Can we just forget the last week and a half?

Oh, no, because then I'd forget to take him to all the necessary appointments, and that would be bad.
So, let's just recap it real quick like. I'll start with the great day that started the whole ordeal.

Wednesday, July 2, I got up on time, but Mikayla refused to wake up. While I was getting ready, Xander removed his diaper and pooped on the floor. And of course, it couldn't be a nice and easy clean up one, either. We finally make it out the door, and stop at the shoppette for snacks when Mikayla shows me her pretty shoes, and I see that they're ones that are not so great for walking around in all day, so we have to go back to the house. Finally, we made it to the house where we were meeting a couple other people who were following me to Raleigh, to the NC legislative building. Hence, the quote over there, Aaric was looking forward to big protests. Not that it was a protest, but try telling him that. No, we were going for the NCFOM's Independence Birth Day, to show support of the legalization of CPMs, the most common midwife to attend home births.
We had a nice time, met nice people, just barely kept the kids from jumping into the fountain in the middle of the quad we were in, and then went across the street. Across the street is the Museum of Natural Science, and we've been there before but didn't get to see everything. So, we wandered the museum, stopped for a snowcone on the way out, and finished it up by the car before heading home.
We stopped at Golden Corral for dinner, then went home. I wanted to get them to run around some to get nice and tired for bed, so we played outside for a while, then went for a hike on the trails/old roads behind our house. It was a lovely walk, and we even found wild blackberries! I made plans to start doing this most mornings before we start the school day, so that they could run off the early morning crazies, and get some fresh air. It was getting dark, so we went inside. The kids were on my bed watching TV, and I was checking some stuff online for a few minutes.

Around 9:20, I heard a crash. I'll skip the long drawn out gory details. Our dresser fell on Aaric, the TV landed on the bed (and I later learned, Mikayla jumped out of the way or else the TV would have landed on her), Aaric's head got crunched between the top lip of the dresser and the footboard of the bed. We went to the ER by ambulance, and after several hours, he was diagnosed with a concussion (okay, one gory detail that can't be left out, both ears had blood coming out, so of course we knew this was no run of the mill mild concussion), and admitted for the night. His ears are all that he ever said hurt. At lunch time the next day, he had a repeat CT scan and a fracture was found in his temporal bone, which is the one around the ear, on the left side. It was also found that he was leaking cerebral spinal fluid (the fluid that surrounds the brain), and that if it didn't seal up within 24 hours, he'd need surgery. It sealed up on it's own. By Friday he was finally keeping fluids down, and Saturday he started solids and his balance was finally good enough for him to start walking the halls. Before that, he'd been like a living bobble head doll. But not as funny. Also, Saturday night we found out that the radiologist had reviewed his CT scans again, and that both sides of his skull were fractured. Sunday, he was released to go home.
He has hearing loss that varies from mild to severe, depending on which ear and which frequencies. In a typical conversation though, he functions just fine, with very minimal "what??"'s He thinks his ears are still getting better, and I was doubtful, but you know, earlier this week, the TV was absolutely blaring if he was watching it, and right now, they're in the bedroom (the furniture is anchored now!!!) and the TV is no louder than it would be if I was the one watching it. So, maybe he's right. I know that righty isn't normal, but maybe it's getting better. We're told that some may be from swelling and fluid buildup, some may be due to damage to the middle ear, and we know that some portion is damage to the inner ear. Swelling and fluid will go away as he heals. The middle ear can possibly be repaired with surgery. Inner ear damage is permanent. We just don't know how much of which kind of damage there is right now.
He's got some facial nerve damage, mostly on the left but a little on the right. When he smiles, the left side is pretty much blank but the right side is smiling. He's very self conscious about it, and has started covering his mouth when he laughs. We're told that this is most likely just from swelling, and that once it goes down, the nerves will heal. However, that healing process can take several months to a year. I think that the swelling is going down though, both because of his slight hearing improvement, and his eyes. For a couple days, he was having some blurry and double vision, which has now improved and he only has it for a couple minutes first thing in the morning. Ever since the accident, his eyes have been twitchy, watery, and itchy, and that has mostly resolved as well. So, I'm very hopeful that the swelling is nearly gone. He's still got another week of Prednisone to keep it under control.

Now, trust me, that WAS the nutshell version. I promise. We'll be at lots of appointments and I'll hopefully have lots of good updates in the coming months. Coming up in the next week, he sees the ENT and audiologist again on Wednesday, where I hope to find out that the fluid is gone, and that more damage is middle ear than inner.

Okay, now that we have that out of the way, we'll get back to fun blogging again. Later today, hopefully (we all know how I procrastinate), I'll show pics of our blueberry picking trip, and our first fresh blueberry project!