat the bus.  Partway down last Tuesday Eli fell off and onto his head then his hands.  The bus driver saw him and stopped, allowing Ethan, who had forgot his scooter that day, to get off and assist Eli on the bus and put away the scooter.  As they entered the house Eli was crying and holding tissues to scrapes on his head and arms.  Ethan explained what happened.  I put down the load of laundry in my arms, grabbed cream and medicine and guided Eli downstairs in front of the TV.  I had to stop him from screaming.  (He tends to be overly dramatic.)  He was quickly distracted by Kung Fu Panda and I was able to tend to the wounds and get him to take ibuprofen.  He soon calmed down.  I went up to cook dinner.  Shortly Eli came up crying that he couldn't see.  He was able to see when he tried, but he complained that all was blurry.  He mostly kept his eyes shut.  As he went to eat his snack he complained in slurred speech that his mouth wasn't working and then that his hands wouldn't work.  He made quite a mess.  This caused some concern.  I got online and looked things up and contacted our neighbor.

Thankfully our neighbor is a nurse practitioner.  She came over and determined that a CT scan would be necessary.  She wrote up an order for a head and face scan, saving us a doctor's visit and a trip to the ER.

Ethan offered to sit in the back by Eli on the trip to the hospital  As Ethan, Eli and I headed out, Eli continually cried "I can't see.  I don't know what is happening."  It was too much for Ethan and eventually for me too.  I called Charles out of one of his meetings scheduled for that night.  After a blessing and Eli trying some food we headed out to the hospital.  Eli felt sick and was on the way there.  When we got to the hospital Eli felt sick again.  We found a garbage can and with many people in the general area Eli threw up again.  We were shown the small bags that hang on the wall throughout the hospital for that situation and used several for the remainder of our time there and one on the way home.  Then we had to wait.  Eli passed the time throwing up and trying to rest.  After the scan we waited again.  Charles and I watched some Brian Regan and Eli continued his resting and throwing up.

We were all pleased to find that he had no fractures or bleeding.  He slept soundly and other than a headache for a couple days and some difficulty focusing at school the next day he was fine.

While I took care of Eli, Allison took over dinner and fed the kids.  (Cherilyn was at work and didn't know anything had happened.)  The kids cleaned up the kitchen.  Ethan read to Joshua and listened to him read his book.  They were amazing.