Hard Head
Well, today was a new experience. As has been the norm since moving back east, Norah was home sick today with a cold. Meg stayed home so that I could get work done. Since it was nice out today, Meg and Norah were outside a bunch, and at one point in the afternoon moved to playing on the deck. I went down in the basement and pulled out some adult chairs for them to sit on and then went back down for Norah’s deck chairs. Well, I must not have closed the door tightly because Norah figured out how to open it.
I kept hearing her “Dada, Dada, Dada” and she must have thought I was down in the basement. I thought Meg was in the room with her, but come to find out she had gone outside to start to bring in the toys they brought outside. “Thump, thump, thump, thump…..whhaaaaaa”. She fell, likely down all 12 steps. I ran from my office down to the basement not really knowing what to expect. I noticed the door to the basement had closed most of the way behind itself. I knew that there is a large opening between the railing and bottom of the stairs so worst case scenario was she had fallen through, or maybe had bounced off the cement wall. Thankfully, she was lying on her back, on the last wooden platform before the cement. I knew hearing her cry was a good thing, but all I could think about was a little boy who was in the ER the first time we ended up there shortly after moving to NJ. He had fallen down 10 stairs and was waiting to get a CAT Scan done.
Once we got to the top of the stairs Norah immediately went to Meg. We figured it was best to call her Dr so I called. One of the nurses got on the phone and as soon as I told her Norah’s name she says “Oh no, our Miss Norah”. Norah really has figured out how to charm the ladies at the office from day one, showing them her thumbs up trick won them over early. They told us to come in right away. We did. By this time Norah had calmed down and wanted to “color”. The initial anxiety was settling down.
By the time we got to the doctor’s office, bruising was visible on her forehead. So after our initial checkup at home where no bruises or cuts showed up, her war wounds were coming through. After the initial vitals checkup by the nurse, Marta, everything was normal. She weighed in 1lb 4oz heavier than her last checkup so that was another good sign. Her oxygen level in her blood was up at 97, so after the bout with RSV earlier this year that was great news even with her current cold. Dr. Dos Santos came in and started her examination. First, she wanted to see Norah walk so she brought in 2 Elmo stickers and held each one in different hands to get Norah to stretch to each side to see how well she balanced. Passed this test. Next the doctor did some compression testing where she kept pushing on certain areas of Norah’s body to get a pain reaction. Passed that test. Next up was determining where Mommy and Daddy are in the room, again she passed just fine. After passing few more tests, Dr. Dos Santos asks us if she really fell down all those stairs. “Maybe she climbed down some of them?”. I wish that I could have thought, maybe, just maybe she managed to figure out a way to walk down the stairs or maybe crawl down some, but knowing Norah, I highly doubt it. I picture her standing at the top of the stairs, continuing to try to get my attention, then getting too close to the edge and falling down. The one scenario which I find plausible is that she might have slipped onto her butt for most of it and the diaper lessened the blow.
One thing is for certain, she comes from a family with some pretty awesome head hitting stories or survival. Meg was once in a car accident when her head hit the windshield and shattered it. She came away sans concussion and I believe at most a small cut from the glass. Norah’s Papa fell out of a tree while working on it and landed on his head, don’t even think it stunned him.
For any parent of a little one who is reading this and wondering what the signs are of trouble when something like this happens look for these signs. If the child vomits, has convulsions or loses consciousness get to the doctor or ER as soon as you can.