What a day we have had at the Sorensen house! Sariah gave us a huge scare today! She was at our neighbors house while I was at work for a few hours. While playing outside, she fell off their deck stairs and hit her head. It was in the same spot where she had staples in June. She was upset and came in and took a short 30 minute nap. When she awoke, she started to cry out in pain and kept saying that her stomach hurt and that she was going to throw up. I got home about that time and took her back to our house. She continued to cry out in pain and want to sit on the toilet. I was trying to calm her down and brought her back to the couch to sit down. She didn’t seem to be acting like herself. Her eyes were rolling back and she couldn’t walk very well. She then started to throw up. She had a very hard time getting it to come up and out. After her first episode of throwing up, I got a really strong impression that I needed to call Mark and have him come home and that something was seriously wrong with our little girl. I was able to get a hold of Mark and he left work as fast as he could. On his way home, he called his dad and had him come to the house so they could give Sariah a blessing.
While waiting for dad, Sariah continued to throw up and her eyes continued to roll. She was having a really hard time staying awake. We had our neighbor who is a paramedic come over and take a look at her. She said that we needed to take her to the hospital to get her checked out. Before heading to the hospital, Mark and Cliff gave her a blessing. I know that this blessing is what helped our little girl! We got her in the car and had our neighbor come with us just in case we needed help. Sariah seemed to be getting worse. We started our drive to McKay Dee. It was 5:00 pm and we were in rush hour traffic. Mark put on our hazard lights and was trying to go as fast as he could. I was in the back with Sariah trying to keep her awake and talking to me. I started to notice that her breathing started to get really shallow then she stopped breathing. I patted her cheeks and kept talking to her and that made her take some breaths. I started to panic and was absolutely terrified that we were going to loose her. Andrea was on the phone with the paramedics and they advised us to pull over and they would send an ambulance to come get her. We took the Riverdale exist and pulled off into a hotel parking lot. The ambulance was there within 10 minutes. They had both Mark and I ride with them and I held our girl. They got her hooked up to a machine that monitors her vitals and gave her oxygen. Her breathing and oxygen levels started to stablize while on the drive to the hospital. She was still throwing up and complaining about pain. Both Mark and I just felt helpless and tried to comfort Sariah the best we could.
We got to the hospital and they unloaded us and took Sariah into a room. The doctor came in and asked us questions regarding the accident. He wanted to to a CT scan to make sure that there was no bleeding or swelling in the brain. Mark went with her to do the scan. It didn’t take too long before she was back and in the room. The doctor wanted her to get an IV for fluids and do some blood work. Poor little Sariah was so out of it that she didn’t even fight. They tried first in her right arm couldn’t find a good vein. They dug around for a few minutes and all she did was whimper. That was really hard for both Mark and I to watch. We hated seeing our girl so sick. They decided to try in the left arm and were successful. They were able to give her some Zofran to help stop her from throwing up. That really helped her and she was able to sleep while we waited for the doctor.
We waited in the ER for over 4 hours before the doctor came back to talk to us! Talk about a long time for us as her parents! There is nothing more scary than something happening to your child and not knowing what was causing it! Finally around 10:30 pm, the doctor came in to talk to us about the results. The CT scan showed no bleeding or swelling on the brain and the lab work showed no irregularities. They determined that it was a concussion. What a tremendous blessing we were given! I know that the blessing that Mark and his dad gave Sariah before heading to the hospital was what healed her. My testimony of the power of the priesthood has been solidified! It is real and I know that Heavenly Father is aware of and love us so much! Sariah needed to stay over night in the hospital so they could monitor her and make sure the concussion didn’t worsen. We got her up in her room and all settled in around 11:30 pm. All three of us were exhausted! Mark decided to stay the night with Sariah and I would head home to take care of Chad and the other kids. I got home around 1:00 am and had a hard time sleeping even though I was so tired. I just laid in bed sobbing and thinking that we could have lost our sweet girl and how I am completely not in control! These thoughts terrified me at first but I pleaded with my Father in Heaven to comfort me and He did. I am so so grateful that she was spared and that we get to have her with us!
I woke up and got the other kids ready for school and then I was off to go pick up Sariah and dad at the hospital. Mark said it was a long night for him too. He slept right by Sariah and she had to have checks every 2 hours. They had a hard time getting her to open her eyes but she would respond to them. She seemed like she was doing much better so they released her to go back home. We are so glad to have her home and recovering. She seemed to be back to normal but we are making her take it easy.
By day two, Sariah was back to her happy little self again. When looking at her you would never even suspect that anything had happened to her. Both Mark and I had to ask each other if we really in fact went through that whole ordeal just 24 hours ago. It seemed like it was nothing more than a horrible nightmare. Once again we feel truly blessed to have our little girl back home and doing so well! We know that she was being watched over and taken care of and we are tremendously grateful for that!