Emergency in Bangkok: Skull Fracture #2

I had been planning on spending my Sunday getting all of my school material around and prepping all of my tutoring lessons.  I planned on preparing food for the week to go along with my sugar detox.  I planned on getting the house picked up and ready to go for the start of the week.  What I didn't plan on was taking a child to the hospital.

We have been so lucky and have not, until this past year, had to take our children to the emergency room.  I did expect this to happen at some point though.  Having three rough and tumble boys, we were bound to be making a visit to the ER at some point.  You may remember a few months back when we had to make a run to the ER when we were in Malaysia for my youngest son.  He had fallen head first from a double bed on to a cement floor.  You can read about that scary experience HERE.  That was ER visit #1 for a skull fracture.

Never did I imagine we would be taking another son to the ER for another skull fracture.  My oldest, Greyson, decided that it would be super fun to attach a rope to his brother's bike and skateboard down the road...without a helmet!  Yes, my children have helmets.  Yes, I tell them to put them on all the time.  Yes, they have chosen to ignore this. Yes, they will ALWAYS be wearing their helmets from now on.  So, Lincoln took off riding with Greyson being pulled on the skateboard.  Apparently, Lincoln was going to fast and Greyson flipped off doing a somersault head first onto the concrete road.

He came into the house complaining that his head hurt,which was to be expected.  He didn't have a bump or anything, but we just put ice on his head.  A little while later he was complaining that his stomach hurt and ended up getting sick.  We decided to take him to the hospital to get checked out.

He had an MRI and found that he had a skull fracture on the back of his head (occipital bone).  The doctors decided they wanted to keep him for 24 hours to be observed.  This also meant that he had to have an IV put in and was taken off food and water.  This was just a precaution in case he ended up needing surgery. Greyson was not too happy about not being able to eat.

Thankfully, this morning he past his neuro test and the doctor allowed him to eat.  I also spoke to the neurosurgeon, who said that he is doing well and that he will not require any surgery.  They would like to keep him for one more night because he is complaining about some pain in his neck.  But, again it could have been so much worse.  We are so thankful that it wasn't worse than this.  I am now going to be wrapping Lincoln ( my middle son) in bubble wrap.  He doe not need to having a matching skull fracture!

So parents...MAKE your children wear their helmets at all times.  On their bikes, scooters, skateboards, motorbikes.  It doesn't matter if they don't like to wear them.  It doesn't matter if they don't like how they look with one on.  What does matter is that you protect your kids heads.  It can all change in the blink of an eye, so please protect your kids.

Greyson now promises to ALWAYS wear his helmet.