Last night about 4:45 am, Evelyn started crying and screaming for me. I rolled out of bed and stumbled as quickly as I could to her. She was laying there in bed, on her back, just crying and screaming, she would not answer me when I called her name or shook her. I thought she was having a bad dream and I just reached down and picked her up. When I lifted her a bit she screamed even louder and wailed and I heard her say " Mama!!!! I cracked my neck and now it hurts so bad!!!" I looked at her and her little head was at an angle and she was clutching the left side of her neck, towards the back but closer to the shoulder. All I could think was that, here she was with some neck injury and I just hauled her off of the bed and swung her around to get her onto my lap.
Then I had to holler and yell for Leslie. Because, even though I am a nurse, even though I KNEW it was probably just a pulled muscle, even though I knew she was yelling mostly from the shock of waking up in pain, even though I knew that I did not hurt her by lifting her onto my lap....the Sympathetic Branch of my Autonomic Nervous System kicked in. I got all clammy and sweaty, nauseous and head spinny. I really thought that I was going to pass out and I did not want to hit the floor with Ev in my arms, so I yelled for Les. He came. I handed Evelyn over to him and got up to go to the bathroom, as I was not sure WHAT I was going to do. I sat on the toilet and put my head down and breathed deep for a bit, then I splashed some cold water on my face and resumed Mama Duties with Ev.
So that's what it was- she slept wrong on her neck and now has a pulled muscle. OK.
I just gave her some Motrin, cuddled her, reassured her and laid her back in bed in a neutral position, put on some soothing music for her and let the Motrin do it's thing. She fell back to sleep, as did we all. When she woke for the second time this morning, she still has a sore/stiff neck but she is not howling in pain and keeping her head tilted down and to the side. Heck, I even had to stop her from jumping on my bed not 20 minutes ago.
Moral of the story?
Just because you can papoose someone else's kid and assist with about a gajillion facial stitches after a sledding incident does NOT mean that you can even handle the slightest problem with your child. Just because you can help save a person mid heart attack does not mean that you will stumble out of bed and not freak when YOUR child is wailing in pain. Just because you can calmly and rationally assess someone else does not mean that you won't nearly puke when you see your baby holding her neck and crying.
Yeah. Big. Bad. Nurse.
1 comment:
I had a similar moment with my ex-husband once. He's also a cop. Remember that part.. it gives the story the needed effect. :)
He sliced his finger open and was bleeding everywhere. We ran out of the house leaving the back door standing wide open, the lawnmower, weed whacker and all the lawn tools laying out in the yard (which you DON'T do where I live... unless you want them gone), both needing a shower desperately, sweaty and covered with dirt and grass clippings with our grungiest clothes on, and not cleaning up any of the blood that had dripped down my white painted cabinets. Drove like a madwoman with him to the ER....
wait for it....
wait for it...
he needed 2 stitches!!
Yep... I'm a trained professional. Years of experience remaining calm under pressure. Except when it comes to my own emergencies apparently. LOL!
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