God is in control

Life just does not slow down does it? With three birthdays this month and our Anniversary, a big church Anniversary, my first craft fair and grandparents day recitation it's amazing that I'm getting my laundry done! Ha! Well, I am...sort of. Washed and dried is done right?

Along with all these amazing celebrations this month came one of the scariest moments of my life. Most of you who read this blog already know what I'm going to talk about and you know the story and you've heard me retell it but I feel the need to blog about it simply for my memory. Because right now I feel like it's a moment/feeling that I will NEVER forget, in reality I know the details will become hazy and parts of this story will diminish in my mind. So, I want to write it all here while my memories are still fresh.

Two weekends ago Greg and I were afforded the privilege and honor of staying at our friends Ministry to Missionaries cabin in mid-Tennessee. It was gorgeous and just what we needed. I will blog about that soon! My parents were gracious enough to keep all four kids for the weekend...which turned into three nights instead of just two! So incredible to get away with just Greg for that time. And we did almost nothing. Embroidery. Puzzles. Rook. Movies. Walks. Meals out. It was amazing. Anyway, back to the story at hand. On October 5th my dad took the big kids to the park. Some of their friends were at the park too. So awesome for them to get out and play. Well, Micah slipped and hit his head and his leg. The kid does stuff like that a lot. No big deal. He got a little goose egg and a bruise.

On Wednesday October 8th during our afternoon at school he slipped on the floor in the classroom and his his head again, right on his previous bruise. Poor kid cried for a bit but was fine. I think the biggest problem was that he fell on his already bruised head. About an hour later (4:30ish) he was out on the playground attempting to jump and catch the third monkey bar...he missed and again came crashing down on his head. This time he did get some cuts and was bleeding a bit. He was also screaming. A lot. Loud. Not calming down. Saying his head hurt. Once he was inside I was trying to get his wound cleaned up but he wasn't really having it. I wasn't sure what to do. I am the mom that avoids the doctors office and hospitals at all costs (mostly because of the cost) but I just had this nagging feeling that I needed to take him to the ER. The two sweet ladies that I work with offered their help. Laurie stayed for me until 5:30 at work and Joan came to my house to watch Naomi until my mom and the little girls could get there. I had called Greg and told him what happened after already texting him about Micah's first fall. Wednesdays are his busy night at church with a Vespers service and Bible study but it was a no-brainer for him to cancel the things at church that evening and meet Micah and I at the ER.

When we were driving to the ER Micah just kept screaming and saying "don't stop, just keep driving, we need to get there." He also was telling me that he couldn't see very well. We pulled in the parking lot and I went to open the door for him and he had his eyes mostly closed and was trying to feel his way to the door. It was so scary to see him acting like that. He kept saying he couldn't open his eyes. I carried him inside and sat him down so I could get started on the paperwork. Greg came shortly after we got there and Micah just climbed right into his lap. We asked him a few random questions and I remember at one point that he couldn't tell us some simple things but he did remember that his favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals. We tried to read him a book but he just cuddled into Greg and almost fell asleep. We got called back to the triage room pretty quickly and the nurse started by taking his vitals. She asked him a few questions and he kept saying, "WHAT?" in a loud voice. He couldn't answer most of her questions and kept saying "WHAT?" and the nurse asked if he's normally like that. We told her no and that's when I really started to be concerned. I had visions of Helen Keller in my mind. I know that's a little weird but it's what my mind went to. I thought about him being blind and not being able to hear well. It was scary. The nurse took us back to an ER room pretty quickly after we got into triage. It was good to see that Micah could walk by himself to that room.

