Far-Far Away Flusches: A Sad Day in Bahrain

We had to take Gavin to the Emergency Room this morning.

Saturday, March 13th
Last night Paul and I went on a great date to the Diana Krall concert at the Arad Fort and Caitlin watched to boys for us. At the end of the concert we received a text from Caitlin saying that Gavin bumped his head on the coffee table but he's OK and the boys are now in bed. OK we figured, he's trying to walk so we are bound to have a few bumps and bruises along the way... if it was bad she would have said so.

This morning Paul got up with Gavin when he woke up around 9:00 AM and woke me up moments later. Gavin's eye was 2/3 swollen shut with a 3 inch diameter swollen purple bruise above his right eye. Instantly I went to him to see if there was any other damage. I felt terrible for not checking his "bump" last night... how would we have known. We called the doctor on call because it's Saturday and the base clinic is closed. The "Nurse On Call" recommended taking Gavin to the hospital which was what my gut was telling me to do anyway.

At 10:30 AM we arrived at Bahrain Specialist Hospital in Juffair. We wheeled him into the ER in his stroller and a nurse met us before we even made it to the Reception Desk she said "Oh, poor baby, here, put him in the room". WOW! Talk about service! We hadn't even given anybody his name or age and she was already taking his vitals.

We saw an ER physician within thirty minutes and he called Radiology to order a CT scan. He said his fear was that Gavin may have a scull fracture and wanted to rule that out. He also called Anesthesiology because they may have to sedate my sweet baby to keep him from moving during the procedure. My "Mommy's Heart" was crying for my "broken" lil' guy. My prayers were for sleep for Gavin (to prevent sedation) and for God to guide the hands of his caretakers.

God is SOOOO Good! Around 11:30 AM I wheeled a now sleeping Gavin up to Radiology and lifted his tiny little body onto the huge CT scanner. The staff was amazing, dimming the lights to prevent waking Gavin and wrapping him in a blanket to keep from chill in the cold room. As I held my right hand on his chest to prevent him from moving or rolling during the procedure he slept quietly and sucked his lime green pacifier. Minutes later the procedure was complete and we returned to our room in the ER. The ER physician came down to tell me that the scan came back clear but that the Radiologist wanted to speak with me. FEAR. I was worried that maybe something else appeared and that he was hurt in another way.

The Radiologist was great, he wanted to talk to me personally to reassure me that Gavin was OK and that no fractures were detected and he looked for slow "blood leaks" and found nothing. He explained to me that the injury would look worse before it looked better. He said to expect some "serious looking change in color of the injury". He said that Gavin may also develop a black eye. He also wanted to tell me that I did the right thing by coming in because he could have easily fractured his scull. He told me ALWAYS err to the side of caution, "you're a good Mom". Ahhh, thank you.

We received amazing care at the Bahrain Specialist Hospital. The whole experience lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes... in Texas, it would have taken 5 hours in the waiting room alone! Our final bill was BD146.66 (about $396.00 USD) that includes the ER visit, a CT scan and the prescription, amazing!

Now Gavin looks like he got in a bar fight, the kid's got quite a "shiner". The ER physician prescribed Panadol (which I had never heard of) three times a day for a week for pain relief and said it may help with the swelling. Needless to say he's been pretty "clingy" today which I don't mind one bit. I just laid him down for a nap after he passed out on my chest... feel better soon, sweet baby.

DAY TWO
Sunday, March 14
Today Gavin's eye looks worse. I know the Radiologist said that I should expect it to look worse before it looks better but my heart just breaks for him. The eyelid looks a little more swollen and is now turning a purple-ish black, the color of an eggplant.