Friday, May 30, 2008

did i really never tell this story here?

So one of the challenges over at SSD was to create a layout about fear. The first thing that came to mind when i read the challenge, was how scared i was the night tam fell down my driveway and we ended up in the emergency room with a screaming newborn with his head rapidly swelling. I was just going to link this layout to the full story i THOUGHT i posted here, but when i went looking thru my archives i realised id never posted it!

So to save you squinting at the journalling, here is what happened.

Tam called me one night when blake was about 4 weeks old, said she was being driven mad by her relo's and was coming over to escape. No problemo - it was a tuesday night, Jira was at soccer training so i was home by myself and bored!.

It was pouring rain that night, so when i heard her car pull up i went out onto the steps to see if i could help her in with her stuff. She was already halfway down my driveway with Blake bundled up in her arms, sheltering his face from the rain.

I yelled out to her to be careful cos it was slippery. She yelled back she was ok. I must have jinxed her tho cos seconds later, she slipped and fell. Hard. Blakes head and tamaras arm and elbow hit the conrete with a loud thud. And then Blake started screaming.

I ran out, helped her up and helped her inside. Tam was trying to comfort Blake. We werent too sure how hard he had hit his head. We thought Tams arm had probably taken the brunt of the fall, but when Blakes head started swelling up we got worried.

I asked Tam if she wanted me to call her mum, and she said no, she didnt want to worry her. So i said i'd ring my mum and see if she thought we should take him to the doctor.

She didnt answer her phone. So we paced around for awhile, keeping an eye on the still crying Blake, before i thought to call Jiras mum who has been a nurse for the past..... i dunno 30 years?

I explained what had happened and she said "take him to emergency straight away". Thats what made me really scared. Jiras mum barely ever says things like that. Like alot of nurses, she knows that people often over react. So i truly expected her to say "He'll be fine, dont worry about it"

So we jumped in the car - i offered to drive but Tamara wanted to drive so i didnt argue. I just sat in the back seat and held Blake. I know we should have put him in his car seat but at the time, it really didnt cross my mind.

I just sat in the back, held him close and kissed his little head, the whole time thinking, god please let him be ok.

I gave him back to tamara when we got to the hospital. By that time he had settled down a bit, but his head had swollen up about 3 times the size it should have been!

We checked him in to emergency and then started the wait to see a doctor. Steve and his mum met us there. The 4 of us waited for about 2 hours before we got to see the nurse. In that time, Blake had had a feed and a sleep and was happy again and smiling at all the people in the waiting room. His head was so swollen up tho, and we were careful not to touch it.

The nurse looked him over briefly, took some details and said he should see the doctor, but it was a good thing that he had cried straight off and that he hadnt lost consciousness. The wait to see the doctor was going to be at least 4 hours and considering Blake was smiling again, Tam and Steve decided to just go around to the after hours clinic and get one of the doctors there to have a look at him.

So after another hour or so wait, they got to see the doctor. He felt his head, decided it wasnt anything to worry too much about but to just keep an eye on him.

A few days later he was more or less back to normal!

All i know, tho, was that it was such a scary night. And if i felt that scared, i cant even imagine how bad tam and steve must have felt!

2 comments:

Dinphy said...

ChooChoo... DSO blog train coming trough.. ;)

What a touching story! I felt the fear just reading it. Don't want to think about such things happening!
The LO is beautiful, love the repeating photo's. Very strong.

DigiLover said...

what a gorgeous LO!! that story has just sent goosebumps up my body. Thank God little Blake was ok - that must have been such a frightening time for you all.

love the gorgeous piccies of him in your post from the day before - such a gorgeous happy little baby.

TOOT TOOT!!!