His crashes and falls have gotten more and more frequent and daring. Hardly a day passes without a new shot to the head and a new bruise. Two nights ago, it was a bruise on the forehead coupled with a cut eyelid.
The cut on the eyelid could not be cleaned as any peroxide or neosporin would ultimately end up in his eye. We used a damp paper towel to see how bad the cut was. He didn't like that very much but we were able to figure out the cut didn't need any special treatment.
So last night, he decided to pull out all the stops.
While the rest of the family was in the kitchen, Caleb was running around the house. We didn't actually see the fall but we heard it. It was a very loud crash in the living room. Then the screams started. These were not the normal I hurt myself screams. These reached a new level for Caleb.
I picked him up and started the blood check. There was no blood. What I found was the largest knot on some one's head I can ever remember seeing. It was right in the middle of his forehead.
We had to make a quick decision on what to do. Over the last five years I have seen enough cuts, bruises and head trauma that I could probably work triage at a pediatric ER but this thing was huge. It stuck out close to 1/2 inch.
I quickly went through concussion signs. He never passed out. He started screaming immediately on impact. He wasn't throwing up and he was tracking things fine with his eyes Nothing pointed toward a serious problem but man, that thing was huge.
Looking at it, Kerry wondered if we should call 911. Considering he had no concussion signs, we decided that would be a bit much. However, as I told the triage nurse, while I would be willing to bet my house that nothing was seriously wrong, I was not willing to bet my son's health on it. So, off the ER Caleb and I went with me praying along the way.
Caleb was calm on the trip to the ER. It was his bedtime and I think he just wanted to sleep but he was still awake when we arrived.
Checking patients in at the ER desk last night was a nurse. He took a quick look at Caleb, assured me it didn't look like there was any problem and checked us in. During the check-in process, he called pediatrics to see if we could skip the line a bit considering Caleb's age and sent us to the pediatric waiting room.
We were quickly seen by the triage nurse and sent back to wait for our named to be called. Maybe 15 minutes had passed when the triage nurse called us back in and introduced us to the doctor. We had indeed skipped much of the normal process. A process, I am familiar with from our daughter's previous visits.
The doctor looked Caleb over and told us there was nothing to worry about. It was exactly what I wanted to hear. We received our discharge papers and headed back home.
As we needed to check him several times throughout the night, Caleb stayed in our bed. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep. I was consistently kicked and punched throughout the night.
Today, Caleb has not slowed down a bit. He still has a pretty good knot on his forehead and that cut over his eye. He looks as if he lost a fight. However, he has already started shooting for ER trip number two.
As I have been writing this, there have been two crashes and a lot of jumping on the couch. Maybe he is his sister's brother after all.
These pictures were taken by Kerry after we returned from the ER.
