Ignorance WAS Bliss!

I initially wrote this post in November, but never hit publish. I'm posting it now just for my own sake. 
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As many of my people know, my 10 year old boy child, Bailey, suffered a concussion in a football game a couple of weeks ago. Many have called, texted and FBed to see how he is currently doing. Some of you are probably wondering what the whole story to this thing is, and even if you're not, you're going to get it!

I'll start by saying it was the most miserable night at the football field. It was cold and rainy. I was soaking wet, had a huge bag of blankets, umbrellas and panchoes in a range of sizes and colors to help keep us dry and warm. - Us meaning me and the 6 and under crowd. What I didn't have enough of was snacks! Miss H was totally bored and crawling all over the place, escaping under the scary bleachers and just not entertain-able. To top it off - the 8U team - game number one of the evening - was getting killed by a team of giants! Huge big kids who were just knocking our poor little boys all over the place. Nothing fun or exciting about watching this game. Needless to say, by the time game #2 of the night started for Bailey, I was d-o-n-e! All I could think about was how much I could use a chocolate chip cookie or a margarita! Anything to wipe this night out of my mind!

So as the 10U game started and the 2nd set of giant opponents started slamming our players around the field and just blowing us out of the water, I decided to pack up all of our stuff and put it in the back of the van so when Jake got there, I could load up my little gang and be on my merry way! I momentarily had the thought of just leaving, knowing Jake was on the way, but something in my spirit made me feel like I couldn't just leave Bailey there without a parent. Turns out my spirit was right!

Moments before Jake arrived, as I was walking back toward the field so I could watch the game while we waited, I could tell there was some sort of commotion on the field. Our coach was standing in the middle of the field pointing out players on the other team that needed to be taken out of the game - since they were beating us 32-0. The opposing coaches, refs and city reps were not enforcing the mercy rule so our coach had to go make a spectacle to have it enforced. The other fans were getting loud and hurling all sorts of absurdities toward our coach and implying we were scared of their 200lb 10 year old! (This may be a slight exaggeration, but only slight!)Well, yeah, they were, sort of! Emotions from the other side of the field were at a seriously elevated level. This is all toward the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

I loaded up and left the game. Bailey had a parent there in case anything happened.

As I drove home, I couldn't stop thinking about this other team. Were these kids really 10? Would someone have turned in fake birth certificates? How fair is it for our 70 lb kids to be playing against these giants? How safe is this, really? The opposing fans were out of control and yelling personal insults at our coach and no one was doing anything about it? Remember, I'm wet, cold, frustrated and am still thinking about chocolate chip cookies to eat away the pain!

Some time toward the end of the 3rd quarter, Bailey was pursuing the ball carrier and was hit hard from sort of a side/back position, probably helmet to helmet. He was knocked off his feet, flat onto the field and possibly played another play afterward. Jake didn't see the specific play and I don't think he even realized he was in the game at the time. Bailey staggered off the field and one of the coaches realized something wasn't right with him. They had another dad who is a doctor look at him and then found Jake in the stands. Our head coach advised Jake that if Bailey was his son, he'd take him to the ER and have him checked out.

When I was about 2 miles from home I got a text from Jake saying he's taking Bailey to the ER with a possible concussion! What?!?  Of all nights! Suddenly I went from texting my fellow football mom friend with all of my woes and I'll be so glad when football is over to - Jake is taking Bailey to the ER for a possible concussion - please pray! It's like my perspective on the whole night changed in that one little text. From all of my selfish, can't wait for the pain to end thoughts,  to having to pray - He's Yours Lord. He's Your child. I trust You know what's best for him, Jesus. And this is definitely not the way I wanted the season to end for Bailey. He had been so tough and resilient and fought his way up the depth chart. He had developed such great camaraderie with his teammates.

The local children's ER did  a CT scan and put him through all the typical concussion protocol - What's your name? What's your birthday? Count backwards from 100-1 by 5s, etc. He failed all those little assessments and they determined that he did indeed have a concussion. A few minutes later, a doctor came in and told Jake that they had contacted transport to have him taken down to Birmingham. If the weather had been good, a Care Flight helicopter would have taken him, but since it was rainy and windy, the doctor needed Jake's permission to put him in an ambulance. Hold the phone! Back up! Quickly this thing escalated from a simple concussion to something that seemed much more serious.

Turns out, the CT scan showed a place on his brain that looked like bleeding, swelling or bruising so they referred him to a pediatric neurologist at the Children's Hospital in Birmingham. The neurologist saw him a few hours later. Bailey never threw up and was eating well at the hospital so they decided to release him, optimistic that this place on his brain was nothing to be concerned about immediately. Quite honestly, the neurologist was convinced this particular spot on his brain had nothing to do with the concussion because helmet technology is so far advanced now and kids Bailey's age and size typically aren't able to hit hard enough to cause this kind of injury.

For a week we lived in this limbo of what is this place on his brain? Is it concussion related or not? Have we stumbled upon something that could be really major or is this nothing to be worried about?

He had an MRI done on November 5th and we met with the neurologist on November 9th. Based on the MRI, he determined that Bailey has some sort of a malformation on his brain. While we sat in the office, he spouted off a couple of different names of things it could be. I just sat there hoping I could remember something he said well enough to google it when I got back to the car! A group of doctors met together the following week to pinpoint what they thing the malformation is and if it requires immediate follow up or action.

His leaning is that it is a cavernous malformation (I had to google it to know exactly what he said.) and that it is nothing to be worried about because Bailey has never shown any signs of having a seizure or any sort of staring spells. It's possible this place has been there since birth and we've just never had any reason to know it's there. His is obviously asymptomatic. The current course of action is that Bailey will have an annual scan done to monitor whether this place grows, changes or multiplies.

He has been cleared from all of his concussion restrictions and has resumed normal physical activities again. However, I don't know that I will ever not be aware of my desire to protect his precious head from any sort of bump or bruise. These are things I never thought of 2 months ago. Now I live with the knowledge he has some sort of malformation that's been there who knows how long and has never effected him. The problem now is I know it's there!

We are all so thankful for everyone who has held our hands, physically and figuratively, as we've walked this new road in our lives. We have never questioned God's faithfulness to us or His care and concern over the minutest details of a 10 year old's brain, and this particular 10 year old has a very peculiar brain!

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While we rarely even think or talk about his injury or malformation, when he fell in a basketball game a week ago and hit his head pretty hard on the floor I did have a tiny mother freak out moment.  As he laid there on the floor, obviously shaken up and in pain, I had to turn to Jake and ask if one of us should go and check on him. Being the good parents we are, we let his coach handle it! He was fine, but definitely has a new head injury awareness that stems from his concussion.