Today I thought that I would write a post and request prayer for my nephew. He is 9 months old and recently he had an accident and now has two skull fractures. He is doing fine and seems to be fairly normal other than the crack in the side of his skull which I find to be worrisome. The neurosurgeons have assured us that he should heal properly. There is a slight chance that he would require surgery if the fractures were to widen or not heal correctly. We will take him back to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis in about a month to have another CT scan to check his progress.

His accident happened when my sister went to visit family in KY. Her dad was taking my nephew out of the Johnny Jump-Up (which I have since been informed these are a pediatricians nightmare!) when my nephew pushed out of his arms and landed on his head on a hardwood floor. At first he had a swollen hematoma on the side of his head and it was not apparent at first that he had a serious injury. Two days later when my sister came back to Indiana we took him to the emergency room (due to the hematoma) and the physician felt as though it was a standard head injury. We waited a few days until the swelling of the hematoma lessened and then we could feel a distinct crack in his skull. We took him back to the emergency room this past Saturday and after giving him a CT scan the emergency room staff (I do not think we even were seen by a physican but rather an assistant) informed us that he had "open places" in his skull which were normal and would close up as he grew older.

Our family did not agree with this diagnosis one bit. While we realize that an infant's skull has fissures and fontanels that will close in time, they do not have cracks in the skull that appear overnight! My nephew was released from the emergency room and we immediately went to the library to research infant skull fractures. While my daughter was viewing skull fractures on the internet and I was reading medical journals on infant head trauma, a local nurse came up to us and introduced herself. She briefly looked at my nephew and recommended that we take him to another hospital for a second opinion. After talking with a few friends we decided to take him to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. I did not realize until this point that you can visit the Riley emergency room. I thought that children were referred to Riley from hospitals when they needed specialized care. We took him to Riley and we brought a copy of the CT scan with us. He was seen by a team of neurosurgeons, physicans and medical professionals. We were very pleased with the thorough and professional level of care my nephew was able to receive at Riley. We spent one night in the hospital and then we were able to come home. After reading the same CT scan given by our local emergency room and examining his head the neurosurgeons were able to determine that he had two skull fractures on the side of his head. One of the fractures is a slightly wide crack. On the CT scan they observed a density on the image at one of the fractures which could indicate a bleed in the area but they assured us that this was not a major concern. He should not have any damage to his brain from this injury. Thank goodness! I know the Lord has been watching over him.

My nephew is eating, sleeping, playing, and generally behaving as a normal 9 month old would and he does not appear to be experiencing discomfort. We are praying he will heal completely and that he would not require any surgery. Please be praying for him if you do not mind.

I would feel more comfortable if we had a little helmet that he could wear to protect his head until his skull fractures heal completely. The neurosurgeons said that this is not necessary but that we need to be extra careful with him. He is at the age where he is crawling everywhere and pulling up on furniture and trying to stand up by himself. He is a little explorer for certain! Thank you for your prayers!

It has been such a blessing to have my sister and nephew with us. I gave up my office in the back of the house so that they could have their own bedroom. We turned our dining room into our homeschooling area and office which I happen to like better. From our big picture window in the dining room we are able to look out on the patio and see our cats playing, view our garden across the lawn, and watch the rooster down by the barn. Frequently the horses are grazing in the front pasture and we can watch them as well. Early in the morning we watch the sunrise over the barn and it is a beautiful site. Our hearts are content living in the country!

It is alot of hard work and sometimes it is hard to fit all the tasks needed to be done in one day. We wake up very early in the morning to take care of the animals and then we are busy until the evening. It is very satisfying although I am not sure I appreciate my rough hands. I suppose that I have officially earned the rank of a farmgirl now that I have the hands to prove this. I have recently discovered Badger Balm which has helped quite a bit in softening my hands. We used to stay up late at our other home but now that we live in the country, we find it very difficult to stay up past 10:00pm. It is hard to believe but even on the weekends we go to bed early. We get up with the chickens and tend to go to bed at sundown. During the long summer days we often would get sleepy before it was even dark. I think being outdoors and the hard work taking care of animals, gardening, hanging out the laundry, and mowing two or more acres with a push mower have been good for us!

I have some pictures that I hope to post very soon. They are on a picture cd and so I am going to try to figure out how to load them on my blog. At the very least I will try to put my Flickr badge back running on my blog again so that you can see a bit of our Country Living.

Many blessings to you and yours!
Sharra