eli's fall

july 6th, 2011 is officially the worst day of my life.

that night at about 7:40pm, my sweet baby boy eli climbed a ladder in the basement and then fell, fracturing his skull. as a mother, there are few things worse in this world, than knowing that your child is headed for certain injury or worse, and not being able to make it in time to save them from it. you know what i mean...it's as if time slows down and you can't move fast enough. i was already running to catch him before he fell, and as soon as i got to him, i could tell something was terribly wrong. i scooped him up (probably not the best move with a possible head/neck injury) and ran upstairs screaming. philip had just got out of the shower when i laid eli on our bed. it was then that i noticed the scoop-shaped dent in his head...about 2-inches in diameter. when he first fell i thought he would never be the same, but within about a couple of minutes he was crying just like he always does. he never lost consciousness. he just held on to me and cried.

we rode in the ambulance to the hospital where within minutes bishop craig and a our good friend greg (the hospital CEO) arrived to assist philip to give him a blessing. the doctors quickly took a CT scan which showed a notch - like a v-shaped dent in his skull. he has a depressed skull fracture, often called a "ping-pong" fracture; the bones don't break but become depressed, as a ping pong ball would if you pushed your thumb into it. there was no apparent damage to his brain, and the scan showed no bleeding. after seeing these results, the ER doctor told us he would still have to have surgery and wanted to send us into charlotte to the children's hospital. surgery would involve drilling into the depression to pull the skull bones back out, and then covering the area with a metal plate and screws.

we took another ambulance at about 11pm to levine children's hospital. we stayed in the ER there until 2:30am where two other doctors told us he would need surgery to pop-out the fracture. we were settled in our room by 4:30am. our spirits were pretty low by this point, but eli was happy as a clam, watching "CARS" and eating crackers. by looking at him, you couldn't tell he'd just suffered a major head injury, he was his normal cute self. by 6:30am the first of two neurosurgeons arrived and brought good news. in his opinion, any surgery would be purely for cosmetic reasons only. he was not a pediatric neurosurgeon and encouraged us to wait for the final word. when the peds neuro arrived, he too felt that surgery was unnecessary and said we could be discharged in a few hours.

philip was still skeptical. i was just so thankful that eli appeared normal in every sense - minus the dent in his head. we opted to have him fitted with an epilepsy helmet as a precaution. the peds neuro said it wasn't necessary. my reply was simply that he lives with two VERY energetic siblings and clearly likes to climb things...so any protection he could get would be a good idea. i've since formed the opinion that all little boys under the age of three should wear a helmet.

they made eli wear this stupid neck brace that was too big...the ER doctor said these things are as effective as "wearing a sweat band to prevent your wrist from breaking"...but no one would give us the o.k. to remove it until he saw the peds neuro

 driving home the next day...

we loved the color of the first helmet...BYU blue!! 

but it was a little too big...

 

so we had him fitted with a smaller size...it's a little bit more subtle..kind of military issue, so we've nicknamed him "G.I. Eli"

eli has since had his follow-up with the peds neuro and things are looking good. he will have another CT scan in about 2 months. the fall seems to have had the opposite effect that you think it would. eli seems even more fearless than before. he tries to climb on absolutely everything. i might seem like the over protective mother, but the idea of watching him fall again is almost more than i can bear. even now, hearing him cry out sends adrenaline racing through me. i'm sure that will get better with time, but i've learned that you can't be too careful. i hate to think of what might have been, and know i could never forgive myself for a tragedy that could have be prevented. i truly feel the Lord has blessed eli. we felt the intense prayers of our loved ones in those first few frightening hours. eli's name was on the prayer roll of three temples within hours. thank you to all of our family and friends for your support!  we are so blessed. i can't wait to see the man eli will become. he may always have a small dent in his head but hopefully it will be a reminder to him that the Lord spared him from a debilitating injury and that he has a mission to complete here.