Day 73 - Saturday February 25, 2012

Bridgett continued to seem OK in the morning.  I did give her Tylenol at 9:00 a.m. because her headache was really bothering her.  She said it hurt in the back of her head and some in the front.  She also complained about her back and neck.  These all could have been bruised when she fell.  She was very tired (and I was too) probably from having such a restless sleep with me waking her all night.  At 3:00 I gave her more Tylenol but by 5:00 she said the headache was worse not better.  She said on a scale of 1 to 10 it was a 5.  By 5:30 it was a 6 and I had decided I'd better take her into the emergency room.  I called the urgent care that is in network and talked to a nurse, explaining what I had done etc.  I said I don't want to drive there just to have you refer us back to the hospital for a CT.  She said I had handled everything just fine, but as a precaution they would suggest a CT because of her TBI (which is what I was anticipating they would say).  By 6:00 we were getting ready to leave and the pain was at a 7.  We drove approximately 4 blocks to the hospital and that made her sick and she almost vomited again.  They took her right in.  I like this emergency room because they take people in the order of the most urgent injury.  They took her medical history, checked her vitals, and then the doctor came in.  Tyler said this later, and it's probably true--he seemed a little rushed and like why are you here a day later after falling, until he talked to Bridgett.   Then he relaxed and sat back and asked about the accident and the extent of the injuries.  He said for sure we want a CT and they took her right back.  Afterwards we only had to wait less than 10 minutes for him to report back.  I had told him that her last CT was taken there so they could compare.  He said that everything looked fine, that there was no bleeding or swelling from the fall.  Whew!  Relief for sure!  About the pain--he said Tylenol was fine but if the pain got too bad to take Vicodin (which he gave us a prescription for).  I don't really want her on that but if the pain gets unmanageable we will fill that prescription.  He also gave us a prescription for Zofran for the nausea.  Actually, I already have some from the hospital.  I never even thought about giving that to her because when she's not in the car she's OK.  I will have to ask the pharmacist about that--giving it to her when in the car.  Of course, it probably makes you sleepy so that wouldn't be great before therapy!  Anyway, we were only at the emergency room for just over an hour and the biggest wait was for the discharge orders and prescriptions!  Impressive!  Before we left, one of the social workers from the ICU walked by and saw me.  She pointed to the bed and said is that Bridgett?  Bridgett had her knees bent so you couldn't really see her.  I went out to the hall and talked to her.  She was so excited to see Bridgett, after the concern about whether she was OK.  I invited her in to talk to Bridgett.  Bridgett said hi, how are you?  The social worker introduced herself and Bridgett said I feel as if I saw you before (yes, but it was while she was in a coma!).   Bridgett said, you're really pretty!  Anyway, the social worker was tickled to talk to her and asked if she could go straight up to the ICU and tell all the nurses how great she was doing.  I said of course.  We got home and had a pretty restful evening.  Jenn came over to visit and sat and rubbed Bridgett's feet for her.  Bridgett felt much better by bedtime.  She was even singing a little to herself.  They said to go ahead and give her the Trazodone, so I did and she slept great through the night--and is still asleep.  Her discharge orders said to keep her on bed rest for 24 hours, so it will be a quiet Sunday for us.  Also, we were asked to get an appointment with her primary care physician for Monday or Tuesday as a follow-up.