If parenting has taught me one thing it is to expect the unexpected. Friday night was a case in point. I was at Target after dropping off Kaiya at gymnastics when I got one of those dreaded phone calls. About all I remember was, "Cooper got hit by a ball . . . . I'm taking him home now."
Cooper was at baseball practice on Friday evening and was taking some infield grounders. Well, he really took one. A ball came off a bat, hit the pitcher's mound and took aim directly at Cooper's left eye. He thinks he was out or at least dazed for a couple seconds before he realized how hard he had been hit. One of his coaches got him some ice and he was sitting there for a bit before a kind parent saw that it was not looking so good and decided to take him home.
Doug met me at Children's Hospital North Campus, which is half way between our house and Kaiya's gym. I was able to call ahead and let them know we were coming (a/k/a requesting expedited treatment and abuse my employee privileges) and we got right in. An hour or so and a CT scan later, we learned that his orbit floor bone was fractured, but it was small enough to just watch for now. He has strict instructions not to elevate his heart rate and he is not even allowed to blow his nose. We will go back and see an opthamologist at Children's next week and go from there.
He has been incredibly brave through it all and I was so proud of him for the way he carried himself at the hospital (thank you's to all nurses and docs). He is mostly just bummed that he is out of all sports until cleared by the doc. That was a big blow because they have a baseball tournament next weekend.
Through the whole experience, I was again reminded how blessed we are as a family. To have the kind of support we got from our friends and family was huge -- just like Cooper's eye. :)
Ready for the CT scanner--the tech was trying to make him laugh with Spiderman stickers
Out cold with an ice pack waiting for CT scan results
Finally home (if you look closely just below his eyebrow, you can see ball seams left their mark)
Day two--some progress!
After icing it all day today even more progress! He can open it!
4 comments:
Cooper...you are a bigger man than I am. The last thing I would be thinking about is getting back out there to play. That is a good battle wound though!!!
OK that looks awful!! Poor guy- he is a good trooper though. Oh the things people go through in playing sports!!
I cant believe how quick the swelling has gone down!! He is a Cooper Trooper!!
Thanks for the updates. I'm so glad to see that he's doing better. I also hear through the grapevine that he's learned the benefits of an injury--how many girls have brought cookies to your door?? Go get 'em, Coop!
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