I'm Still Standing!!!

By now some of you know and some of you don't know (and for those who don't, we apologize but it has been a literal rollercoaster). As I write this I do so with new found humility, embarrassment, and overflowing thanksgiving and praise to our friends and mostly our Lord Jesus Christ who is our very present ROCK in times of trouble and times of plenty.

Last night, about 7:45p our very normal evening was shattered by a crash and blood-curdling scream from the kitchen. At first all I could think was something hot had fallen on somebody and they were burned. As bad as that would have been, we were all shocked at what had really happened. Graeson had been sitting in his "bouncy seat" on top of the kitchen table. Somehow, his bouncy seat slipped off the edge of the table, onto a chair and onto the kitchen floor...with him in it!!! Lisa was at the other end of the kitchen and got to him first. Elise and I got to the kitchen the same time as Lisa was picking him up and holding him. All we could do is either panic and freak or try and be calm and quickly look him over for immediate injury. So we did both just to cover the bases. Graeson was of course screaming, almost as loudly as Mommy, and after holding him for a few minutes we carefully inspected him to find no initial damage but imagined it would not be far behind. Denton Regional Medical Center (Grade C-), was the closest emergency room and as Graeson was now nodding off to sleep in his car seat, we could reason that either one of two things was happening. Either he was finally taking a nap (hadn't napped for more than 30 min. all day), or his body was reacting to trauma by shutting down all unnecessary systems to focus on the hurt. Either way, we wanted the closest ER. When we arrived we were 4th in line. After an hour wait we were finally seen. (Lesson #1 - when you have an emergency of this nature, call an ambulance. You get the best help fast and you don't sit in the waiting room for 1hr with a head trauma to a 3mo. old.).

During our wait Graeson did what he had done all day, woke up after napping for only 30 min. He woke up very happy, smiling, giggling, cooing. Typical Graeson. However, during his nap a goose egg had formed on his right forehead. He nursed for a typical 20 min and then the P.A. on duty saw him. With the exception of the bruised forehead he said he looked and was acting perfect, but due to the nature of the accident wanted to run a CAT scan for assurance. The CAT scan came back negative for any internal bleeding, brain trauma, or internal injuries. Thank you Jesus!!! We were sent home on that positive note and really no further instructions.

At 7:30a today, Lisa received a call from the hospital. The radiologist on duty this morning at Denton Regional said he reviewed the CAT scan results and sees a skull fracture. A what?!!!!

How did they miss that last night?!!! We call our ultra-reliable friends The Mays and within 25 min. Elise is in their care and we are back in the ER. 10 minutes later Elise's stomach decides it no longer wants to contain, well, everything and it will gladly deposit it's contents all over the Mays backseat (oh yeah, brand new leather back seat). So sorry Parker for you're lack of sleep on this day!!!!!

Turns out that with CAT scans they mainly image the brain, soft tissues, blood, etc. Not so much hard things like um....skulls. So to get the care we really need they ambulance (for liability purposes) Graeson and Mommy to Cook Children's Hospital in Ft. Worth. (Grade A+++++) with Daddy close behind in the chase vehicle. They take a simple set of x-ray's of Graeson's skull and indeed find a much more easy to see fracture extending from his fontenal? (soft-spot) down an inch or two. Minor fracture and totally repairable by the hands of time and the Grace of God.

We are to return to visit either his regular pediatrician or a neurosurgeon (rather large difference eh?) next week just to follow up.

Graeson is doing great. As his Papaw said on the phone this afternoon, "just like a linebacker, he shakes it off and gets right back in". Through all of this we have been more than a little embarrassed by the fact that as parents we knew better. We knew better than to put him in anything, bouncy or not, on an elevated surface. No matter how stable. We have thought about it and cannot picture how it possibly happened. But the fact is it did. The oddly reassuring thing about it all is almost every parent we've talked to said they have ignored the same warnings and parental good sense and suffered the same result - though usually not as catastrophic. Please learn from us that no matter how young the child, no matter how safe you think it might be, don't fall prey to this hard lesson.

If you managedto make it this far through our lengthy posting then you are probably part of a large group of family, friends and neighbors whom we can't thank enough for your prayers, calls, emails, emergency babysitting, and follow-through. We are so thankful that we get to do life together with you. We Love You!!!!!!!!!

This picture was taken after nap time this afternoon.