Oscar - Tuesday, May 14, 2024
This morning Oscar rolled off the diaper table while Jose was grabbing a bib out of the laundry basket right next to the changing table. He hit his head hard. I was getting ready for work in the bathroom next door and I heard it and came running. He started crying immediately and Jose picked him up. Looking back on it we probably shouldn't have but it was instinct. You pick up a crying baby. That's just what you do.
I took him from Jose and he curled up on my shoulder. He cried for about 5 minutes but settled down pretty quickly. Jose wanted to hold him so I gave Oscar to him and I just kept getting ready. It was a big fall but he calmed down fairly quickly. Jose did all of his normal morning routine. Changed his diaper and his clothes and fed him a bottle. Oscar was pretty quiet all morning which is unusual but we figured he was just hurting and scared a little still. Then he threw up his whole bottle. That's when my mind switched from 'this is probably ok' to 'we need to go to the hospital right now.' A head injury plus barfing always means a concussion on TV.
I was pretty much ready to go so I took Oscar while Jose got ready quickly and then we went to the hospital. We went to MoBap where Oscar was born and where his Pediatrician is located. It was a hurry up and wait sort of scenario. We got in right away but then waited in the room for a long time. Then they took him to get a CT scan, I got to go in the room with him and they put his head in a sort of holder thing so that he couldn't move his head around. It was a quick couple of minutes in that thing and then I could pick him up again.
Then back to the room to wait some more. After probably an hour the doctor came in and told us that he had fractured his skull on the back where he had hit the ground and had a bleed on the front where his brain probably bounced forward from the hit. He then told us that there was also another older bleed and that we were now under suspicion of intentionally hurting Oscar. I understand that they have to be suspicious but damn that part hurt. Like, here we are doing the safest thing possible after an accident and now we are getting accused and investigated for child abuse. It sucks.
Because they were worried about this old bleed the doctor also told us that Oscar needed to be transported to Children's hospital so that they could do specialized x-rays and MRI's for babies. At that point they also put his neck in the tiniest neck brace I've ever seen. I think because he had the skull fracture they wanted to be safe in case he had a spinal fracture too.
We waited about another hour or so for the ambulance. I rode with Oscar and Jose drove our car behind the ambulance. When we got to Children's hospital Oscar was whisked into a room of about 20 people and they started checking him out right away. I got taken to an adjoining room by a social worker who had me tell him the whole story of the morning and the accident in as much detail as humanly possible. Hopefully he believed me. I hadn't cried yet at that point. I was in survival/take care of business mode. I'm sure I seemed unemotional and cold and hard.
People started clearing out of Oscar's room as their jobs were finished I guess. The last thing they had to do was put an IV in for him. At that point they let me in the room with him to comfort him and try to calm him down. It is apparently very difficult to put an IV in on a baby. It took two nurses and two tries. I just put my arm around his body and laid my head down by his head and told him I was there and that I loved him over and over again. I didn't know what else to do. He calmed down a little but not all the way. They were able to get the IV in. They took a lot of his blood, probably to test and make sure he wasn't being poisoned or anything.
After that we were taken to a room in the ER to wait for results and for observation I guess. Oscar fell asleep on that bed and stayed asleep for about an hour. I tried to rest because I knew it was going to be a long day but I was so hyped up that I just played on my phone the whole time. At some point Jose joined us after parking the car.
We were told that they needed to do x-rays and an MRI on Oscar. We waited a long time in the room in the ER. After a while they took us to do Oscar's x-rays. They did some in the initial ER room with a million people around but since we were under suspicion of abuse they had to x-ray every bone in his tiny body. X-rays are not pleasant for anyone but especially not for a baby. Laying on a hard cold table and having people push and squish your extremities around with clear plastic paddles and then a giant machine makes a loud noise and that repeats over and over. It was not a great 15-20 minutes.
Then more waiting. Around 5pm they told us that we'd be staying overnight because we couldn't get in for the MRI until the morning. And I'm guessing they wanted to observe us. They didn't tell us much about Oscar and we hadn't seen any doctors since the CT at MoBap. It was frustrating but I wanted to stay calm for Oscar so I just went along with everything. Oscar was starting to get crabby with the neck brace on but he was still smiling at the nurses so he seemed ok.
They eventually moved us up to a room in the main part of the hospital. It was a double room but we had it to ourselves. My dad and Debbie came to see Oscar right around the time that we moved up there. He smiled and was playing with them a bunch. After they left we gave him his last bottle of the day and then let him fall asleep on me. I tried to transfer him but it did not go well. So I'll just keep him on me for now.
