Ambulance ride for Labor day weekend - booyah!!!

So, little miss Annie was playing with a friend after school.  We have a swing on a rope tied in our tree.  Dang, I forgot to take a picture of it.  I will get it done tomorrow.  Anyway, she thought it would be a fabulous idea to wrap the rope around the tree branch so they would swing up in the tree instead.  Annie was getting off and back in the tree so her friend could do it.  Sadly, this was not the first time.  In fact, even little Mia had tried this before.  I just try not to watch what they do.  But, no one listens to me anyway.

OK, back on topic again.  So, Annie was getting back to the tree and her hands slipped and she fell 10 feet and landed on the side of her head.  She said that she was just falling and falling, it felt like forever.  Her friend said that she was twisting and twisting in the air.  Mia was under her and actually helped to break her fall.

Now, I was in the basement doing laundry, because that is what I am always doing.  Mia came in, crying that her head hurt cause Annie fell out of the tree on her.  I didn't think much of it, just figure she had kind of jumped on her.  So I kissed her and sent her on her way.  In the mean time, Annie and Jayna thought they would get in trouble, so Annie went to the swimming pool to clean the dirt off.  Finally, after a while, they came and told me what really happened.  She started crying and her head hurt really bad.

I tend to over-react so I laid her on my bed and watched her.  I called my trusty nurse/15 year old daughter in the room.  Her eyes were not dialated and her face wasn't swelling.  So I was just trying to calm her down since crying makes your head hurt worse.  She got up to go to the bathroom and instead of walking straight there, she went into the curtain and squished herself behind a lazy boy.  I asked her what she was doing, she just said "I don't know".  And kept making her way into the bathroom.  That's when I figured we had a problem.  

So off we go to the Instacare.  She was getting really, really nauseous on our way there.  Like I was rolling down the window, telling her to hang her head out.  We get in and she needed to use the restroom.  I sent her in, but I needed to check in so I was sending her alone.  Well, she opened the door a tiny bit and said, "Mom, I can't get the light on."  I went over and opened the door all the way for her.  That had turned on the light.  She stood in the bathroom, totally confused as to how to turn on the light while standing with the light on.

I get us checked in and we didn't even sit down before they were calling us back.  We get back there, the nurse checks her vitals and we get to the back.  The doctor came and looked at her and was watching how irritable she was.  The doctor had bad news for us.  It was more than they could handle there and called us an ambulance.  Then Annie started with the vomiting.  Poor little girl was puking in a neck brace.  Then I was really glad for the ambulance.

The EMT's were fantastic as always.  They strapped her to a backboard and seat belted that to the stretcher.  My only rule was that I could not undo my seat belt.  So we are driving down the freeway.  Annie has oxygen to try and help her nausea but it wasn't helping.  She did her only rule which was to boss him around and tell him what she needed.  And she needed to puke.  So the EMT told me to unbuckle and help loosen her.  He took her back board and rolled her over.  I sat back down.  She was able to last a little bit, but then bleck - all over the floor of the ambulance.  Pretty awesome, right?  Not everyone has puked on an ambulance floor.

 This was when we got to the hospital.  We are really lucky to live near such a great childrens hospital.  

 The hospital treated her as a full on trauma patient, complete with a cooler of blood waiting for her.  They even cut off her shirt while a social worker talked to me in the hall.  Her trauma name was Thing Zzzpc.  Too awesome.  

 Her ct scans and xray's came back normal but she couldn't stop throwing up.  She was so sick.  So they kept her over night for observation.  She was so scared.  She thought she was going to have to stay by herself until I let her know I would stay with her. That calmed her down a bit. But then she was hoping we could go home and come back later.  She wanted to see her brothers and sisters, the poor thing,  but she survived.  She was really sick that whole night.  Couldn't even handle the tv on.  She just laid there, miserable.  

 But the next day, she was doing better.  She hated being woken up so many times during the night.  But she did enjoy the room service, with the milk shakes and smoothies.  Yummo.

 Here she is ready to go home.  I think she is lucky she has my genes.  I broke a windshield with my face and it didn't leave a mark. Well, the first night, her face was a bit red and bruised, but you can't even tell that anything is wrong now.  She looks perfectly normal.  

 She also thought it was pretty cool to be taken around in a wheel chair.  Pretty cool set of wheels.   Now, a few days out, she is doing great.  She has a headache she takes meds for.  And doctors orders are no school for a week, then she can go back to half days.  She also can't do anything fun.  No running, jumping, recess, dance, p.e..  Nothing that will jiggle or bump her brain for 4 weeks.  Today was her first day of missing school and she was bored - stiff.  

I can't get this photo to turn the right way, but her sweet Aunt Laura sent her some things to keep her busy.  That will help entertain her.  

Well, there you have our story, I hope your weekend went better than ours.