An Evening at ER

Late Monday afternoon last week, K tripped and fell landing with her nose on a TV stand. I feared a broken nose, but there was no blood or swelling, just a little bruise. We read that in case of a broken nose, if there is no clear discharge from the nose or fever within 24 hours, it will heal itself.

Well, on Tuesday, K woke up from her 2nd nap with a fever and a runny nose. Len took some X-rays, and even though the pics were fuzzy (K did not want to sit still), he feared a broken bone.

The pediatrician's office was already closed, so we decided to go to the ER. By the time we got there, K's fever was already up to 103.6. Surprisingly, noone there was concerned about K's nose or whether it was broken or not. A clear fluid from the nose and a fever after a fall could mean a traumatic meningitis, a skull fracture or an infection in the brain. To rule out all of these, she had to have a CT scan done. To do that, she had to be drugged. A small dose of benadryl did the trick. Waiting for the results was the worst. The benadryl wore off very quickly, and the bright lights and the noises from the busy emergency room kept K fussy and wide awake. At one point, I wanted to give K some of her juice, but the doctor quickly stopped me and asked to keep K's stomach empty in case they had to operate!!!

The results came back negative. K coincidentally caught a cold, and there was no skull fracture or any infection in the brain (thank God!). They never checked her nose. And although we have some fuzzy "proof" of a broken bone, I like to think that it's just a fuzz but no break.