heads up!

We were greeted at the door of the ER with a woman wearing a mask. This is new, I thought. She was holding an outstretched bottle of hand sanitizer and, through her mask, she impolitely asked me why I was there. And, oh, by the way, did I have any flu like symptoms? I peered into the waiting room and saw more masks. Oh, my. In my rush to get my delusional child to the ER it didn't even cross my mind. We have just crossed the threshold into full on swine flu territory. I took the sanitizer, clutched my baby tight and stepped in.

Should I back up? Yes, I suppose I should. Probably to the moment when I was eating dinner & sipping wine with Scott's parents and we heard a humongous bang followed by violent screaming. Gage had fallen backwards off the back of the sofa where he was quietly perched watching television. He broke the fall with the back of his head. On hardwood floors.

At first I silently panicked. Grabbed him, checked the head and made him talk to me and look at me. Kids fall. Especially ours. A lot. But they are tough. Still, we always take the obligatory 5 minutes to make sure everyone is just more shaken up then hurt, then we make some jokes and eat some ice cream. Which we did. But still, something was off.

Gage's memory was fine. He could answer all of our questions. He wanted ice cream. But he was not Gage. We all knew it but I don't think we really wanted to admit it.

Diane showed him some fingers and asked how many. He got some wrong. I asked him to tell us how he felt and he described his current state as such, "Do you remember when we brought Lucy (our dog) home for the first time and she didn't know who she was or where she was? Well, that's what I feel like right now." We left for the ER.

So, now we're just about caught up and I can tell you that we are pretty sure he's just fine. After going through our cleansing routine at the ER entrance we were admitted post-haste. I suppose a 5 year old literally falling out of his admitting chair and not being able to track a finger from side to side will do that. That and the fact that I was visibly terrified. Apparently when the woman told me to go back to the waiting room and they would call me quickly she could see the fear in my eyes. They came for us just minutes later. She must be a mom.

By the time we got to the bed and the doctor arrived, again, post-haste, Gage was doing better. He could walk in a straight line and was doing basic math on Grammy's fingers. He was still a little glazed over and lost-looking but it was getting clear that we were on an upswing. The doctor asked Gage a few questions which he answered slowly but appropriately and to which the doctor responded to with, "Wow, you are very bright for a five year old. You answered my questions better than most adults." He then advised against a CT scan, said it was probably just a mild concussion and that the likelihood of bleeding was small...but that it was ultimately my call. Now this is an odd moment for a mother. I mean, you want to be humble and trust the professional but you also want to yell, "Yes, my son is bright and I'm so proud that you see that...but I swear & I know it's had to believe...he's much brighter when he hasn't FALLEN ON HIS HEAD."

Needless to say, we took the doctor's advice and left without the radiation or any additional swine flu exposure (although I am still creeped out that he had to use the bathroom). Instead, we came home and watched a few hours of baseball and ate lots more sugar. Gage became more and more animated as the night went on as did his sister that, thanks to Gage's accident, had an ice cream sandwich, a popsicle, a frozen yogurt pop & one milk dud for dinner after I insisted that she eat one of the FIVE meals I made for dinner before she could have any treats at all. Yup, I'm a sucker for injury. Even for the bystanders apparently.

As I just tucked Gage into my bed (for safekeeping) we had this brief conversation...

Gage: It's not going to be fun when you have to wake me up during the night to check on me.

Mom: I'll tell you what. Since you're doing so great now I will wake you just one time. If you can answer all of my questions at that time I promise not to wake you again.

Gage: But the Doctor said three times.

Yeah, he's going to be fine.