We got to the ER room and Micah sat at the end of the bed. He looked so little sitting on that big white bed. While we waited for the doctor to come and asses Micah we started asking him some questions. I wanted to see for myself how bad this really was. He knew his first and last name but could not answer what his middle name was. Greg asked him who I was and he paused for a bit and then said "I don't know" (a phrase which we heard a LOT that night!). Greg asked if I was grammy and then finally Micah said, "no, mom". I was very relieved but still scared for him. We asked him some more simple questions that he would normally easily know the answer to (like his birthday and where we live) and he would pause and with closed eyes say "I don't know". So, I stopped drilling him with questions and just started talking about how tomorrow was recitation at his school. Greg chimed in "yeah, Matthew five" and Micah lifted his head and said, "Matthew five one through twenty. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." I honestly don't know what verse he stopped at because I was crying and my mind was trailing off thanking God that even if he couldn't remember who I was he knew Jesus. He knew his scripture. It was at that moment that once again I was SO SO thankful that we make the sacrifices we make as a family in order to send our kids to the amazing Classical Christian school that we do. So thankful that he memorizes big chunks of scripture. If you think your child cannot memorize big chunks of scripture guess again. Yes, it takes work, but it is possible and SO incredible. Obviously it is what Micah could cling to and remember in that moment.

The nurse practitioner came in to see Micah after we had waited a bit. She asked some questions and took some notes. Again, he didn't remember his birthday but then she asked him to squeeze her fingers and he squeezed them with all his might and we even got a little smile out of him. She asked him to lift his arms and legs one at a time and when he figured out which limb she wanted him to raise he did just that. She told us that she wanted him to get a CT scan and that we'd go from there. We told Micah that he would get to go inside a big doughnut and he smiled so big!! That was so reassuring to see. He also found out that he would get to ride in a wheelchair and he was so thrilled at that as well. I went with him while he got his noggin scanned and it didn't take but ten minutes. He was able to get in and out of the wheelchair just fine and the CT technician even made a comment about how most people who need a CT scan don't get in and out of his wheelchair that quickly.

Once we got back to the room we were waiting again for the NP to come in and tell us what she found. We joked about hoping that he had a brain in there and Greg and Micah talked sports for a little bit. We were starting to see many glimpses of our Micah again. Micah was very sleepy and dozed off for a bit but we kept waking him up. He complained about a headache once in a while but really said he was just tired. Once the NP came back in she told us that the CT scan looked good. There was no bleeding in his brain, no swelling and no contusions. We were so thankful to hear that good news. She told us that he did have a concussion and that temporary memory loss and hearing loss was totally normal. She said they could do an MRI but since his CT scan was clear it wasn't really necessary. She got our discharge papers ready so we could go home. We asked Micah his birthday again and this time he could tell us that it was in April. Yeah! Praise God. By the time we were ready to leave Micah was much more back to normal. Not 100% but MUCH better.

I drove Micah home while Greg went to get some Tylenol. I asked Micah to try and eat a banana so he could take some medicine and he kept saying that he didn't really want to eat. I told him to just try to eat a little so he could take the medicine. He vomited all over the carpet and coffee table. I guess he really didn't want to eat. Ugh. I guess I should have listened to him. He vomited a little more about twenty minutes later but that was it. We were a little concerned that maybe we should take him back but we just kept an eye on him and let him go to bed. I rested with him for a bit and soon he was sleeping.

The next day was grandparents day recitation at the kids school but I needed to keep Micah home. I know he was so totally bummed that he couldn't go but the discharge papers talked about not letting him do anything like homework or trying to remember too much. SO recitation does not fit that bill. Also, we know how crazy he can get around his friends and he just needed to rest. He was also so bummed that he couldn't go to the circus that evening with my parents and the girls but it really was best for him to lay low...plus then he got a special little date night with mom and dad. We made him rest on Friday too, they were on fall break from school so he didn't miss anything, but he was up and at em and already being his normal crazy ALL BOY self then.

We are so thankful for the prayers and support we received during this time. It was honestly the scariest moment of my life. It really does make one realize how fragile life is. We don't live in fear though because we know who is in control of our lives. We know who is holding us in the palm of His hands. We know that we live in a sinful and hurtful world but that Jesus is the true source of comfort and peace. We praise God that He helped restore Micah to complete health and pray that there are no long term effects from his fall that maybe we haven't seen yet. We love this kid so much and are so incredibly blessed by having him as our kid to take care of while here on earth at this time. So remember, life is fragile, but God is in control.
The bruise after the first fall...