Heads are not lighter than air
On Thursday afternoon Jem and his dad were "walking the dog" on their bicycles. They were a block away from home and Jem wasn't wearing his helmet. Anyway, Linden has a few quite steep streets and Jem was going down one and doing tricks on his bike at the same time.
He fell off.
James was behind him and rushed over only to find him in convulsions. A few people stopped and a woman called an ambulance and both of them were taken to Milpark Casualty. He has grazes all down his right side and his hands were damaged, obviously to try and stop himself from falling. A sonar was done to make sure that there were no internal injuries on his side but the injuries were all scrapes and bruises, thank goodness.
After consulting with a trauma doctor and Professor Snickers (yes, Snickers), they both agreed that Jem should go to the Trauma High Care for monitoring. His scans showed a haematoma - bleeding on the brain, about a 5cm area between the scull and the brain. Due to the fact that he had also gone into convulsions made the case even clearer to them.
On Thursday and Thursday night he just wanted to sleep and could not stay awake. After being moved to the trauma ICU he was barely awake for the whole of Friday. This was before the projectile vomiting. The doctors started him on Epinutin immediately (which is given to people with epilepsy to combat seizures). Yesterday, as he kept nothing down, they started him on strong anti-nausea medication which seemed to work quite well. Unfortunately, probably due to the concussion, he was unable to sleep and would startle awake after every few minutes. The seconds scan showed that the area of the haematoma has not increased i.e. it's stopped bleeding and that it is somewhat reduced. They started him on cortizone as well as there seemed to be some swelling of the brain.
Today he was much better and seems to have got his sense of humour back. He gobbled down his supper and the pudding as well and said that he felt ok. His headache has lifted and he slept for about 3 hours while I was there. The trauma doctor was there while I was there and he said that he wanted to be sure that he was ok before moving him to a general ward or discharging him and that he should stay in ICU for Sunday as well. He seemed to do the assessment when Jem was in his deepest sleep and said that he was "relatively incoherent", which I don't actually agree with. He ordered more blood works and another scan for tomorrow.
Hopefully when Professor Snickers does his rounds tonight he will encounter a different person to the one that the trauma doctor did. I am sure that he will not be going to school on Monday and we will see if he will be discharged tomorrow or on Monday. Let's hope for tomorrow.
He will have to take the Epinutin for about 6 months just to be on the safe side and will not be able to play rugby (YAY).
Thanks to everyone who sent encouraging messages and good will. His friend, Ezra, came to see him and baked him a cake himself !!!
He fell off.
James was behind him and rushed over only to find him in convulsions. A few people stopped and a woman called an ambulance and both of them were taken to Milpark Casualty. He has grazes all down his right side and his hands were damaged, obviously to try and stop himself from falling. A sonar was done to make sure that there were no internal injuries on his side but the injuries were all scrapes and bruises, thank goodness.
After consulting with a trauma doctor and Professor Snickers (yes, Snickers), they both agreed that Jem should go to the Trauma High Care for monitoring. His scans showed a haematoma - bleeding on the brain, about a 5cm area between the scull and the brain. Due to the fact that he had also gone into convulsions made the case even clearer to them.
On Thursday and Thursday night he just wanted to sleep and could not stay awake. After being moved to the trauma ICU he was barely awake for the whole of Friday. This was before the projectile vomiting. The doctors started him on Epinutin immediately (which is given to people with epilepsy to combat seizures). Yesterday, as he kept nothing down, they started him on strong anti-nausea medication which seemed to work quite well. Unfortunately, probably due to the concussion, he was unable to sleep and would startle awake after every few minutes. The seconds scan showed that the area of the haematoma has not increased i.e. it's stopped bleeding and that it is somewhat reduced. They started him on cortizone as well as there seemed to be some swelling of the brain.
Today he was much better and seems to have got his sense of humour back. He gobbled down his supper and the pudding as well and said that he felt ok. His headache has lifted and he slept for about 3 hours while I was there. The trauma doctor was there while I was there and he said that he wanted to be sure that he was ok before moving him to a general ward or discharging him and that he should stay in ICU for Sunday as well. He seemed to do the assessment when Jem was in his deepest sleep and said that he was "relatively incoherent", which I don't actually agree with. He ordered more blood works and another scan for tomorrow.
Hopefully when Professor Snickers does his rounds tonight he will encounter a different person to the one that the trauma doctor did. I am sure that he will not be going to school on Monday and we will see if he will be discharged tomorrow or on Monday. Let's hope for tomorrow.
He will have to take the Epinutin for about 6 months just to be on the safe side and will not be able to play rugby (YAY).
Thanks to everyone who sent encouraging messages and good will. His friend, Ezra, came to see him and baked him a cake himself !!!