Concussion!

Sunday evening Joel gave us a big scare! While playing in our friends backyard during our church small group meeting he was pushed off their trampoline and landed on his head on the concrete. Our friend Max was the only adult outside, and he did not see him fall, but all the kids who did see it said he landed on his head. When Max happened to notice Joel he was lying on the ground near the trampoline, would not talk back to him and was limp. (Levi got a good talking to about getting help if his brother or friend is hurt or falls like that, he "thought he was just tired") We are pretty sure he blacked out or was knocked unconscious for a short time.

Max carried Joel in and handed him off to Philip and it took us what seemed like forever to get him to answer questions. When Max picked him up he started crying, but he remained limp for several minutes. Once he woke all the way up he would point to the left side of his head when we asked if anything was hurting. It took some time, but we finally found a large lump on the right side of his head that was slightly abraded as well. Joel was confused, walking clumsily and didn't remember even being on the trampoline. We called his pediatrician's office and they asked us to take him to the Children's hospital ER to be evaluated. Once there we was examined, had a CT scan and diagnosed with a moderate concussion. Thankfully there were no fractures or bleeding inside the brain, only a scalp hematoma (goose egg). We didn't get home until nearly midnight, and Joel slept in until 8:45am the next morning (very rare for him). When he woke up he was still a bit confused, had a headache, nausea and threw up his breakfast. Thankfully the doctor told us to expect those things. As the day went on he slowly improved and by Wednesday he seemed like his old self!

Joel has been suffering through physical restrictions all week, because another head injury with in a weeks time can cause much worse damage. He is so glad that today he was given the all clear to return to PE and recess on Monday! We bought some special crayons, markers and notepads, for him to use during those times, but he has been antsy! It was a scary night, but we are praising God that he was not seriously injured! I don't think we will be buying a trampoline any time soon.