Head Trauma Drama

So we were on our way out the door to dinner at one of our favorite Bar-B-Q joints, when we heard a giant THUD in the bedroom. Turns out Levi wanted a bracelet off the top of the dresser, and he knocked a very heavy glass bowl onto the floor in his efforts to grab it. It was immediately apparent, judging from the huge and rapidly growing bump on his forehead, that the bowl must have hit him in the head on the way down. So instead of heading to dinner, we were on our way to the hospital.

Levi, who cried for only minute and rubbed his head for just a few seconds, was in rare form, cracking up and making a series of funny faces at me from the back seat. Sophie was, as usual, screaming that she is hungry. We kept second-guessing ourselves..."Levi doesn't even know he's having an emergency...He seems fine..." (as he continues to laugh from the back seat). But, we reasoned--the glass WAS really heavy, and we didn't see it happen, and what if he had swelling internally?

We got to the hospital and signed in at the desk. In the waiting room, Levi was laughing and playing. He found his reflection in the window and tried to bump his head against it. He fake-picked his nose (we think it's gross, so he thinks's it's hilarious). And Sophie kept asking us for vending machine snacks, but we did not have change.

After a short spell of waiting, Levi was called to the check-in desk. He was cool about getting on the scale, but he was much less enthusiastic about having his vitals taken. As soon as the nurse started sliding the heart monitor onto his finger, Levi started to wail. They tried his toe. Even worse. Levi kicked and screamed through the entire evaluation, right down to the placement of the hospital bracelet on his ankle. Another nurse came in at this point and handed Levi a stuffed elephant branded with the hospital's name. She brought two more, one for Izzy and one for Sophie. "We already have one of those," Sophie said to the nurse matter-of-factly. Kevin and I laughed, but we were secretly embarrassed.

We had been in the same emergency room no less than 3 months before, when Levi fell out of our suburban in the Home Depot parking lot and landed on his head. Even then, he played all the way to the the hospital, but we were certain that time the fall could have far more serious consequences. Levi wound up with a CAT scan that night, along with a really cool and very understanding doctor who laughed at us and asked us if Levi was our first boy.

So anyway, there we were again, checking him in for a second time for the same reason.
After check-in, we were taken directly to the pediatric ward. We spent a great deal of time in the room, the twins watching garbage on Cartoon Network (Sophie periodically whining about snacks) and Levi howling the whole time. The nurses brought Levi crayons and Sprite, but he didn't trust them, so he wouldn't have any part in either activity. He went for an X-ray and hated it. He was still screaming.

Finally, our doctor arrived, who recognized us immediately from our previous visit. For whatever reason, Levi really likes her, so he calmed down quite a bit to let her do her work. After the examination, we were discharged rather quickly with an ice pack and a set of instructions. I jokingly told the doctor we were getting a lamp shade for Levi's head, and she told us to buy him a helmet instead. Followed by, "That's what all the doctors use at home, only we just don't tell anyone. See you next time," she chirped, then winked.

On the way out, Levi was thrilled. He was laughing, playing and waving "bye-bye" to all the nurses. They all laughed, too...but we kept thinking it will be even less funny if we have to come back a third time.
--A