Audrey's Hospital Adventure

This post is about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me/our family in my entire life, so I decided to give it a fun title. There was nothing really appropriate, and I guess it was an adventure...

Many people have heard partial details about what happened last week, so I thought I would write it all down in one place. Also, I want to write this all down for Audrey to read one day. I'm hoping the details won't be as fresh as they are now someday soon. :)

Last Wednesday, the girls had just finished lunch, and I went into Amelia's room to change her diaper. Audrey pretty much follows me wherever I go in the house, so she was right behind me. We have a small rocking "horse" in there that is actually a stuffed rocking lamb. Anyway, Audrey was rocking on the lamb and the back of it was stuck on a decorative metal dress thing. Very descriptive, I know. :) She was rocking hard trying to get the back unstuck. If you know her, she isn't the type to just get off and pull it away from where it is stuck.

I turned around just as the back came loose and when it did she flipped off the back. The back of her head hit the ground and her body continued to go over. This is very hard to describe, but basically her head was the only thing on the ground and her chest literally touched her face. This is when I heard a big pop/crunch. I immediately grabbed her up and she was doing the "silent scream". I think most people who have kids know what this is. She couldn't even catch her breath to start actually screaming for what felt like forever. She started screaming as I was holding her tight, and I realized that she was not holding onto me like she usually does. I looked down and her arms and legs were just dangling by her side. My heart sank and I freaked out. I laid her down on the floor grabbed her arms and legs and tried to get her to move them. Every time I picked them up, they just flopped back onto the ground. I asked her if she could move them and she screamed "no" through her sobs. Yes, this was the worst moment of my life to date.

I got Amelia off the changing table (I didn't need two of them to fall) and ran to get the phone. I called 911, answered their questions, and they said help was on the way. At this point, Audrey's face was purple. I'm not even exaggerating. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Her face was completely red/purple and her body from the neck down was pasty pale white. If she hadn't been screaming, I would think she wasn't breathing by the color of her face. I actually expected her to quit breathing at any second by the way her face looked. I sat down in front of her and started telling her everything was going to be okay. I had Ava bring me a seat for Amelia. I sat Amelia down next to Audrey and tried my best to calm both of them down. Amelia was screaming too. I'm not sure if I scared her or Audrey's screaming scared her or a combination of the both. I'm not sure I have ever shaken that hard in my entire life. We sat there like that for 8 long minutes until the ambulance got there. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but that was the longest 8 minutes of my life!!!

I have to stop a minute and give Ava a TON of credit. She was so big for only being 4 years old. The 911 operator told me to make sure my front door was unlocked. I told Ava to let the EMTs in when they got there. She sat by us for a little bit and then disappeared into the kitchen. When she came back, she had an ice pack for Audrey. So sweet!! She would check on us and then run back to check the door to see if they were here yet. When the EMTs rang the doorbell, Ava ran to the door, opened it, and said, "come in...my mommy is right this way." :) I am so proud of her.

Sometime during this, Audrey had finally settled down. Those are the images that I am not sure I will ever get out of my head. She was quiet, laying on the floor, not moving, and her little eyes were darting around the room trying to understand what was happening. I've never seen so much fear written all over such a little girls face. The calm was short lived because two strangers (the EMTs) came in and took over her care. Sometime during all of this, she started to move her fingers and then her hands again. We could tell her had some sensation in her feet, but she still wasn't trying to move or get up. It felt like the EMTs were at our house for hours. Nothing they had was small enough to fit her. They couldn't find a neck brace small enough, so they decided to just use towel rolls and some other velcro contraption to keep her completely still. Even the towel rolls were too big and had to be modified.

I should mention that after I called 911, Kurt got the terrifying call from me that Audrey had fallen and couldn't move her arms and legs. Sometime after the EMTs arrived but before they got her all "packaged up", Kurt came flying into the house. I am sooooo thankful he was close. He was able to take Ava to our neighbor's house (thanks Krystal!!!) and get Amelia ready to go with him. He was dealing with the other kids, getting the diaper bag packed, etc. which allowed me to stay with Audrey and try to keep her calm. I should also mention that we had two fabulous EMTs that were so sweet to Audrey. They both had kids, and I think that made a huge difference.

