Colby's Back Flip

Here are my precious kids yesterday afternoon waiting for my friend to come over to swim with her 2 kids. The kids were ready to swim enjoying the hammock before we ventured to the back yard! This was about 4pm
Colby, Abigail, Isaiah & I began swimming with my friend's kids, who were 4 & 6 years old at about 4:20pm. Colby has just learned in the past week how to do a back flip off of our diving board. Her 4 year old even imitated Colby doing the back flip!

So, we're having a great time & then boom, I hear a bad sound. It is Colby's head on the diving board. He was doing a back flip & while upside down didn't clear the board. He cut the back of his head pretty good & scraped his back on the way into the water. Thankfully he was conscious & was able to swim to the surface. I immediately swam to him & we got out of the pool. Thankfully my friend was there to watch Abigail & Isaiah while I frantically jumped into the car with Colby pushing on his head with a towel. There was quite a bit of blood streaming from his head.

We headed straight to the emergency room. I called Dan quickly telling him what was going on & for him to meet us there. Thankfully my mom was available to go be with my kids too!

We checked in to the ER at 4:50pm & were seen by the triage nurses at 5:20. Here's a picture of Colby after the nurses cleaned his back off a bit & wrapped up his head. When they were cleaning it, they showed us you could actually see his skull... yuck... Anyway, they told us to expect a CT scan of his head & staples.

We returned to the waiting room to wait! They said 2-3 hours. Here's his back after scraping down the diving board.
His face is a little sore too because of his goggles. They left a faint mark around his eyes & between his eyes on his nose. Also, inside his upper lip he has a nice bruise.

We were called back around 8pm. The nurse & doctor took a look at the cut, as seen below.

We had to wait just a little longer & were taken into a room in the ER. They came in and deadened the area around the cut, which was supposed to burn & sting. Amazingly Colby was so calm & still. He did amazing. Then they shaved a little bit of hair around the area, which Colby did NOT like, probably because he was already bruised. After cleaning the area well they put in 6 staples.
He will have to keep them in for 10 days. They want it to scab over a bit to heal, so he's not supposed to get too wet, at least for 5 days. He really was doing amazing last night, a bit lethargic and not himself, but great pain-wise. Through the night we woke him a few times to make sure he was ok. No problems!

This morning though, he has started to hurt quite a bit. I started him with Tylenol at 8am, but within a few hours he is hurting and crying. So, it's been an interesting day!

I am so thankful & feel so blessed that it happened while someone was with me and the kids! I am also thankful that it happened now & not after I've had my back surgery. Dan has been in a few golf tournaments & has a few more in the next month. So, I'm thankful he was available to come and be with Colby & me. Obviously, it wasn't a great experience, but I feel blessed for the way it all happened.

It's quite hard as a mother to see your child hurting and scared and to be really strong for them! Hopefully he starts to feel better soon! Thank you for your thoughts & prayers.