faceplant

A month or two ago, Curtis and I were watching Cooper run around like a maniac and making bets on how long it would be before we were taking him to the emergency room. My guess was "in the next few months".
I was right.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. First thing in the morning, Curtis went down into our basement to grab something.

 

Unbeknownst to his daddy, Cooper decided to follow and check out what was going on. 

The next thing Curtis knew, he heard a noise and turned around to see Cooper somersault down a few steps and fall- headfirst- off of the side of the staircase onto the concrete basement floor. Thankfully, I suppose, he actually fell face-first and may have caught a little of his weight with his hands.

Regardless, it was awful. Blood flowing from nose and mouth and a huge blue knot forming on his forehead. For the next 30 minutes we did everything we could to soothe our little boy... hold him, kiss him, try to distract him, talk to him, walk him around, take him outside (what were the neighbors thinking?!), offer him treats. Nothing we did could make him stop screaming and crying. Not only that, but he was doing strange things like holding the sides of his head and shaking it from side to side. We were especially freaked out when he kept trying to crawl out of our arms onto beds/sofas and yelling "lay down, wanna lay down!". When we let him lay down, his eyes would start to close as if he was going to sleep. It was 7:30 in the morning! Does this mean he has a concussion?!

At that point, we decided that we definitely needed to call the doctor. After at least 5 minutes (which seemed like an eternity) of listening to recorded messages, pushing the right numbers, and waiting for the on-call nurse to pick up, I finally spoke with someone. She asked way too many questions, clearly going down her checklist, while I strained to hear her and answer through the screaming. Finally, she nonchalantly said, "Yeah, I think you should take him to the E.R."

By then, that was all the motivation I needed, let me just tell you.

I'll spare you all the details, but suffice it to say that it was a pretty pointless $125-copay trip to the hospital. Cooper finally stopped crying over an hour post-fall... coincidentally right before the doctor came in. Isn't that always the way?? The doctor asked basically the same questions that the nurse had asked on the phone, checked his vitals, and said he was fine. Sure, he might lose a tooth or two- they are a little loose- but no other major damage done.

Lovely. But, I ask you this.... does he look fine to you??

I think not.

His poor little lips were so swollen that he couldn't drink out of sippy cup. 

The bridge of his nose seemed about twice as big as normal. And crooked.

The blood I tried to wipe away on his face ended up being burns/scratches from the concrete.

The bruise on his head was ugly and dotted with bright red speckles. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.

You know what's amazing, though?

As soon as we got home, he was ready to play. He couldn't really eat anything or speak easily, but he picked up that basketball like it was any other day, albeit a little more slowly. 

Who is this kid?! Don't you know that I would be milking that injury for all it was worth?!

He did so well the rest of the morning that I decided to take him by his cousin's birthday pool party that afternoon. He was quite the attraction.

At least the kids just came up and stared.

You know those parents were wondering to each other what I had done to the poor kid.

The next day, if it hadn't been for the colorful face and oddly-shaped nose,  you wouldn't have know that anything had happened.

We tried to do our best sad faces for the camera...

(mine was a lot better than his)

...but really, he was "just fine".

P.S.  I realize now that we may have been those over-reactive parents, but hey- we hadn't been through this before! Let's just say that, next time, I will exercise a few more options before declaring it an E.R.-worthy event, despite what the doctor's office says. "Shake it off", right Dad?