And today went a little something like this...

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Today was one of the scariest days in my almost 7 year career of being a special needs mom. I'd have to say that I handled what this day threw at me like a pro.

I had the day all planned out today, I was going to accomplish some chores and get ready for William's PT to arrive for therapy. We also had an appointment with our favorite Pulmonologist (Dr. Kelvin Panasar) and we were super prepared for that and excited to see Dr. Panasar and his staff. I needed some RX refills for William, and to touch base with him regarding all Wild Man's superhero like progress he has been making in the past several months.  

William didn't have PT until 11am so therefore we had no rush this morning. William woke up around 5am, but I continued to snooze until 7 am and Isabell woke up around 7:30am. I made her breakfast and we played for a bit. At 9am I put William in his High Chair and buckled him in. He loves to sit in his high chair- I think he really feels like a big boy in it. Anyhow- I always put him in his beloved highchair when I am doing things around the house. Like taking a shower. Sounds pretty simple, right? I had Isabell fed, and entertained. She was sitting on the couch playing with her Tab. William was securely buckled in his favorite spot- so I told Isabell that I was going to take a shower (like I always do) and off I went. Within 3-4 minutes into my shower Isabell came into the bathroom and was playing in there. I thought that was odd, so I asked her what she was doing. She said she was playing and Bubba fell. I asked her "Fell on the floor? Is he on the ground?" and Isabell said "Yeah" like it was nothing. I bolted out of the shower and ran into the living room where I found the High Chair EMPTY- buckles unbuckled- and William was face down on the hard floor. I swooped him up and took him to my room to try and sooth him, and make sure he was ok. He was crying so hard, harder that I have ever seen him cry. William is always a happy camper, so when he cries something is really wrong. And with his trach- not much sound comes out when talking or crying. He was crying so hard that I could hear his intense cry through his trach. Which is not normal for William. I knew he was injured. I laid him on my bed to check him out. He wasn't bleeding. His head felt shaped differently than normal. William still has a very fragile head from his health condition. He still has a large soft spot that will most likely never close, along with his brain atrophy which means his head and brain are so very fragile. I kept feeling his skull and it felt weird to me. I knew I was anxious, and in the heat of an intense moment and I didn't want to over-react. I hooked William up to our pulse oximeter which monitors his heart rate and oxygen levels. William's normal heart rate while awake is 100bpm-125bpm. and when asleep his normal heart rate is  89bpm-95bpm. So this means the lowest I have ever seen his heart rate was 89bpm. When I powered on the pulse oximeter Williams heart rate was 77bpm and dropped to 63bpm. I had William on his daily required flow of oxygen which was 0.75lpm. Very low flow. The pulse oximeter was reading that William's oxygen saturation's were  92% and after a moment his saturation's dropped to 59%. My home liquid oxygen tank goes up to Max flow of 6 lpm. Since William's saturation's were dropping so much- I blasted him with oxygen by cranking my tank to 6 lpm. His saturation's jumped up to 100%. Good. Now the low heart rate was freaking me out. He was closing his eyes, and becoming limp. Then he would jolt and cry and wiggle his arms etc and his heart rate was going up from the 70's to the 90's. Up and down. So I knew I needed to keep him awake, I really felt like he was trying to loose consciousness. Meanwhile, I had to dart out of the shower in which I had not even completed to address this issue. After spending 10 minutes or so evaluating William, I called my mom because I knew I needed help with Isabell and I needed to get William to Phoenix Children's Hospital. My mom got here in no time, and I was afraid to drive to PCH myself, so I called 911. Paramedics were here in no time. They quickly came into my bedroom where William was and hooked him up to their monitors- asked questions and told me they can transport  William to Cardon's Children's Hospital or County. I don't have anything against Carson's, but I let the paramedics know that William has never been to Cardon's. I explained that he obviously has intense medical issues, and he has had 23 hospitalizations and 14 surgical procedures at PCH and that I felt that we had enough time and I recommended to drive a few extra miles and transport us to PCH. They all agreed. I said we will not go to County! We got to PCH about 10:30am. We went right into Emergency Dept room 6. The resident doc came right in within no time, and said a CT scan was wise. He rushed over to his computer- and put in an order for a CT scan with Radiology. Our ED Nurse Tiffany got us packaged up and down the long hallway of doom we went to radiology. (I call it hallways of doom because we had to rush down that long hallway last year when William was in Full Respiratory Failure trying to get to the PICU as fast as we could- NOT FUN!) CT scan was done is about 3 minutes! And back to the ED we went. Within 30 minutes, the resident doc came back in to talk to us. The CT scan showed that William does have a Non Displaced Skull Fracture on the back of his head. He said his brain looks good, and the rest of the skull looks good. No swelling. William is in pain, but we have been advised to treat with Tylenol, and he should be fine. We do have a follow up plan with Neurosurgery to make sure the skull fracture heals up properly.

In case you all are wondering- I had to get dressed in a flash when the ambulance was coming. My hair was dripping wet and in tangles. I threw it up in a matted pony tail and threw on some clothes as fast as I could. I knew the paramedics would arrive and want to load William up and Go. Of course I wanted to go with him in the ambulance. So, I am feeling like a Super Trooper today. With everything is disarray, and me getting transported to PCH in the middle of my lax morning routine I'd have to say I am pretty exhausted.

My mom had to call Richie to tell him what happened since I was taking care of my boy. Richie had a panic attack because he is 1300 miles away from home- and was scared for our little fighter. I was super scared as well. He was ready to leave work and fly home immediately. We decided for him to stay at work until I got to PCH and seen what the 'damage' was. After the resident doc said kiddos with fractures like William;s are ok to discharge and go home- I called Richie and told him not to worry and he didn't need to come home. William was ok. He is still sitting over there in Texas worrying about us though, and that is hard. We are not loving being apart right now, but we know we will get through this and be ok. He's the best dad, and I hate that he's away especially when my kids are sick, injured or not doing well.

Thanks to our Army of Helpers who jumped ship and offered to help us today. Isabell went with her Nana and my mom helped me get William home. We had lots of well wishes from Friends and Family and we appreciate that so much. We are doing great tonight, and William is doing fine. He is in pain, and I have been giving him Tylenol every 4 hours. He tries to be happy and social, then he remembers that he has a head injury and cries his sweet innocent little helpless cry. It's heartbreaking.

Isabell was upset with herself after the incident, and cried and cried. I didn't freak out at her, I remained calm- but after I started evaluating William and things got intense I could tell she realized bubba was hurt. And she did not like that. She loves her bubba so much, and tries to be such a helper. She is still learning her boundaries, and also being a stubborn big sister. This afternoon she was so sweet and loving to her bubba because he has a BooBoo on his head with no blood. She is obsessed with blood- so she keeps asking me if there was blood. No, there was no blood.

Off to bed I go, Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho. Zzzzzzz.