A long week for the Harris-Odums

This past week is not one I ever want to repeat.  After our Monday visit to the ER, we tried to take it very very easy at home.  Sam seemed to be doing OK.  He was eating and sleeping like a champ.  Mom, on the other hand, was working on little to no sleep.  Tuesday we went to Sam’s regular doctor for a follow up.  She agreed with the ER that aside from the three skull fractures, you would never know that Sam was sick.  We were told to take it easy with him and keep an eye out for signs that there might be issues: drowsiness, no appetite, lethargy, extreme fussiness,  vomiting, etc.

All seemed good until Wednesday around 6 pm.  Sam, who is normally the most calm and easy going guy, was fussy- an inconsolable type of fussy.  He wanted to be held.  he wanted to be put down.  He wanted to eat, he didn’t want to eat.  Basically, nothing made him happy.  This went on until 10 pm when he finally decided to eat.  He finished eating at 10:20 and started to scream and arch his back and throw up… not spit up, but really throw up.  Then, for the next 45 min he was a screaming mess.  Of course as this was happening the power in our house went out and came back.  Finally, I had run out of ideas and was concerned so we called the doctor on call.  The moment she called back, the battery on the phone I was using died, the non-battery phone I picked up had so much static I could not hear her so I had to go running through the house looking for another phone.  I found another cordless phone, hung up the static line, started to tell her what we going on when the power went out… again!  Once we finally got her on the phone and could hear each other, I described what was going on and she felt we should head down to Children’s to get Sam looked at again.

With my parents and our neighbors out of town, I was off to the hospital by myself while Peter stayed at home with a sleeping Irene.  By the time we got to the hospital Sam had calmed down and was sound asleep in the car seat.  After watching him in the ER for 4 hours, the doctors decided to admit us for observation.  They were concerned about my sleep deprivation, and just wanted to make sure that Sam’s head injury was not getting worse.  We spent 36 hours total at Children’s (not a place anyone who loves kids should ever be- so depressing!).  The entire time we were there Sam was either sleeping or eating.  He was a perfect angel.  They sent us home with a diagnosis for sever acid reflux episode.  We are following up with our regular pediatrician and will have a neurosurgeon follow his skull fractures (just as a precaution).

Since then, we have been busy with Peter’s parents, Irene’s flu- that she then passed on to Peter’s mom.  Not that I know when I will get some rest, but I am really looking forward to it!  In the meantime, Sam seems great so at least one person is happy!

A few pics from the past week: