UEA weekend is suppose to be a time for vacation, or relaxation. Well, since we are broke, we decided to stay home and just take it easy. Gabe and Noah were playing video games Friday, when an accident occurred. So much for rest and relaxation!
Noah tried getting on my bed while playing
xbox and fell smacking his head against the foot board. He actually BROKE the foot board with his coconut. Gabe asked me to call the Dr. to see if we should bring him. While I was on the phone, Gabe decided we are taking him NOW! Noah could not see the bottom part of Gabe's face, and he said he felt '
blacky'. We assumed that meant he was going to pass out. I left work and headed to Primary Children's to meet them there. Luckily Nikki had stopped by the office to see me, so she drove me up there. What a sick feeling....trying to reach your hurt child and not knowing what is happening. I arrived at the hospital before Gabe, so I checked Noah in so everything moved along faster. I went outside to wait for his car to pull up. Pacing back and forth...I just lost it. The 'what
if's' were circling through my head and I could not stop thinking. When Gabe's truck finally arrived at the emergency drop-off....I lost it even more.
Gabe mouthed 'calm down...it is OK' to me through the window. I whipped the truck door open and saw Noah there trying to calm ME down. He said he could see better and his head just hurt. I walked him into the E.R. while Gabe parked the truck and let them know he was there. He had his vitals checked, explained what happened and we took a seat waiting for a room to open. Out of nowhere, Noah grabbed on to me, screamed that his head hurt and he broke out in a cold sweat. I helped him to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face. As soon as we opened the door, he collapsed to the floor, and went out of it. I opened the door and told them someone needed to come help him. I picked him up and brought him back to the waiting room, where he began vomiting and losing it again. They sat him in a wheelchair and rushed him to the Trauma Room. I myself, began to lose it. There has only been one other time we had been in that room, and it was when Noah went into heart failure at 6 weeks old. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and removed my soul. Watching him out of
consciousness on the bed, then vomiting, then going out of it again scared me to death. As much as we have been through with him, I still could never get use to the fear of something really bad happening.
The Dr's. worked on him for awhile, then tried to reassure us that head traumas often result in lethargy and vomiting. They did not like his color though, and were worried about how out of it he was. They did a CT Scan....and we waited. The good news came that his the tests all looked normal. He was diagnosed with severe concussion. The Dr. said she did not like his color and how listless he still was, so she ordered him an i.v. with medicine to stop him from throwing up, restore his fluids and help with pain. They started the i.v., and Gabe and I just waited next to the hospital bed and worried. After about an hour, he began to talk and started to perk up. They gave him some Gatorade, which he was excited to drink if it meant he would be leaving sooner. He kept it down, and 5 1/2 hours later we were out of there, with clear instructions of what to watch for and to limit any activity he does for 2 weeks.
I am more than happy to say he is doing great. It took me 2 full days to recover from it. Gabe and I were exhausted from fear, but he has bounced back much quicker than either one of us.
Gabe doesn't like his picture taken so much when he is sleepy.....but I had to get a picture of my cutie pie while we waited.
I left our mark in the sand while we waited. It was a trip for our 12th wedding anniversary, so it had to be done.
We were not very optimistic about getting to see the sun at all with all those dang clouds hanging out on the horizon. We waited and waited, and decided....no such luck!
I decided to at least capture a picture of the awesome sky up above, so I could say I witnessed some type of sunrise. Now...most people would get up early every morning trying to grab a glimpse of the sunset until they finally got to see it......not us. Sleep was more important, so we never attempted again.
After getting ready for the day, we headed down do Po'ipu beach. Gabe needed to pick up his packet registration for the marathon. While there, we met Dean Karnazes..'Ultra Marathon Runner'. In my opinion, crazy bastard, but whatever. Gabe was excited to meet him, as he really gets into his books and finds inspiration to keep going after reading of this mans amazing endurance and strength.
Gabe with Dean Karnazes
After picking up his race materials, we took a map of the course and decided to drive it so Gabe could get a sneak peak of the next days race. Oh God! It did nothing more than terrify me, as I have never seen him run a marathon with so many hills. And not just hills, endless uphill climbs for miles with no breaks. I was very nervous, and also so proud of him, because at this point, I would have thrown in the towel. Not my man though, he was stoked for the experience.
On our way back, we drove through the tunnel of trees. Let me assure you that no pictures could do this justice. You are driving forever through this amazing....well...tree tunnel, and it just just insane. I wanted to play tarzan and swing from vine to vine the whole way down.
We met up with the Fenwicks and played for the rest of the day at Po'ipu beach. There was another huge sea turtle here, so it was fun to see them again. This is where Kim really let herself go and took really well to snorkeling. She was in the ocean forever! She found her comfort zone and didn't ever want to leave. I was so happy for her, she conquered her fears and had an amazing time. Gabe and I left a little early to grab groceries for the pasta dinner I made for all of us the night before the marathon.
We ended the night like we always did, with a few glasses of wine in the hot tub. It was a great day. We had to get to bed early.....because we had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to leave the hotel and head to the start line for the marathon. YIKES!!
