Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Today I am 10 months old + 1 day. Daddy had to leave early this morning to finish inventory so it was me and my Mommy for most of the day together. When Daddy got back later in the day, he worked on converting my walker to be a walker/iv pole! He even painted it white to match my walker. We are going to let it dry and then I will try it out tomorrow.

Tonight my parents were getting me ready for bed like they usually do. Since I am still taking sponge baths, they lay me on my changing table to bathe me and do my trach and g-tube care. Since they have been doing this for 8 1/2 months they have it down to a science - or so they thought. With them both standing next to the changing table, they both happened to turn away at exactly the same time - which is the moment I decided to roll over and off the changing table. Now normally I don't do much but lay there playing with a roll of tape while they take care of me but tonight I guess I was feeling a little frisky. Daddy turned just as I went falling past him. Mommy turned around when she heard me hit the floor and heard Daddy start yelling. I fell directly on my face from about 3 1/2 feet to the hardwood floor below. Mommy scooped me up and it took a moment before I started crying really hard. She rushed me into the bathroom (not sure why, I think she was in shock) and within a minute or two I had stopped crying. There was a red spot on my forehead and a small cut on the inside of my mouth where my top tooth cut into my lip. Although I seemed fine, my parents were really worried because of my recent jaw surgery and what damage may have been done.

Since Palo Alto is at least two hours away in the car, my parents rushed me to the car to head to the ER at UC Davis. We got checked in right away and luckily at 8:30 on a Saturday night there wasn't a lot going on so we were put directly into a room. The resident came to get the general info and after about an hour the ENT on call came down to check on us. Since UC Davis didn't do the surgery and they only do external distractions he pretty much decided that we needed to go back to Palo Alto for follow up. He ordered some xrays while they called the on call ENT at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. The resident returned and let us know that the ENT at Lucile Packard thought it highly unlikely I had any real damage. Despite being sleepy I was pretty quiet and had times where I would smile and laugh for my parents - so they figured my jaw probably wasn't broken or I would be a lot more sad.

A few hours in, my parents took me to have some xrays done. Now the person checking me in remembered me from the first time I came in through the ER a few months ago. Then, the resident thought I looked familiar as well. Finally, my parents recognized two of the three radiology techs - and they hadn't forgotten me either. My parents don't necessarily think it is a good thing that the folks at the ER know me by name! The tech taking the xrays only knew that I had come in for a fall so when he came out after viewing the xrays he looked kind of concerned. He asked my parents, "Did you know that your daughter has some hardware on her jaw?" My parents tried not to crack up - I think Mommy made a sarcastic comment like, "No, really?" Since they don't do internal distractions at UC Davis, the really couldn't tell if there was any damage to the distractors or the jaw so they watched me for another hour or so to verify I didn't have a concussion and then sent me on my way. They were given instructions to follow up with Dr. Schendell's nurse tomorrow.

I cried all the way home (it was 12:30 by now and I hadn't had my nightime snack and I hadn't really slept since noon). Lucille had met my parents at the ER and came home with us, so she helped my Mommy get me ready for bed. She had to rock me for a few minutes but once the Tylenol took effect I fell asleep pretty quickly. I woke about 45 minutes later and played in my crib for about 1/2 hour and then fell back to sleep until 6:15. What a night!

Peyton Nicole Smith