Rollercoaster ride to nowhere

Another mommy/worker paranoia post, sorry. Better posts to come!

So this morning Noah woke up with two massive reddish-purple circles under his eyes, a little puffy, and he was a bit clingy. After some discussion Carl opted to send Noah to school, but work from home so he would be close by. He also asked them if Noah had fallen the day before, because a quick Google search pretty much said “bad concussion” or “allergies.” We eliminated concussion based on Noah’s behaviour, other than the clingy bits, as totally normal (and checked his pupils, etc. etc.) and no headache and stuff but… it stuck in my mind.

I called the daycare a couple of times to check up on Noah and they reported that his eyes were getting puffier and he was pointing to his throat, at which point I panicked on the phone and the director was quick to assure me that they did NOT thing he was having an anaphylactic reaction. But I sent Carl to get him anyway.

Carl reported that the puffiness increase was way overexaggerated but I was not convinced. Sadly all this took place on a very hectic business day and since Carl was there I didn’t leave (otherwise: so would have been there) until a half hour early but then I took off and drove home… to find Carl was right, Noah’s eyes looked about the same to me as they had that morning.

I was so torn at work. I was having nightmarish visions of the school missing an allergic reaction, or that they had shaken him (shaken baby syndrome!!) or that his skull was coming apart. And at the same time I had to trust the people he was with to recognize if something terrible was happening. Which I managed, barely.

I had booked him at the doctor so off we went.

The verdict? Apparently when your nose is stuffy, esp if you are a child, the blood can’t get through the tissue as easily and so it backs up to under the eyes. And you can tell that vs. bruising because if you press gently but firmly on it, it goes white, ’cause the blood is getting pushed back in the vein, whereas with a bruise it would just stay there. Noah’s fine; ears, nose throat, chest all check out.

I am a wreck. Honestly. My work is a very stressful implementation phase and it’s sort of Emily’s season and it just feels like A LOT. And Google does not help with its hits on “parents who missed the signs and their kids DIED” on the topic of ‘black eyes concussion’.

But, all is ultimately well. Phew.