Mommy Fail

Almost two months ago, Quinn experienced a new milestone. A milestone that I was hoping he would never experience, in fact. After suffering a pretty extreme fall, I had to rush him to urgent care. Or, at least I thought I did.

Here's how it happened. Quinn was playing upstairs in the hallway (near our computer) and we were getting ready to head out of the house. I went to my bedroom to grab some jeans to quickly throw on, and in the 10 seconds or so that I left Quinn he managed to get hurt. *I have left Quinn to play downstairs or in his room for much longer periods of time. Of course, it's when I'm only gone a few seconds that something major happens. I didn't hear him fall (and I was in the neighboring room), but I heard his scream. This wasn't a scream that I hadn't heard before. You see, Quinn is a busy kid and he gets hurt a lot. I rushed to see what had happened and he was just staring at me, face bright red, screaming (but no sound was coming out at the time). I was asking him "Did you bonk your head?" He tends to hit himself wherever he's hurting which gives me a little indication of what has happened. However, as I asked him this fairly typical question, I noticed a HUGE goose-egg on his forehead. I cannot tell you how big it was, and by the time we took pictures the swelling had gone down almost all the way. I didn't know that it was possible for a forehead to swell up so much so quickly. It was at least the size of a golf ball, and for a little head, that's pretty extreme. I felt awful. I picked him up, hugged him profusely, and apologized for leaving him alone (for those 10 seconds). I quickly carried him downstairs, pulled out some frozen veggies to try and ice his forehead, and called my Dr. Dad for advice. My Dad is a rational person. He doesn't recommend that people go to urgent care often, and so when he told me to take Quinn in, I was scared. He did provide me with some encouragement though, because apparently with a head injury, immediate swelling is a good sign. It tends to indicate that there isn't bleeding in the skull (or I think that's what I remember him saying).

Anyway, after calling my Dad I called Pat to let him know that I had to take Quinn in to urgent care. My hysterical state had Pat a little concerned that I wouldn't be able to drive, but I calmed myself down enough to safely get Quinn to the doctor.

By the time we arrived at urgent care, roughly half an hour post fall, the swelling had already started to go down significantly. Quinn thought that urgent care was a great place! He loved the different toys that were there, and was in particularly good spirits. People who saw him pitied him though. The bump was definitely still noticeable.

The doctor on call saw Quinn and said that it looked like the worst was probably already over. He warned me that there would probably be a residual bump for up to a month (which there was) and he gave me a series of things to watch out for over the next 24 hours to ensure that Quinn hadn't suffered a concussion or brain damage. Luckily, Quinn had been back to his happy, and seemingly healthy self, and so this conversation about the possible long-term effects seemed pretty unlikely to me.

This experience reminded me just how fortunate we are to have a healthy little boy. Also, life is fragile and one little accident could easily be life-changing. I wish I could say that I have been able to keep Quinn out of harm's way since this traumatic experience, but the truth is, one short week after Quinn visited urgent care he took a fall down our stairs. All of them. Yikes! I was feeling a little negligent, to say the least.

Front view

Profile (I know it's not real noticeable). Trust me, it was a few hours earlier!

The good news for Quinn was, Mommy was feeling so guilty about his accident that he got a popsicle for dessert that night!

And his binky before bed... :)