Update on Parker

I haven't posted on our blog since August 7th. Here is the reason why....Parker ran backwards off the trampoline on August 8th while he was with the babysitter at our home. (Greg and I were at dinner at the time.) He fell on his back in the bark mulch. He had no bruise or bump on his head but was crying. The babysitter helped him into the house and he got really lethargic and fell asleep. He threw up on himself and became barely responsive. Greg and I rushed home and then took his straight to the ER. They ordered a CAT scan and decided he needed surgery to relieve some bleeding between his brain and his skull. Greg and Martin gave him a priesthood blessing and then he was taken straight into the OR. We were escorted to the waiting room to .....wait. Time never seemed to stand so still. Wednesday night was the hardest night. After waiting about an hour and a half, the neurosurgeon came out and said everything had gone really well and we would be able to see him soon. I felt like I could finally breathe again. We were able to see him at about midnight in the OR recovery room. He was mostly sleepy from the anaesthesia but he could respond a little bit. The recovery nurse gave him a stuffed bear with gauze wrapped around his head too. He spent that night in ICU and I (mom) stayed with him that night in a sleeper chair. He spent two nights in the ICU with two of nurses I will never forget. So grateful they were the ones watching over him. Greg and I took turns every night being at the hospital. He had quite a bit of swelling from the surgery which they said was normal. But it was hard to watch. He swelled up so much that his left eye swelled shut on Thursday and by Friday the other one swelled shut too. Again, they kept reassuring us that it was "normal after head surgery". He was transferred to the pediatric unit on Friday. But, Friday was a hard day too as his swelling peaked that night. He spent about 6 hours with both eyes swelled shut. It was hard to watch him have to go through that. Since then his swelling is down almost completely. He came home yesterday (Wednesday) and we are so happy to have him back around us all the time. We felt so incomplete without him. The house was just too quiet. (Never thought I would say that). He has 24 staples in his head from the surgery. It is in the shape of a question mark from his ear to the middle of his upper forehead. He gets those out on Monday. He is going to have a note from the doctor that he can wear a hat for a little bit at school until his hair evens back out. We are so grateful that he was protected and is back to his old feisty :-) self.

When shopping for a trampoline, we chose to go with the one that had the best safety enclosure to keep kids from falling off...even waited a few months to get it because the trampoline we wanted was on back order. The trampoline came and set up easily enough, but after several hours of effort we realized the package was missing some parts for the safety enclosure. So we contacted the trampoline company. In the course of the next few months they sent us the wrong parts two different times, which is why there was no net to prevent Parker's fall. Very sad.

(Greg spent lots of time reading him the sports page when he was so swollen.)

To clear up a few misconceptions floating around...

1. Greg did not fall off the trampoline. (it was indeed Parker)

2. Parker did not get a gash in his head. (he got a subdural hematoma which means he had bleeding in his head between his brain and his skull.)

3. Parker did not go to the children's hospital in Portland (although we were given that option).

A funny note...

He swelled all up and Margaret had two nurses say "he looks just like you!" We are happy that he is back to looking like Dad again. :-)

We sincerely want to thank everyone that has prayed for Parker! We know it helped. Thanks for the calls and emails offering help! It has been a great comfort to us. Thanks to everyone who has helped with the kids (grandparents, rachel, kristy), with meals, with returning phone calls (kristy and brooke), and who came to visit Parker in the hospital. Thanks to aunt rachel for the big "Tough Dude" poster and the Church Primary for the bandaid poster. We hope to pay it forward....