The Newsome Family: Possible Skull Fracture??

We had our first real injury in the Newsome house last week. We've had lung issues, but that is to be expected because, well, they came from me :).

Last Friday night we were having our missional community group at a friend's house. They are empty nesters with a pool, beautiful pond, chickens, dogs, READ: a field day for my kiddos. My kids loves animals and room to run, so they were having blast. These sweet friends invited our group over including my kids and the other family brave enough to bring their kids, and we had a great time. We had pizza, the kids got in the wading part of the pool with their clothes on, all fun. All of the adults sat down to plan out our summer meeting times, and so the kids were playing and we all took turns watching. After a few minutes, I thought I heard something, so I headed outside.

I was met by Micah crying and screaming at me and I couldn't understand him. I tried to calm everyone down and that's when I saw their sweet, large wooden bench swing frame lying on the ground. Cara was holding her forehead and crying so I asked her to move her hand and then I almost vomited. Have I mentioned I don't do well with injuries? :) I said let's go inside and get some ice asap! We calmed everyone down (including me) and got her iced up. The homeowner's apologized profusely, we said it was most definitely not their fault, and we observed her for the next little bit while the continued talking about dates. Their son is a doctor so he was sending his mom signs of concussion. I had also text my go-to friends and they were texting me. She had no vomiting, no lost consciousness, her pupils were reacting to light the proper way. After an hour and a half, it was time to head home. All signs led to no concussion, so after a few hours, we all went to bed. The bump had gone down a lot with ice:

As we were going to bed that night we tried to get the story out of them again. Cara was pushing Micah and another little friend on the swing when the whole thing came falling backwards. We still aren't sure if the frame hit her head, or if the swing swung back and hit her.

This was what we woke up to Saturday morning. My mom came up to babysit because Eric and I were going to go to an Advocare meeting. I got a little nervous when I saw how much it had swelled. I knew it was supposed to, but my mom was definitely worried and wanted us to go to the ER. I text my friend whose son is a doctor to get his opinion, and he said mom's gut was probably best, but he'd get it checked out, so off to the ER we went.

Mom kept M & A so Eric and I could take her to Texas Children's. We got seen pretty fast (9:30 am on a Saturday is a good time) and waited for the doctor. He said that since it had been 14+ hours since the incident, the swelling was normal. We could do an X-ray but the risk of radiation he thought was bigger than the benefit. All it could show is a possible skull fracture (insert Eric and I exchanged glances like WHAT!!!!). If it did, they'd then order a catscan, but even with the Catscan, there's not much you can do with a skull fracture. He also mentioned she might have a slight brain bleed, but didn't think this was much of a possibility. He said if it was there, they'd only keep her and observe her for 24 hours, but we could do that at home. He kept asking me what I thought, and I always defaulted to, you are the doctor, you tell me what to do and we'll do it. So, in the end, we got sent home. No jumping head first into the pool. No re-injury to the head. Ice for 20 minutes every 3-4 hours, ibuprofen if needed. I have a friend who has what we tease as 'dirty hippy oils' so she's given me a few to rub on Cara's head a few times a day. We have VBS this week at church and so she gets to sit with me instead of going outside to Rec. It's already gone down so much and she has never even complained about it! She only said "oh no, I'll have it on my birthday!" :). That's my girly girl for you.

So we've been emailing pics and updates to our pediatrician (love that!) and she said because of her age and how well she is responding she could swim tonight no problem, as long as she didn't jump in. So, Cara started in the water and got 2 place with her freestyle relay team (heat 1), 3rd place in her 25 m freestyle (heat 1) and first place in her 25 m backstroke (heat 2). She could not believe she got a blue ribbon, so I didn't have the heart to tell her it's because she's usually in the first heat, but was in second this time! :)