Dr. YouTube

When we were at Aurelia's wedding on Saturday evening, Esperanza and her cousin Clarissa were running around and collided into one another. Clarissa is a couple years older so I think she just bounced off of Esperanza. But Esperanza fell down and hit her head, REALLY hard. There were only a few people upstairs with us at this point, so I heard the thump loud and clear when her head hit the floor. But, Esperanza falls and bangs her head all the time. She's tough. It's gotten to the point where if I react, she reacts. If I don't react, she's fine and acts as thow nothing happened. Usually. So, I ignored it. It was quiet for about 4 seconds. Then super loud screaming. I ran over to her, knelt down and held her. Then, the scariest thing in my life occured...

Her body went limp in my arms! Her eyes rolled back in her head! And a little trickle of clear liquid came out of her nose. I think I screamed or cursed or both. About 5 seconds later she came to and started crying again. In those 5 seconds Cathy called 911. But then when Esperanza came back, I made a decision not to have the ambulance come and to just see how things go. One of the guests there was a nurse and she came over and sat with us for awhile and made me feel good about the situation. After about 20 minutes, Esperanza was back on her feet running around as if nothing happened at all.

The next morning, even thow she was still acting normal, I got concerned about the idea that maybe she did have some serious damage done. I already figured she probably had a concussion, and that I just needed to watch for anything out of the ordinary. But for my own peace of mind (and b/c Geneva kinda freaked me out), I went ahead and took her to Urgency Care just to make sure we were good. They told me to go straight to ER at the hospital and kinda made me feel like a crazy mom for not taking her there the night before. Then, the people at ER gave me strange looks for not taking her in the night before too. OK, got it!

After waiting forever in the ER waiting room, we finally went in and saw a doctor. After about 10 minutes of me explaining what happened, him asking questions, him checking Esperanza's ears and head, he asks me 'do you have internet'? 'Sure' I respond with a puzzled look. 'You should get on You Tube and look up 'Breath Holding Spells'.

Seriously, YouTube? Wow!

Have you ever heard of 'breath holding spells'? I guess I kinda thought I knew what that meant, but never knew there was actually a 'medical term' for it. And I initially thought it meant something different then what this Dr. YouTube was saying it was. When toddlers and/or infants cry so hard that they hold their breath for a little bit too long, long enough to freak a parent out. Thats what I thought it meant, and I think thats what most people think it means. I had heard you are supposed to kind of blow in the childs face to get them to breath. Story has it that George used to throw water at Cyndi when she did it as a toddler (I can't help but laugh about that). Apparently there are two versions of what a 'breath holding spell' can be. And for the record, I did look it up on YouTube and both versions of that 'spell' are on there. HUGE difference thow...one is really scary and is excactly what Esperanza did, and the other is basically a kid that is crying but not breathing or making noise...Cyndi. Still, this 'spell' doesn't really explain everything...

So back to the ER and Dr. YouTube. I ask questions...

Me: What about the fluid that came out of her nose?
Dr. YouTube: Could have been spinal fluid, could have been mucus. There's no way of knowing. And because it was just a drop and not continuous, no worries.

Me: Ok, but she hit her head, hard. She wasn't just holding her breath!
Dr. YouTube: Bring her back in if she starts to vomit or acts abnormally.

Me: Should she have a CAT scan?
Dr. YouTube: Protocal for CAT scans are pretty tight especially for children b/c of the radiation factor. She has no bruising around her eyes or ears and is acting normal and healthy, so there is no reason for CAT scan.

We left shortly after that. Even though I completely expected a CAT scan that day, I didn't really want one done. I was just looking for someone to tell me everything was fine, and it was/is...but YouTube? I sure didn't see that one comin'.

I am so thankful that Esperanza is okay and hasn't shown any signs of problems - other than the usual. That honestly was the most scary event that has happened to me in my entire life (yes, my life is pretty uneventful). I'm also thankful that our first visit to see a doctor ended up actually being fun and completely uninvasive for Esperanza. Hopefully the next time we go see a doctor it'll just be for a regular check up and she'll remember how well things went the last time she saw one.

Here is Esperanza after we got home, still wearing her 'ankle bracelet' from the ER