I went to bed at 10 with big plans. I'd get up at 5. Write for an hour, run then do P90X before getting ready for work.
Around 11, I heard Tucker in the kitchen. He had gone down to the basement to watch TV around 9 and had fallen asleep. I didn't wake him when I went to bed.
He stumbled to my bed and sat down with a cup of water and two ibuprofen in his hands.
"Mom," he was out of breath. "Mom. I have the worst headache."
I put my hand up to his neck and felt how clammy he was.
"Help me, Mom," he said. "I can't stand this."
He slid down on the bed beside me. I wasn't very helpful. It sounded like a migraine. I told him he'd probably have to sleep it off. He could try to swallow the ibuprofen.
I squeezed what I thought might be a pressure point between his finger and thumb, but he couldn't be still the necessary 2 minutes. I tried the other hand.
"I'm going to throw up," he said and headed to the bathroom.
I finally got him to take the ibuprofen as he knelt before the toilet and that's when he started puking. A lot.
I spread a sheet on the couch and got him to move to the couch. I put an empty trash can beside him. I did the pressure point thing again. He lay still. A wet cloth for his forehead. He moaned in pain.
"I think I need to go to the hospital," he said.
As a mother, you wonder. What if I screw this up? I wasn't thinking meningitis. I was thinking migraine. So I sat beside him, holding his hand, until he relaxed some.
I texted warnings to his siblings and father who weren't home yet.
"DON'T TURN ON THE LIGHTS!" "DON'T MAKE ANY NOISE."
Around midnight he fell asleep and I switched my alarm to 6:05 a.m. Tucker was awake this morning as I got ready for work. He still had the echo of a headache. He ate some crackers.
So that's why I was late for work this morning.
What would you have done? Would you have taken him to the ER?
3 comments:
Oh man. Those decisions are excruciating. I probably would have done the same thing but I wouldn't have been able to sleep. I would have been second guessing myself all night. I'm glad he's okay. Has he had migraines before? When my oldest was 5, he had a little spill while sledding. I saw the fall...it was nothing...but he screamed and screamed that he had broken his leg. This child would scream all day with a hangnail so I calmly and firmly made him sit on the side of the hill as the rest of us continued sliding... and he continued crying. As it turned out, he HAD broken his leg. That scarred me forever!
Oh, Delana. That's always my fear. Tucker has exaggerated him pain before, but I think he was genuinely miserable this time. Bad mommy moments. My other son broke his ankle in a football game then went back in for the rest of the game. These things happen.
I didn't take my son to the ER for migraines just a doctor for meds when he felt one coming on. They stopped when he reached puberty thank God. It's hard to guess about medical issues. I think Mom's instinct is usually right on.
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