Update on Alice

Thursday, after George's polo tournament in Newport Hills, we returned home in time to relax and then make dinner. I was so thankful that we had amassed enough leftovers to put together a decent spread. I had added some frozen collard greens to the southern style spinach leftovers and was stirring them in as they heated up.
The kids were playing about. Frankie and MJ were hanging around the back deck with their friend Andrew. He had just hurt his foot in the backyard and they were fussing over him and bandaging him with prewrap. Alice was in the living room playing in her swim suit. Earlier, she took part in the redneck water slide- a hose, and backyard playground slide, and a tarp extending from the bottom.
I turned away from stirring the greens when Samantha yelled hoarsely,
"Alice just fell out the window!"
I skipped most of the stairs running down, threw open the front door and there she was on the bricks- curled up and screaming. Even during the awful play out of events I took her curled up position to be good- she was conscious and she wasn't paralyzed.
I yelled for Sam to get my phone. I didn't want to move her. I knew enough about spinal injuries to know that sometimes things seem ok, but the slightest move can cause more damage.
I laid on the bricks next to her- comforting her as I called 911. After a few words I handed to phone back to Samantha because Alice was so loud I couldn't hear anything. I told Henry to use his phone and call dad. He was just leaving work and was getting on the bus.
She didn't want to get up so it was easy to help her be still. She laid there and yelled and Henry shifted into lifeguard mode. "Don't move her. Nothing coming out of her ears or nose, that's a good sign. Wiggle your toes Alice."
It all was awful but there were so many signs of hope I knew everything was going to be ok.
1.5 stories up. I included some old photos I found in my phone files of our front yard, the bush that broke her fall, and the front brick path she fell onto. And one of her typical "I wanna wook out da window" pose on the couch. Also a photo of her within a couple hours showing her bruising on her head. And a photo of her about 12 hours later, after they finally allowed her water at Harborview.
So we got a CT scan and neck and shoulder X-rays at overlake(the hospital in Bellevue). And it showed a skull fracture and a minor brain bleed. They transferred us to Harborview in downtown Seattle for more imaging and expert trauma care. We waited in the ER for about 5 hours at Harborview as we waited for an MRI. She fought the MRI so they decided to sedate her a bit- for another CT scan. She fought that as well. They gave her the maximum dose sedative for a TBI(not a lot because they want to observe you and see how she was doing) and she still wouldn't lay down for it. At 2:30am. She was done with all the strangers acting oddly familiar- "Hi Mrs Alice" with a big smile on their faces as they came into the room rubbing their hands together in a weird way. And nobody ever could give her water. She kept asking and asking and asking.
Daddy held her and I played Clare de Lune and she got sleepy enough that she complied about sitting still for enough of the scan to see the area that worried us. So we were admitted after the scan at about 2:30/3:00AM to a shared room in the PICU. They observed her hourly the first night. In the morning they had the scan results. The bleed hadn't grown but by about 4-5mm. She would be allowed her much desired water!
When the neuro pow-wow (it's a teaching hospital- UW) was held outside the door, I sat in. They backed her care down from intensive to acute- wanted to encourage her to eat and drink to see if she tolerated food. She had puked in the first ambulance, and gagged in the second transfer ambulance and puked twice in the Harborview ER. After a priest came by and anointed her she fairly inhaled a banana. Then an apple. I ordered her lunch after those stayed down. She ate most of her lunch.
The nurse really backed off of her- she observed from a distance all while acting busy and otherwise distracted. She would watch Alice communicate with me. We played with the color swatches she had picked out at Home Depot. She pointed out colors, matched them, made simple patterns.
She listened to lengthy fairy tale stories. She complained. She was silly. She was stubborn. She was going to be ok.
I asked her "what happened at the window yesterday?"
She said "I fawd. I don't wike fawing. But I'm otay."
Daddy came just as she was settling in for her nap. I left to get some food and get something at the gift shop for her- I buy stuff when I'm stressed.
The nurse brought her a little tikes car after her nap. She took quite a few circuits around the nurses stations with breaks in between for dinner and snack and drink.
I am hopeful that she will have a complete healing. We hope to be discharged sometime Saturday. Thanks for all your prayers. And please continue to thank God for everything He has blessed us with.