Shopping Cart Saga

*Disclaimer: Only read this if you promise not to judge me too harshly!!

This story is too long for a Facebook post, so a blog post it is!! So I have one of those "makes you feel terrible as a parent" stories to share with you. Except I wish I didn't! And I neglected to post this on Facebook the day it happened because I was afraid of being chastised for this happening in the first place! Here we go:

A week ago last Friday (so 10 days ago), we made a trip to Walmart. I don't know about you other moms with more than one kid, but ever since Zane was old enough to sit up safely in the shopping cart, he's been the one in the front of the cart and Karys sits in the basket part. If we're there for a lot of stuff, we get the mega cart that has the other section for 2 extra kids to sit. But if I'm only there for a short list of stuff, I really don't like pushing that thing around. Plus, I usually get the kids loaded into the cart at one of those cart stalls in the parking lot and there's rarely a big cart in one of those stalls. And like any normal kid, Karys occasionally tries to stand up in the cart. I never purposefully allow this because I know it's dangerous. If she stands up, I always tell her to sit back down. Except this one time.

We'd just pulled up to the checkout line and were standing still, not moving. Karys stood up and I decided I wasn't going to say anything because we weren't moving. She wasn't trying to do anything...she was just standing there. I turned my head to look at the covers of all the magazines. Literally, I looked away for a few seconds. When I looked back, it was too late. What I think happened was Karys tried to sit on the edge of the cart. What I saw was her falling backward off the side of the cart. She narrowly missed hitting that big display at the checkout with all the candy and snack foods! Of course she immediately started crying. I picked up quickly and tried to comfort her. I noticed that a bump was immediately forming on the back of her head. A woman got in line behind me and asked if she had hit her head. When I said yes, she said she heard her head hit from quite a distance away. She was very nice though, and told me she would put my groceries on the conveyor belt so I could hold Karys.

When we got home I looked up online about kids falling out of shopping carts and found all kinds of blogs that said things about "don't let your kid stand up in the cart!" Not helpful...I already knew that! But I knew that the symptoms of a concussion had to do with throwing up, being dizzy, disoriented, etc. And since she didn't seem to have any of those problems I let her eat lunch and then take her nap.

Fast forward 5 days to last Wednesday. I was giving her a bath and while washing her hair I noticed a decent sized area on her head that was squishy to the touch. I thought it was really weird and when a friend came over later to hang out, I had her feel it and we both decided I should make a call to the doctor's office. I was told by the nurse that as long as it wasn't dented in, it should be fine. She said if it was indented it could possibly be a skull fracture. I couldn't feel anything dented in, so I thought we were probably okay.

Over the weekend the "squishiness" was going down and we noticed that the feel of her head was different. The opposite side was nice and smooth and this side was a little bumpy. I called the doctor's office first thing this morning to get her in for an appointment. They were able to get us in with the nurse practitioner about 45 minutes after I called. She confirmed that her head was definitely bumpy and had some dents but said that everything seemed to be healing fine. I asked her if she thought she might possibly have a skull fracture. She said she didn't know but that she'd send us for an x-ray to find out for sure.

For her x-rays the technician told me that Zane was too little to be in there during the x-rays and she wasn't sure if Karys would be willing to do the x-rays if she was left in the room alone with this woman. I told Karys that Zane and I would be in the hall and she needed to do what the lady told her to do. A couple of times I heard the lady tell her to be still, but when she was finished and opened the door for me and Zane to go back in she told me that Karys did great. She said Karys told her that she likes to watch "Mary Poppins" and asked the woman if she liked Karys's dress. :)

We got a call from the doctor's office this afternoon with the results. She actually does have a skull fracture. But it's healing well on its own so no further action is going to be taken. I really can't believe it. When it happened, I was worried about a concussion and what I've read about those. I didn't even think about the possibility of a fracture! But maybe our story will be a cautionary tale for everyone else out there.