Friday, March 03, 2006
Latest on Katarina
Here's the latest on Katarina. The neurosurgeon said the fracture is very small, and the bleeding is an epidural hematoma. Basically, the bone bled when it was fractured. The 3 days it took us to get to do the CT Scan actually let the bleeding stop so we didn't need yet another scan to check it again. Everything will be fine, and there will be absolutely no future trouble with it later on. They will schedule one more CT Scan in a few weeks to be sure everything is healing ok, and we will be done.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Katarina Update
This is the latest news on Katarina's condition. Most of you don't know what happened, so here's a quick rundown.
On Monday, February 27th at about 5:30pm, Katarina was going down the stairs to the basement. We were getting ready to go down ourselves, and we heard a loud crash, and she started screaming. We ran down, and she had (so we figure) leaned under the railing, lost her footing, and fell from about the 3rd step straight to the ground. Her feet landed on the plastic dish strainer, broke it, and she fell over sideways and landed on the only 6 inches of bare concrete in the basement. She split her ear open, and scratched her lower right rib area with a 2 inch scratch. We took her immediately to the after-hours care center at South Bend Clinic. She didn't seem hurt other than her ear and chest.
The nurse took us right in, and did a quick check, and after seeing her condition, allowed us to wait in the room until our turn. 2 hours later we finally saw the doctor. He checked her out, and said she seemed ok, but he wanted to do some X-Rays. We got 7 x-rays of her chest, head, and pelvis. Everything seemed ok and we left 3 1/2 hours after we got there.
The next day she seemed fine, but we didnt deem her well enough to go to school, but she wanted to go to ballet with her aunt and cousin. We had given her tylenol when she got up because she said she had a headache. We sent her on her way to ballet, and everything went as planned. At ballet (about 30 minutes before her tylenol was 'due' to wear off, she started complaining of a headache, holding her head with both hands. The instructor, also a nurse at HER doctor's office, checked her over, knowing of her accident the night before. She noticed her eyes were dilated to different sizes, and after making a few quick calls, decided she should be seen by her doctor. We scheduled it, and went in that night (Tuesday). She looked at her, and said she didnt SEE anything wrong, but knowing of the nurse's observation, being a professional, decided to schedule her for a CT Scan of her head first thing Wednesday morning.
Anna took her, along with her mom for moral support, and went for the appointment. When they got there, the technician allowed Kat to move around the room and check out the machine and everything. After about 1/2 hour, someone came in that had to have a scan, so Kat got to watch that. It was then decided to give Kat the sedative that we had gotten the night before ($10) to make her sleepy. They gave us a room to wait in to try to get Kat to go to sleep for the procedure. After two hours, it was clear that the sedative was not going to work. Anna went up to the Pediatrics department (all at the South Bend Clinic) to talk to Kat's doctor (Dr. Sanders). After about 1/2 hour, they had set up an appointment at Memorial Hospital for 8:00 am for a sedated CT. Anna took Kat home to get some lunch (since she wasn't able to eat because of the oral sedative) and her mom went to work.
The next morning (Thursday) Anna's dad came to take them to Memorial for the procedure. They were in a room in Ambulatory Care for about 1 1/2 hours and then were taken up to Radiology. Anna was able to hold Katarina while they anesthetized her and then her & Joe waited outside for about 10 minutes while they did the CT. Then we went to the recovery waiting room while Kat was in recovery (just waking up from the anesthesia). Back down in the Ambulatory Care Center Anna & Joe waited while they brought Kat down. Kat was awake, but groggy, so they gave her some 7up and graham crackers and watched TV. About 1/2 hour after the arrived back in the ACC, Dr. Sanders called to tell Anna what was up.
Kat has a non-depressed skull fracture with bleeding (a subdural hematoma). She had already arranged for us to see Dr. Keurcher, a neurosurgeon at 10:15 the next morning. Wow. Dr. Sanders also said that there would probably be no surgery, but that Dr. Keurcher would examine her and probably just monitor her very closely and order another CT in a month or so. This afternoon when Eric got home and Anna updated him, he told her he could go to the appointment- they're shut down at work on Friday. It's also possible that they will be having a short week next week. When it rains... it pours. So far tonight Kat is doing fine. She's on restricted activity (no running, jumping, etc.) - for those of you that don't know 3 year olds... restricted activity is not easy to enforce. She had a bad headache when she woke up from her nap- thank goodness for Tylenol!
Please - everyone - watch over your children at ALL times- no matter how confident you are in them, no matter how well your child(ren) listen. For the first time in the 3 years we've lived in this house, we took out the gate going into the kitchen (which of course leads to the basement). Even after 2 months of careful supervision and even though Kat is a pro at stairs, look what happened. It all happened because 1) we were not watching her and 2) the stairs were open under the railing. Since then, Eric has attached a board (temporarily) under the railing and we watch Kat like hawks! Not to mention that she has to be checked every 2 hours during the night to make sure she is okay. Needless to say, things have been exhausting. Anna has only been to work 1 day this week and Eric only worked 2 days, luckily he took Tuesday as a vacation day. (His plant was shut down last Friday the 24th and Monday the 27th, Tuesday was a planned vacation day). Anyways, that is what is going on with Kat. We'll update you as soon as we can tomorrow after the consultation with the neurosurgeon.
