Down but not out...

The day Cole was born I knew the child had something of a concrete boulder held on by a hefty neck in the center of his robust shoulders. The child un-mistakabley favored the stature and coloring of his maternal d.n.a. (though I have to admit that Nate's maternal grandmother was not exactly petite! I swear the woman could grip a basketball better than most NBA stars... Her hands were very large (and so soft) and when I close my eyes and remember such a woman I think of Zena the Warrior Princess.~ Regardless, Cole favored the likes of my father's ancestry. He is a Bird baby through and through!) He has a big head.! In nearly every photographic memory that we have of Mr. Cole (during the first 2 1/2 years of his life) he has a bruised knobby on either side of his frontal lobe just above his eye brow. Obviously this was due to enormous weight of his coconut making it inevitable that it would be the first thing to hit! The great news is that Coley has an unprecedented pain tolerance making most of those falls no big deal at all!

Well... rough housing and wrestling tournaments with his elder brother escalated over the years. Though one thing has remained: Cole still leads with his head and falls on it often. In fact, just this past Thursday Cole and McKay played a little too rough. Cole karate kicked up his leg. McKay grabbed it and yanked. Cole's other foot came up and head went down.... And then something new happened here at the Mecham house: Mr. Cole started screaming loud from BIG pain! He held his head tight! He didn't feel so well... and as he puts it, "I got my first concussion". Which I hope is his last concussion, but I'm certainly not planning on that!

Friday we went to the Doc since Cole couldn't go to school. (weird... not wanting to go to school) He broke to us the news. "Cole as a slight concussion. Just watch him. If it gets worse we'll have to order a CT scan." And so we went home with a gigantic bottle of bubble gum liquid Advil and berry flavored Tylenol and watched movies for the rest of the afternoon.
But headaches haven't gone away. And sometimes they seem worse. But usually only after lots of play. However, the Doc wanted a CT scan on Cole today. So guess where we went... E.R.!!! woo hoo!! Best part: Cole is fine. So it turns out that we just wanted to pay for an E.R. visit, a CT scan and alarm everyone in the hood which we live.! Good times... Cole will be learning empathy for all of those who suffer with frequent headaches for a while... No fun! But we are counting our blessings that it wasn't a bad brain bruise and his symptoms are incredibly mild from where they could be.

And to celebrate such grand news we carved pumpkins and partied! (more on the tomorrow!)

Somethings I've learned from this whole deal:

~The Dr. IS going to send you to the E.R. for imaging. He just is...
~If eyes are looking good, there is no vomit, dizziness, loss of bowels, or ringing in ears it doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a problem!!! (What?!)
~headaches can last up to several weeks or months
~Advil every 6 hours
~Tylenol every 4 hours
~Never take life for granted
~Not even hard heads are invincible
~running around like you are perfectly healthy and normal doesn't mean your concussion will go away... in fact, it makes the pain worse. So does continued wrestling with your brother.
~slight falls cause migraines when you have a concussion.
~you can take Cole down but it's pretty hard to take him out.