I wonder if Texas Children's Hospital offers frequent visitor "miles"? I'm pretty sure Jake would qualify for the program if they offered it. On Friday I decided Jake needed a good Mommy and Jake day since the baby is coming soon (hopefully!) so I invited some friends of ours to the park to play and for a picnic. We were having a great time when I thought Jake had gone too high on the playground equipment. I went to coax him down and was standing underneath him as he eased down some slanted metal stairs. He was about 3 feet from the bottom when he slipped between the rungs and I couldn't catch him. When he fell, he hit his face hard against one of the rungs on the way down. He started crying immediately and had a really bloody nose. I held him for awhile to calm him down and my friend Becky noticed he kept falling asleep which began to scare us. Everyone agreed he needed to be seen by a doctor so we went to an urgent care clinic. When we got there, it had an hour and a half wait so I decided to go to the ER at St. Luke's in the Woodlands. They got him in quickly since he was bleeding and at this point his face was quite swollen.
The ER pediatrician said it looked like a severely broken nose so he would require a CT scan. He also said it was lucky we already had a CT scan of Jake on file from when he had the weird reaction to the chicken pox vaccine last Spring. How many 2 year olds have CT scans on file at the ER? Ty hadn't gotten there yet and since I'm pregnant I couldn't be with him for the scan. He was really upset at that point and was screaming so they taped him down. This is the point where I lost it and started really crying. I'm pretty sure I scared the CT technician--a very pregnant woman crying wasn't a great sight. Ty walked in right after they finished the scan which calmed Jake down. The doctor came to see us about 30 minutes later and said Jake's nose was fractured in several places, and he had a slight bleed on his brain so he would have to be transported to Texas Children's at the Med. center by ambulance (I started crying again). He assured us it was a very small bleed but they needed to monitor him overnight, and he would need to see a ENT specialist. Also, he just said the ambulance was standard procedure, but it didn't make me feel much better. We decided Ty should ride in the ambulance with Jake since he was the calm parent, and I would drive down there. The whole way there I of course prayed for Jake and also that I wouldn't go into labor since I had less than a week to go. We also found out on the way to TCH that Ty's stepdad, Al, was in the hospital in Conroe because they thought he had a possible heart attack. (He is home now too and doing better...they're going to go to another cardiologist for a second opinion for him)
The doctors at TCH were wonderful as usual and we saw several specialists right away. Jake began to act more like himself eventually as well. They admitted him into an observation room for the night which is a code word for the world's smallest hospital room. Ty slept with Jake in the toddler size hospital bed because my belly and I just didn't fit, and I slept in the chair that kind of reclined. The ENT doctor came to see us and suggested we do another CT scan of his nose to determine if surgery would be necessary. If they did surgery it would be in a week right around the time I am scheduled to have Grace. My friend Becky was wonderful to send out emails to our church friends, and we asked them to pray that surgery would not be necessary. They did Jake's CT scan around midnight and this time he slept through it.
The nurse woke us up at 4:30 for Jake to have breakfast...really, 4:30...and he didn't go back to sleep so we watched repeat episodes of the Mickey Mouse clubhouse, and Jake rode some toy cars up and down the halls until the doctors came to see us around 7:00. The neurologist came in first and cleared Jake of his head injury since he had no symptoms overnight (vomiting, loss of balance, etc...) At this point he was quite happy and the doctor was pleased he was riding the cars around and acting normal. They just told us to avoid dangerous situation for 4-6 weeks because his head will still be delicate (I'm not really sure what that means, but I'm guessing no more playgrounds for awhile!). The ENT doctor came in next with really great news. The second CT scan showed no fractures at all. She thinks Jake must have been moving in the first scan which made it look like he had multiple fractures so no surgery needed!
When we first got to Texas Children's
Jake in his hospital bed which for some reason he was very scared of...we had to strongly convince him to lay in it.
So...all that to say, that is how we spent our Valentine's Day this year...We are so thankful on many levels. We're thankful I didn't go into labor while we were there, we're thankful Jake doesn't require surgery, we're thankful for prayerful friends, and we're thankful for God healing Jake once again. 
Jake today (3 days later)--the bruising has a nice green tint to it now.
Also--my due date is this Thursday (the 19th). I'm having consant contractions, but they're not consistent enough for real labor so I'm scheduled to be induced Monday, the 23rd if she doesn't come by then. Ty's sister Destin is having a c-section on Thursday so please pray that she and baby Nash do well!
I found these letters when I went to Canton with Destin and Jonesa back in November
Jake and Ty at the Children's Museum
Jake riding his birthday present--his plasma car
