A Scare

Weiru and I were on the way back to my place from our weekly trips to Sprouts and Costco when I received a phone call from the nurse at Roosevelt saying that Sophie had fallen from a bench and hit her head.  Her pupils looked fine and after 20 minutes of icing her head, she felt better and went back to class.  I didn't think much of it since kids bump their heads all the time.  When I went to pick Sophie up, she was sad and teary-eyed and didn't feel like scooting home, which is practically unheard of because she loves it so much.  Also, as I was waiting for her at the classroom door, I told another mom, Erica, about the fall and she informed me that her daughter had had a concussion, and she only knew it because she vomited.  After that, she immediately took her to the emergency room.

Sophie and I walked home slowly and she took a solid hour nap before she got changed for swim class and we went back to school to pick up Lydia.  Since we were running a little late, I dropped Lydia off first at the pool entrance for swim team and then went to park at the parking garage.  As Sophie and I walked towards the stairs, she vomited.  I was slightly panicked, remembering what Erica had said and suddenly thinking about actress Natasha Richardson, who had died from bumping her head while skiing.  After cleaning up the mess as best as I could with napkins and wet wipes from my car, I called Cora, a physician, Lalaine, a pediatric nurse, Erica, Trung, and the KP (our health care provider) on call nurse.  During this time, Sophie went to the back seat of the minivan and took another nap.  Some people told me to go to the hospital, but others told me to wait it out.  Trung and I decided to wait until after dinner and see how Sophie was acting before heading to the hospital.  She was still sad and said her head hurt a little, but she was talking normal and even laughed a couple of times.  We decided to stay home and keep an eye on her, and thankfully, she was back to her usual self by morning.  

I believe that Sophie had had a minor concussion, enough to make her vomit once, but nothing major. Just so you know, I did want to cover all my bases and take her to the hospital just to make sure she was okay, but after listening to her story later, I'm glad I didn't rush into that decision.  Sophie said that she leaned too far back on a school bench during lunch and bumped her head when she fell.  Then she rolled and then got back up and went back to the bench, where she started crying and the teacher's aid discovered that she was hurt.  Sophie said that she didn't see "black" and still saw the blue sky after she fell, so I knew that she didn't black-out.  After she told Trung and I all this new information, we decided that it was would be safe to keep her at home.  If she had vomited again though, we would have gone straight to the hospital.