Mommy's first Trip to the Emergency Room

We went to Target on Tuesday to get a few little things and Ava likes to ride in the shopping cart that has the two toddler seats in the front. Unfortunately, there is no place for a baby to sit because they closed off the holes where the baby's legs would go so that the baby doesn't kick the toddlers in the head. Seeing that you are not old enough to ride in the toddler portion and the fact that you play Houdini and slip out of the seat belt and get off the cart, I felt that it would be safer for you to ride in the back of the cart. Everything was fine until we were leaving. When exiting Target we have to cross the 2 bumps located at the entrance/exit of the store (it's actually the threshold of the sliding doors that, in my opinion, are like speed bumps) the 4 packs of soda that I placed under the cart fell off creating a bumper effect to the cart itself causing you to violently flip over the cart and land on the concrete after doing an somersault. The best way, I can explain the situation was that it appeared like you were a crash test dummy. I frantically rescued you, took you back inside Target to get ice, then drove home and called Dr. Yee.
His office advised me to monitor for

• Vomiting
• Abnormal dilation of the eyes
• Abnormal or slurred speech
• Problems walking
• Unaware of location
• Unaware of people who would normally be recognized
• Fussiness of 20 minutes or more
• Wake you up after 1 hour of sleep to have you walk and talk to make sure that you have no loss consciousness.

Well at 7pm, I took you to begin your bath time routine, at that point you cried hysterically for about 15 minutes rubbing the top, right side of your head and you had a temperature of 101.5. I gave you some Motrin and put you to sleep. 1 hour later I woke you up and you were able to walk and talk normally, but your fever only went down to 101.1. I figured that the Motrin had not set in yet. So I put you back to bed. At 11:15pm you woke up bawling, at first I let you cry to see if you would settle down, but at 11:45pm I went in to get you and you were burning up. I took your temperature and it read 103.8 and again rubbing the same spot of your head saying "Hurt". At that point I gave you some Tylenol and called Mary to watch Ava until Yai was able to come over to spend the night, so that I could take you to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, they reviewed your symptoms and vitals and treated the temperature with some Motrin (it hadn't gone down previously because I was underdosing you and not giving you enough). They told me that you had minor bronchitis, gave me a script for an antibiotic and didn't check for the head injury. I figured that physicians know best and went home and returned to our normal routine. The next day I happened to stop into Dr. Yee's office to pick up some documents for Ava and I asked the staff, "Out of curiosity, if you go to the ER for a head injury is it normal for them not to access the head injury and treat something else?" She told me that she would have Dr. Yee call me back with the answer. That answer was "go back to the ER and have a CT Scan done." You could only imagine my frustration. Not that I didn't want to go back, but rather why wasn't this done a few hours ago when I was there in the first place? Why did they allow my baby to suffer? So I packed both you and Ava up in the car, picked up some Burger King, the portable DVD player, and a slew of movies because I knew that we might be there for several hours. (Daddy was in London for software training) Once there, I confronted the staff, charge nurse, the physician on duty as to why I was there again and why was this not address the few hours prior when I was there last. Dr. Carlos Smith, addressed me the proper way and explained to me that doctors are not quick to request a CT scan because of the radiation involved and possible risk of brain cancer, and if the patient is not showing clinical signs of head trauma, then why expose the patient to unnecessary radiation. Now, with that said, how come the physician the few hours prior did not discuss this with me? At this point, I told Dr. Smith that my pediatrician, who's opinion I place 100% faith with, advised me to have one done. I then asked, Dr. Smith if he had a any kids and he told me 3, one of which had the same injury and without hesitation ordered a CT scan for his own child. At that point, I knew my answer was solidified. We were going to wait and get a CT scan done for you because the benefit out weighed the risks. I had to know if you were OK, which you were. It showed to be normal except for the obvious swelling to the forehead. He then told me that, he was going to change the antibiotic that you were on because he also noted an ear infection in your left ear.

So now that, we know that you are going to be OK. I am much more relieved. I just feel terrible that I did this to you. I am sooo sorry. I wish I could take the pain away or even suffer and endure it for you.