Thomas Tidbits...: Bit of a Boo Boo

A couple of weeks ago, Eleanor was sitting on a barstool in our kitchen and fell over. Laura didn't see how she fell since her back was turned tending to Fisher. When Eleanor fell, she immediately cried, and complained of major head pain. She's not much of a complainer, other than pointing out her various cuts/scrapes/bruises/bug bites she gets DAILY. To calm her down, we let her watch some TV, and she seemed just fine. But when her show ended and we took her upstairs for nap, she wailed in pain.

Fortunately, she was able to take a 3 hour nap. While she was napping I called her pediatrician to explain what happened and that I was concerned about injury to her head given that we were supposed to fly to Oklahoma this morning. The doctor recommended going directly to the ER, where they could do a CT scan, if needed.

So, long story short, the ER doctor quickly found a suspicious spot on her head that warranted a CT scan for further discovery. Within minutes, we were told that Eleanor had a left temporal skull fracture and an epidural hemorrhage (bleeding outside the brain but inside the skull).

Generally this type of would heals on its own, but as a precaution, they admitted her to IMC (ICU) so that a team could test her every couple of hours through the night. Poor girl was hooked up to loads of monitors and barely slept, but she fortunately passed all of the tests (checked pupils, vitals, asked cognitive questions like her name, age, brother's name, etc). If she were to start vomiting, lose consciousness, change of personality, lost of memory, they would have performed another CT scan, and if the bleeding had worsened, she would have to go info for surgery.

Eleanor was the BEST patient ever and kept me positive during our slumber party at Dell Children's Hospital. She didn't even flinch when they put her IV in - what a hard ass that gal is!

Luckily, our sweet Eleanor just has to take it easy for the next 4-6 weeks while her wound fully heals. Tough orders for an active 3 year old during the summer, but a huge sigh of relief for us as parents.

Thank you again for your support, kind words, and positive thoughts. Eleanor is one lucky girl to have so much love in her life.

Coloring in the waiting room. We were lucky that we only had to wait 15 min to be seen by a triage nurse.

Brought some reinforcements to cheer her up.

Digital tea party while waiting for CT results.

Kiki is the BEST! She came with dinner for us and kept Eleanor is great spirits.

IV time.

Admitted to a room in ICU after the CT scan confirmed we indeed had a skull fracture. Lots of machines but they set her up with a special Frozen pillowcase to help her slumber through the night.