God's Grace

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16

Though the last few days have been nothing short of chaotic this family has been blessed. If you hadn't heard the burns brood had quite a scare last week. Payton ended up in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in the early hours of last Thursday after receiving a very severe concussion. He was riding his sister's scooter and fell off and hit his head on the pavement. His long flowing golden locks didn't prevent a blow so severe that it caused what the doctors are now saying was a very small, minute bleed. Payton became very irritable, nauseous, lethargic and just plain goofy (more than usual, I might add!) He just didn't make sense so off we whisked him to the ER on Wednesday night. Bobby took him so I could wait for Bobby's mom to come over and stay with the other kids. Before I could get there he was throwing up, the trauma team was consulted, a ct scan was performed and the ER Dr. put him in a neck brace. All very scary even for me who is in the medical field. We were terrified and beside ourselves when the trauma Dr. wanted him in the PICU. We knew it was for the best but it didn't make it any better. We had to put all our faith in God and trust he was in the best hands possible!

Well fast forward to now and Payton is outside shooting baskets by himself on his new basketball goal. Praise the Lord! He was released from the hospital on Fri. morning. Trauma and Neuro released him since his symptoms had resolved but with the understanding no contact sports, skateboarding or any rough housing for 6 weeks. He will follow up in 6 weeks with the neurosurgeon and have a repeat ct scan to see if that small bleed has resolved.

This might possibly be the longest 6 weeks ever! This kid is the most active kid I ever met. He is constantly in motion, always playing, doing something. He just doesn't understand. We have already have had to sit him down more than once and remind him to slow down in the three short days we've been home. How do you tell a 10 yr. old whose life revolves around movement that if he continues to play contact sports, skateboards or does anything that puts him at risk of a head injury that he might not be so lucky next time? He doesn't realize his brain is so much more susceptible to greater injury in the first 6-10 weeks after the initial injury. I guess we will try are hardest to distract him with other activities such as video games, reading, watching movies, etc...or maybe I'll just wrap him in bubble wrap and make him wear a helmet during his awake hours. Think he'll go for that? It breaks my heart to see him like this but I'm just glad he is here with us, it could have been so much worse!
I want to thank all of those that prayed, visited or called during this hard time on our family. We were overwhelmed with the amount of love and concern from our family and friends. We thank God everyday for all the blessings he has bestowed upon our family!
God Bless you all!