Depressed Skull Fracture

I have a hard time understanding all of the medical mumbo jumbo, but I believe this title best sums up the final verdict. Web MD describes it this way: Depressed skull fractures: These are common after forceful impact by blunt objects. These injuries cause "dents" in the skull bone. If the depth of a depressed fracture is at least equal to the thickness of the surrounding skull bone (about 1/4-1/2 inch), surgery is often required to elevate the bony pieces and to inspect the brain for evidence of injury. Minimally depressed fractures are less than the thickness of the bone. They usually do not require surgical treatment unless other injuries are noted.

For those of you who haven't heard the story, I'll try to sum it up. On Sunday evening, around 5:30 LiviJ fell off a horse leading us to call 911 for an ambulance ride to the SCenter hospital.

Once there, this pregnant mommy was left to pace in the hallway while daddy had the tough job of calming LiviJ through the CT scan and vomitting. Back to ER we go to continue trying to calm a scared, confused, and still vomitting 4 year old strapped to a board with a neck brace on (which she ended up having on for about 4 hours). What a helpless feeling we had! Knowing it was best for her to stay immobile, but just wanting to scoop her up in our arms and tell her it was all better. But daddy was her hero and he was SO great with her and able to comfort her as best as anyone could.

The CT scanned showed fractures so, with me being in my condition, the hubby had to once again endure the necessary helicopter ride to Sanford Hospital in SF. This man has never been on anything that's left the ground in his life, so this was quite an experience for him...He's fine with never doing it again, either.

12 minutes later they landed at the Children's hospital while I endured the 1+ hours drive to meet them there. The hubby told me that as soon as they landed and brought her in to the hospital, there were 10 Drs that just swarmed over her and he was commanded to stay in the corner. Once again, what an overwhelming feeling of helplessness and fear for any parent!

After another round of tests and another CT scan, she was sent to the ICU with a healthy dose of morphine and some great news (to us)! She has 2 skull fractures, but NO bleeding on the brain! They are going to proceed treating her for "head trauma, but no brain injury." Praise the Lord!!

Above is the "Castle" Children's hospital that she stayed at in SF. Below is her ICU room.

Sunday evening and Monday morning were spent on drugs, vomitting, and sleeping in between vitals and evaluations every 2 hours. By Monday afternoon she was released from ICU and sent to the regular PEDS floor where she was weaned from the morphine and able to control the pain with prescription Tylenol. Below is a picture of her room on the regular PEDS floor, where she is attempting her first popsicle.

She was really tired and did a lot of sleeping, but by 6:00pm Monday evening wanted to see the playroom. So, the nurses allowed her a hall pass. She enjoyed some minimal low key play time, but it REALLY wore her out. Below is a picture of her painting in the play room. She enjoyed being able to get out of bed, but you can see the exhaustion on her face.

Tuesday morning she started perking up and was able to keep food down(popsicles and toast), and since we were able to control the pain with an oral med, they allowed us to go home Tuesday afternoon. She was SO excited not to be attached to any more "strings", as she called them. The ride home wore her out, but she slept great in her own bed (with the help of some Tylenol) and woke up Wed morning looking pretty good.

She's very pale, weak, and still not eating much, but enjoying being home and having lots of toys to play with. My brother injured his hand at work, so he has a couple days off and he thought that two sickly people should get together and keep each other company. So he came over this afternoon with a movie and games. She's been having a great time watching "Bolt", playing "Mouse Trap", blowing bubbles, painting, and doing paper oragami thingies with "Uncle Cheese" (as Bman calls him).

Her recipe for recovery is to lay low...Easier said than done for a 4 yr old. If she complains her head hurts, we give Tylenol on demand. If she's in the house doing nothing but playing board games, watching movies, etc., she is not required to wear a helmet. However, she is required to wear it for all other activities. Not allowed outside with out it. This is a broken bone and will take 6-8 weeks to heal. No bike riding, no scooter, no swings, no playground equipment, no horses, etc. for that whole time, per Dr's orders. This is going to be tough! But, we will take it one day at a time and pray for continued healing. We praise God that this wasn't any more serious than it was. I love seeing that smile back on her face! Thank you so much to everyone for your trips to the hospital, the gifts, the phone calls, the food, and your continued thoughts and prayers!