Well, the Hanson holiday curses strikes again. Holiday 2004: Travis' cleft news. Holiday 2006: miscarriage. Holiday 2007: amubulance ride after having Luke. Holiday 2008: Eva fractures her skull after a horse bucks her off.
The kids were just so good at Thanksgiving. We barely heard from them as we grown-ups chatted and played games. So, the next day we told Eva and Travis that they could do something fun because they were so good. Travis wanted to go combining. Eva wanted to go horse riding at a friend of my parent's house. She'd been out there before riding horse and LOVED it.
So, Grandpa Gerry takes Travis, Chris and I take Eva. On the way out there I think to myself "I would just love to make her wear a helmet if we would have one with. But, we don't and it's probably better because I'm just being over protective." We get the horse out and I just haven't been around horses for so long and I'm just thinking what a chicken I am. Eva wants the saddle on so that she can hold on. They put it on and she and another girl ride. They walk away and I think "I really want to walk beside her and hold onto her." But, I know she's done this before. Last time they just walked around and around for at least 30 minutes. Well, they are about 50' away and the horse kind of spooks. Eva says she hung on that time and Memory (the girl leading the horse) kind of straightens them out and then the horse kicks up it's rear legs and the two girls go flying about 7' off the ground (it was a tall horse) and land. THe other girl stands up and starts crying. Eva is lying crumpled on the ground.
We run as fast as we can over there and she is now crying and crying and there is blood everywhere. She's got a big open cut on the back of her head. Memory is a RN in the ICU and Gloria (the lady's whose horse it was) used to be an EMT with my mom. So, we decide that the cut is not bad enough to call the ambulance and that we'll drive and get stiches.... I just keep yelling "what do I do? What do I do?" I think that Gloria was actually close to as scared as I was and really didn't know what to do either. So, we're applying pressure and there's blood everywhere. So, we get in the van and start driving.
Then the reality kicks in. I start to think of all the billions of things that we should've thought of initally. She fell from 7' in the air and landed on the ground hard enough to put a huge gash in her head. (We don't think the horse stepped on her.) She could have a neck or back injury, she probably has a brain/ head injury, she could have a collapsed lung, she could have internal bleeding, etc, etc. Now, I'm freakin' out. We call 911 and meet and ambulance and I can't pull it together and I can't believe that I carried her in a cradle position with her neck and back hyperflexed and are her pupils responding and can she move her feet and is her abdomen filling with blood. It was just the scariest and it scares me even re-writing. Chris holds it together until he gets in the van to follow us to the hospital, doing this again for the second time in 11 months. I feel better with the paramedics doing something, Chris now is crying and crying and not knowing what's going on and driving 95 mph to the hospital. It's the longest drive ever and she's just so scared and I'm crying and it was like a nightmare. I just kept asking her questions and questions to see if she could remember or knew what was going on.
They do a CT scan of the neck and head after all other things are ruled out. Neck was clear. Skull has a compression fracture that is 2mm displaced. She showed no signs of brain injury or bleeding in the CT scan or by evaluation. She lost consciousness for a very brief period. She doesn't really remember falling or the van or ambulance ride, although she was alert and responding for that. THe neurosurgeon didn't think that surgery would be helpful at all and he wouldn't do it. He said they could immediately transfer her to the cities, but he was quite sure that they would make the same call. She has 9 staples in the back of her head.
We are staying in the hospital overnight tonight (Friday), CT scan 8am tomorrow morning, and then possible discharge tomorrow afternoon or one more night of observation. The nuerosurgeon said that some of those skull fracture fragments irritated the cortex of the brain and now she will be at increased risk of seizures (<1%) for the rest of her life. He said it could happen 5-10 years down the road. He said that if she was an adult, they would put her on an anti-seizure med preventatively, but they don't do that with kids because of the side effects.
Eva is just such a sweet girl. SHe's just so sweet. She said it wasn't the horse's fault. She wanted to know how the other girl is. She cried and cried in the van "I WANT MY GRANDMA." It was just so scary. She says "hospitals are no fun." Then she says "This is the worstest day ever." Chris and I then start to talk about how scary it was and I say "I think it was my scariest day ever, but you're OK. So, I think when the baby in my tummy died was my saddest day." She sits for a good minute or two and says "this day was the scariest, but it was much worse when the baby died." I love my sweet girl.
I was very scared about Travis's thing when we found out and his birth was very scary for me. But, this was just as scary. This tops the list for Chris. He is very shaken up about it. I think the "might have been" thing really scares us. She could've been stepped on or landed and broke her neck........ I think I should've just walked with her or listened to my gut. She's still got a scary series of scans and x-rays to make sure nothing is happening in there and I'll be watching her like a hawk for any sign of a seizure. She won't we able to participate in gym or run or do anything that she might fall down doing. So, please pray for our sweet girl. Just sit after reading this and say a prayer for her. She is very brave and has done such a great job. She will just be laying low for awhile.
Get out the bubble wrap for my kids now. I want to build a bubble and never let them cut out and just keep them safe in there. I never want them to ride in a vehicle again for fear of an auto accident. It just could've ended so badly. You all can do whatever you want, but I know now that we really do have the worst luck. Two kids fell off, one walked away. We have the broken skull and while I wouldn't wish that on anyone, I just keep wondering "why us?" Although, Chris and I keep saying, "Do we have really bad luck or really good luck?" Although we've had many horrible, scary things happen, we've always been OK. That seems maybe like we have some good luck. The angels were helping Eva today. I'll be a little crazy for awhile. That was awful. Trauma for sure to our darling baby girl and to the both of us. We just sat and stared at her and kissed her non-stop for about 8 hours in the ER. We'd kind of apologize to her and she just kept saying "it's OK." She liked it. She really started crying when they talked about the stiches and then I started crying and the doctor said "Eva, you have to try not to cry because that just makes mommies cry." She stopped and just looked at me instead. Sad, scary. Please, please, please pray her scan is OK tomorrow.
Erika
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