Oh boy…we had a bit of a scare earlier this evening (or I should say yesterday evening). Hubby and I were watching a movie (The Hills Have Eyes…a rather gross movie, by the way) and the boys were playing out in the back yard. They came in with the younger crying and our older son said a branch fell out of a tree and it hit him (the younger one) on the back of the head. (Since that freak snowstorm in late May, we’ve had small branches falling constantly…but none were ever big enough to cause damage.) Hubby and I jumped up real fast to look at him. He was bleeding quite a bit, so we jumped in the car (without shoes) and drove a few blocks to the firestation…since we weren’t sure if the nearest hospital was near here or Susanville (found out there is one near here…like I had thought). Meanwhile I was applying slight pressure to his head with some paper towels. That’s pretty much when I lost it and started crying…and when he stopped crying…lol.

Anyway, the firemen helped us and they called the EMT station (of which we do have here in town…good to know) and they checked our younger son out. They told us he was responding well and that it (the head wound) didn’t look that bad….and I felt like weights had lifted off my chest and out of the pit of my stomach, as they sounded very reassuring. They told us either they can transport him to the hospital to be checked out (to see if he needed stitches)…or we could. Since it wasn’t life-threatening we decided to drive there. First we stopped off at home to grab shoes and tie up the dogs, then we headed to the hospital. All the while trying to keep him awake…since he kept starting to fall asleep in the car. (Apparently the adrenaline rush had left him and he was basically crashing…so the doctor told us.)

After the nurse had cleaned his head up with peroxide, the wound didn’t look so bad…pretty much a goose-egg lump with a small gash in the center…not even bad enough to need stitches…yay! And the doctor said he most likely didn’t have a concussion, either, as he wasn’t showing any signs of one (pretty much alert, no vomiting, walking fine). They gave him some Motrin for the swelling and told us to apply Neosporin to the wound twice a day.

Once we got home he was acting like his normal self…wanting to eat and play. I have to watch him tonight and wake him up every 4 hours just to make sure there’s no concussion. Otherwise, he’s fine. Boy, talk about scary, though…when I saw that much blood on the back of his head…ugh, what a horrible feeling. Though now I’ve been told by everyone that head woulds bleed a lot, even when they aren’t that bad…so I’ve come to find out…the hard way.