Okay, back to the story. They finally got her on the backboard and stretcher and all ready to go. I'm not going to say which hospital they took us to because I don't say what city we live in on my blog, but they informed us they would be taking us to the med center because they needed to take her to a level 1 trauma center. They thought any other hospital would transfer her there anyway and they wanted to save time. It felt like it took us FOREVER to get to the hospital. The ambulance had called ahead, so they were all ready for us when we arrived. They took us straight to the trauma department. A trauma surgeon walked straight over to us, asked if this was the little girl that fell off of a rocking horse, and went right to work. I was really impressed. They were so good with her! They wanted to do x-rays first because they don't like exposing children her age to the radiation from CT scans and/or MRIs unless absolutely necessary. Not long after we arrived Amelia needed to eat, so I had to leave Audrey to go feed her. Of course, Kurt stayed with her the whole time. Once again, I was impressed. They found a private room for me to feed Amelia, brought warm blankets for her because it was so cold in there, and even provided a screen in case anyone walked in. I had my nursing cover and would have been completely comfortable nursing her in the middle of the trauma unit, but I still thought this was nice of them.

When Audrey got back from x-ray, she was back in the trauma area right between two people who had fingers/hands cut off. They decided they should probably move Audrey to the pediatric area which Kurt and I are both very thankful for. :) When we first got to the hospital they still couldn't find a neck brace small enough for Audrey. They finally had to go somewhere else and finally came back with an infant size that fit her. By the way, there is no way an infant would have fit into that brace. Here is my sweet girl after her x-ray.

I've never been so happy to see my little girl sucking her thumb. I honestly never thought I would see it again. If you can't tell, she is watching a DVD on a portable DVD player that the child life specialist brought to her. Once again, they were fabulous!!

Once we were moved to the pediatric side of the emergency room, things got hectic. We were seeing pediatric neurosurgeons, pediatric neurologists, a nurse practitioner that was coordinating all of this, lots of residents, etc. At some point, they said they saw something between C4 and C5 on her x-ray and they would need to do an MRI. Someone else said they didn't see anything, so I'm still confused about that. Anyway, the neurosurgeon decided it was necessary to do the MRI because he needed to see if there was any swelling of her spinal cord and also needed to see if the ligaments on either side of her cord had been stretched or torn because this could make her cord unstable if they were to remove the brace. The neurologist decided he wanted a CT of her head to make sure everything looked good there too. They went down for the MRI and waited forever for the anesthesiologist. They needed to put her to sleep because it was going to take about 45 minutes and a 22 month old is not capable of staying still in a machine that long. Also, the loud noise would have scared her to death. Actually, there was an anesthesiologist, but he was waiting on final word from his boss about putting her under because it had only been 6 hours since she had eaten lunch. They like to wait 8 hours. We finally saw his boss and she confirmed that they would not put her to sleep with the added risk that would put on her. So, we would be waiting until the next morning for the MRI. We went back down to the emergency room and they did the CT scan which was very quick. They had a room ready for us up on the pediatric floor, so we were then officially admitted.

They had her in a baby cage up there. :)

They finally let her sit up, so she was very happy.

My parents got there sometime after we were in a room (it's a 3 hour drive for them) and they were able to take Amelia home with them). Poor baby had been dragged all over the hospital that day. She was probably ready to get home and go to sleep!

It was a very long night. They came in constantly to check Audrey's eyes since she had a head injury, then someone different would come check her vitals, then they needed to start an IV, etc. Audrey slept much better than Mommy!

The next morning, we saw the neurosurgeon who said he was pretty sure she had a transient spinal cord injury. Basically, there was some injury to the spinal cord that caused temporary paralysis. He said the MRI would tell us if there was any swelling in the cord or injury to the ligaments which would mean she would have to wear a halo. We know it would not have been the end of the world and it was much better than what we were facing the day before, but we were not excited about this possibility. After waiting and waiting and waiting, we were finally taken down for the MRI. I didn't expect it to be so difficult when they put my baby to sleep. I knew she would be fine, but it was so scary. Watching the anesthesiologist take over her breathing is something I think no mother should ever see. It totally freaked me out!! Anyway, she did great with the MRI and this is my baby sleeping soundly after...

Back in her room

We waited and waited some more and they finally told us that everything on the MRI looked good and she should have no lasting effects from any of this! That is the absolute BEST NEWS we could have ever received!! They told us to follow up with her doctor in a few days and the neurosurgeon in a month.

I took her to our pediatrician yesterday. The hospital had sent everything over to his office and he said he had been reviewing it all the night before. He said reading about it literally made him sick to his stomach. He grabbed Audrey and gave her a big kiss right on her forehead and told her he was so happy to see her and her big dimples in his office. :)

I'm sure most people stopped reading a long time ago, but I wanted to get this all down for our family. We are so, so thankful that our little girl is okay. I literally just watch her walk around the house. Of course, I loved and adored her before, but I appreciate everything about her on a whole new level. She is getting really tired of my grabbing her and kissing her every chance I get. She'll just have to live with that for now. :)

The end of this was rushed because nap time is ending. No time to proof read, so hopefully it all makes sense. :)