Nolan and Daddy's "date night"

On Sunday last week (10 days ago), I was downstairs and heard a gigantic thud upstairs, immediately followed by cries from Nolan. I ran up and he was on the bathroom floor in serious pain. After finally calming down, he was able to tell me that he fell off the counter and onto his head. It looked pink abovr his temple, but I didn't feel a huge goose egg. Once the crying calmed, he started having a coughing fit. It went on and on. Poor guy. Finally, he appeared exhausted and I couldn't keep him awake. He slept for almost two hours, which isn't like him anymore. I had tried waking him here and there and he was responsive but didn't want to wake up. Finally Grandma K and Jon happened to come over and they couldn't even get him to feel better. He was awake by then, but still laying on the couch with his eyes closed most of the time. He didn't want to eat or carry on conversations. After Grandma left, we started worrying that he was acting strange. It's not like him to sleep and sleep and not want to eat dinner. It was especially weird that Grandma K couldn't cheer him up (she ALWAYS cheers everyone up!). We went through the symptoms of a concussion and Nolan had most of them, except for vomiting and seizures. At one point he'd said he couldn't walk and his leg was hurting (which was a symptom). We decided he needed a priesthood blessing, and then a few minutes later Justin drove him to the InstaCare at 8 p.m. They were very nice to listen to the story and then refer him to the hospital for CT scans without charging for their time. First they told Justin to go to Primary Children's, but then realized that our hospital does have a machine as well. They told Justin that they'd seen many parents think that everything is okay, only to find worsening symptoms the next day. Scary! 

Justin took him to the ER and they got him all checked in. The doctor talked it over with Justin and said that they treat head injuries differently now. CT scans are the equivalent of 1,000 chest x-rays of radiation (or something crazy like that), so they really try to avoid them with children. The doctor said that Nolan may have a minor brain bleed but that they wouldn't do anything for it except for watch him closely and probably have to do more scans. So they sent Justin home with instructions for us to wake him up twice in the night and make sure he is responsive. We had given Nolan some ibuprofen so by now his mood was improving. I think he'd had a bad headache when he woke up.  

When they got home, Nolan was excited to show me his hospital wristband and tell me about all the comfortable seats he got to use. He said, "It was so nice! I was just relaxing and enjoying myself." Justin and I decided that it was probably the most expensive little one-on-one time that the two of them had had! But it came at a good time because we're having a baby this year anyway. We know we'll make the deductible! 

Nolan did continue to act a little strange for a couple of days. He took naps, didn't eat as much, and seemed to be feeling a little down... just not as happy as his usual self. But he's all better now! Thank goodness! And we are seriously cracking down on him climbing up on the counter. We're keeping lots of stools out for his use.