On Monday, February 27th at about 5:30pm, Katarina was going down the stairs to the basement. We were getting ready to go down ourselves, and we heard a loud crash, and she started screaming. We ran down, and she had (so we figure) leaned under the railing, lost her footing, and fell from about the 3rd step straight to the ground. Her feet landed on the plastic dish strainer, broke it, and she fell over sideways and landed on the only 6 inches of bare concrete in the basement. She split her ear open, and scratched her lower right rib area with a 2 inch scratch. We took her immediately to the after-hours care center at South Bend Clinic. She didn't seem hurt other than her ear and chest.
The nurse took us right in, and did a quick check, and after seeing her condition, allowed us to wait in the room until our turn. 2 hours later we finally saw the doctor. He checked her out, and said she seemed ok, but he wanted to do some X-Rays. We got 7 x-rays of her chest, head, and pelvis. Everything seemed ok and we left 3 1/2 hours after we got there.
The next day she seemed fine, but we didnt deem her well enough to go to school, but she wanted to go to ballet with her aunt and cousin. We had given her tylenol when she got up because she said she had a headache. We sent her on her way to ballet, and everything went as planned. At ballet (about 30 minutes before her tylenol was 'due' to wear off, she started complaining of a headache, holding her head with both hands. The instructor, also a nurse at HER doctor's office, checked her over, knowing of her accident the night before. She noticed her eyes were dilated to different sizes, and after making a few quick calls, decided she should be seen by her doctor. We scheduled it, and went in that night (Tuesday). She looked at her, and said she didnt SEE anything wrong, but knowing of the nurse's observation, being a professional, decided to schedule her for a CT Scan of her head first thing Wednesday morning.
Anna took her, along with her mom for moral support, and went for the appointment. When they got there, the technician allowed Kat to move around the room and check out the machine and everything. After about 1/2 hour, someone came in that had to have a scan, so Kat got to watch that. It was then decided to give Kat the sedative that we had gotten the night before ($10) to make her sleepy. They gave us a room to wait in to try to get Kat to go to sleep for the procedure. After two hours, it was clear that the sedative was not going to work. Anna went up to the Pediatrics department (all at the South Bend Clinic) to talk to Kat's doctor (Dr. Sanders). After about 1/2 hour, they had set up an appointment at Memorial Hospital for 8:00 am for a sedated CT. Anna took Kat home to get some lunch (since she wasn't able to eat because of the oral sedative) and her mom went to work.
The next morning (Thursday) Anna's dad came to take them to Memorial for the procedure. They were in a room in Ambulatory Care for about 1 1/2 hours and then were taken up to Radiology. Anna was able to hold Katarina while they anesthetized her and then her & Joe waited outside for about 10 minutes while they did the CT. Then we went to the recovery waiting room while Kat was in recovery (just waking up from the anesthesia). Back down in the Ambulatory Care Center Anna & Joe waited while they brought Kat down. Kat was awake, but groggy, so they gave her some 7up and graham crackers and watched TV. About 1/2 hour after the arrived back in the ACC, Dr. Sanders called to tell Anna what was up.
Kat has a non-depressed skull fracture with bleeding (a subdural hematoma). She had already arranged for us to see Dr. Keurcher, a neurosurgeon at 10:15 the next morning. Wow. Dr. Sanders also said that there would probably be no surgery, but that Dr. Keurcher would examine her and probably just monitor her very closely and order another CT in a month or so. This afternoon when Eric got home and Anna updated him, he told her he could go to the appointment- they're shut down at work on Friday. It's also possible that they will be having a short week next week. When it rains... it pours. So far tonight Kat is doing fine. She's on restricted activity (no running, jumping, etc.) - for those of you that don't know 3 year olds... restricted activity is not easy to enforce. She had a bad headache when she woke up from her nap- thank goodness for Tylenol!
Please - everyone - watch over your children at ALL times- no matter how confident you are in them, no matter how well your child(ren) listen. For the first time in the 3 years we've lived in this house, we took out the gate going into the kitchen (which of course leads to the basement). Even after 2 months of careful supervision and even though Kat is a pro at stairs, look what happened. It all happened because 1) we were not watching her and 2) the stairs were open under the railing. Since then, Eric has attached a board (temporarily) under the railing and we watch Kat like hawks! Not to mention that she has to be checked every 2 hours during the night to make sure she is okay. Needless to say, things have been exhausting. Anna has only been to work 1 day this week and Eric only worked 2 days, luckily he took Tuesday as a vacation day. (His plant was shut down last Friday the 24th and Monday the 27th, Tuesday was a planned vacation day). Anyways, that is what is going on with Kat. We'll update you as soon as we can tomorrow after the consultation with the neurosurgeon.
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