Concussion?

Julia had a major collision while playing at the mall play-area this morning, and we think she suffered from a mild concussion.  (I looked at this website to see what the symptoms of a concussion were.)

Julia was jumping off of one piece of equipment into (what she thought was) Evelyn's arms.  However, Julia jumped too hard for Evelyn to catch her, and they both came crashing down.  Julia hit the front of her head on another piece of equipment, and then she hit the back of her head on the floor.  Both girls were crying - Julia was hurt, and Evelyn felt bad for not catching Julia.

I knew something was up when Julia didn't bounce right back and want to go play - that's what she usually does.  All she wanted to do was rest on me...and the pupils of her eyes were very small and not focusing well.  Plus she was talking in a very quiet voice.  Not normal for our little spitfire.

I let Evelyn play for about ten more minutes, giving Julia a little more time to rest.  Then we headed out to the car to drive home, and Evelyn made sure Julia didn't fall asleep in the car.  Julia didn't want any noise in the car, so we had to turn off the radio.

Once we got home for lunch, Julia said she felt cold.  I had to put a quilt on her lap to keep her from shivering.  All through lunch Julia had a far-off, distant look in her eyes (with her pupils still small), and there were a couple of times she almost nodded off while sitting up.  She kept asking to lay down and take a nap, but I wouldn't let her.  I gave her a dose of children's Tylenol since she complained about having a headache.

After eating two chicken nuggets and drinking some milk, which took about 20 minutes, Julia snapped right out of it.  Literally.  Her eyes instantly looked normal, and she started talking in her normal voice.  She said her head still hurt, but she wasn't begging to take a nap any more.  Whew!  We'll still watch her closely over the next couple of days, just to make sure she doesn't have any lingering symptoms of a concussion.