Natalie gets a blackeye

While I was on the way home from work on Thursday, Natalie slipped off the couch and hit her head on the coffee table. She has hit her head on things before and got a few bumps and bruises, but nothing this close to her eyes. By the time that I got home, Kristin had already called our Pediatricians office and left a message. We were concerned that she could have fractured something close to her eye.

After waiting an hour to get a call back from the doctor’s office, they told us that if her eye was not swollen shut, she could make it until tomorrow, and then bring her into the office. So, the night progressed as normal...we had supper, and then bathtime, and then we watched one of Natalie’s shows. Natalie drank her milk and went to bed.

Halfway through watching a recorded episode of The Office, I was laughing a little too loud and woke Natalie up. I think that it was the part where Jim, Dwight, and Michael dressed up as warehouse workers and went to sabotage the nearby office...hilarious stuff. Anyways, I pause the show and get up to check on Natalie. When I go in there, her eye is about 2 millimeters away from being swollen shut. I think that she was sleeping on her bum eye, and it really focused the swelling.

Kristin and I got Natalie in the car and took her to the hospital. The above picture was taken on my Treo while in Texas Children’s Hospital in downtown Houston. By the time that I took the picture, the swelling in her eye had gone down, but we were already there, so we decided to stay.

Apparently we were not the only parents who had their kids at the ER. There was a 3 hour wait to be seen by a doctor! So, I went back to the car to get some cash for food (it was about midnight), and Natalie was following around the snack cart, pointing to a bag of chips, saying, “Peas, peas, peas.” There is just something about seeing your kid with a swollen eye follow around a snack cart...the chips could have been $10, and I might have bought her a bag to make her happy. It was hard to see her look like she went 12 rounds with Mike Tyson (minus the bloody ears of course).

So I go to the car, and when I am almost back to the hospital entrance, Kristin comes out with Natalie. I am puzzled, and before I could say anything, Kristin says, “well, I guess God was watching out for us.” Apparently, Natalie was running around the waiting room and almost ran into the an ER doctor passing through. Kristin caught her at just the last moment, but not before Natalie caught his attention. He asked if her eye was the only reason she was in the ER. Kristin said yes, and he asked if it was okay for him to look at her eye right there. What was Kristin going to say?!

The ER doctor felt around on Natalie face and determined that she did not have any type of fracture, and that she should go home.

We made it home around 1 in the morning, which is less than 2 hours from the time we left. I can’t say that I have ever been to and from the ER in that short amount of time.

Today Natalie’s eye continues to look painful, but she is as active as ever. I wish she could live in a pillow covered house for a few days, but we don’t have that many pillows. I guess this is all part of being a kid and being a parent, but it is still difficult at times.

Landon