Waiting and Writing

I've left a message with Children's Mercy Hospital's Neurology department, I'm waiting for them to call me back. Emma's had a referral (and approrpriate paper work in) for 3 weeks now, and I haven't heard from them. Today they heard from me (nicely). Also left a message for them about Alta's referral from the ER yesterday. Hopefully, I can take both girls in at once, we'll see. Logic whispers a warning: Don't count on it. So, while I wait for neurology to call back, I'll be reworking chapter one, using the suggestions, ideas, and comments from Saturday's critique session. Some of them were very helpful. These changes should help me make chapter one as good as I wanted it to be. I'm learning, writing is journey. It's filled with twists and turns, and ups and downs. It's fun.

ER Update

It's 5:19 am and she's awake. She's acting like herself, and the nurses are trying to get a movie to play for her. She wants to watch Hoodwinked. We've been talking about what she remembers and I've been feeling in the blanks. The last moments she remembers are before the ambulance arrived. But she's having some fuzzy memories of last night. Breaks my heart to hear her say she thought she was going to die. I told her I was scared too, but she was really brave. She's hungry, but can't have anything to eat or drink yet, and her head hurts, which they've given her medicine for. She's slowly noticing things like tubes, IV's, wires, and a hospital gown. She's very much herself, and relief seems like such a puny word for what I feel, but given the amount of sleep I'm running on, it's the best I can do. Thanks for all your prayers, we appreciate them very much.

ER Visit - Scared

I'm sitting at the parent computer here in Children's Mercy Hospital. It's 1:01 am. Our 10 year old fell tonight while we were at a laser tag birthday party and hit her head on the concrete floor. We didn't know about it until we got home. I have no problem admitting I was scared when she couldn't answer simple questions, when she complained that her eyes weren't working right, or when she was pale and sick to her stomach, but it went beyond merely scared when we asked her to get in the car and she walked into the front door. She stood there, coat askew. When I asked if she was okay she said, "Huh," in a loud voice. I called her name and she replied, "What?" and murmured that she couldn't see. My little one couldn't see, couldn't hear. I was beyond scared. We got her into the car, which was not easy considering her condition, and drove around the corner to our friends' house. These are friends we know from church, and Paul and Tim gave Emma a blessing of healing. Our plan to stop there worked out well for us, because she had gone down hill so fast I no longer felt comfortable taking her to the hospital ourselves. We borrowed our friends' phone and called 911. She was completely disoriented, sick, confused, and unsteady; nothing we would have noticed or been able to do anything about in the car. She was wheeled from the ambulance, through the ER doors of Children's Mercy, and into an exam room. She was then hooked up to machines, and her vitals taken. Once they had all the info they needed she was immediately taken for a ct, which was read quickly. She's been admitted for overnight observation. She's sleeping in her room now, this is the longest she's gone without getting sick. Her ct scan is clear, there was no bleeding in the brain which is what they were most concerned about. Diagnosis is concussion. She should go home sometime tomorrow. I cannot leave this post without expressing my deepest gratitude to the staff here that has taken such good care of us. To the EMT's who came when I was terrified and took my little girl to the hospital. They've all done such a fantastic job at not only taking care of her, but of calming me so I can be more useful to her. But most of all, my most sincere gratitude and thanks goes to God, for hearing and answering my prayers. For bringing me peace. For watching over my little girl.