Camp Pickup

Thursday (7/1), an unknown number with a 757 area code lit up my phone. I happened to recognize the area code as VA Beach and picked up.

It was the camp nurse. 

There had been an accident.

Shane hit his head on the diving board after a failed front flip. I was told the life guards checked him out and sent him to the nurse who said he passed the cognitive tests. At first, he was cleared and went back to his cabin. But then he complained his head hurt, so he was sent back to her. He was taking a short nap while we talked.

The bottom line was he was probably fine, but she was going to keep an eye on him.

We got a call back about an hour later. The nurse had taken Shane to the cafeteria for dinner. He said it was too loud and made his head hurt, so she brought him back to the clinic to eat.

Now, there was a chance that Shane was embarrassed and didn't want to eat around everyone. He's got a great vocabulary, can repeat buzz words adults ask him, and is highly dramatic. However, the language we were hearing made it sound like a concussion possible.

Which occurred to the camp, as well. The nurse thought Shane was doing great, but the director had told her camp policy required any camper who suffered a head hit to get checked out. 

Carrie and I were 3.5 hours away and the only place open after we could get there was the ER.

We took a moment to call Grandma and Grandpa before I got on the road (without dinner). 

Grandma and Grandpa were gracious enough to drive down and pick Shane up from camp ahead of me. They were an hour 45 minutes away. They got Shane to the ER an hour before I could have and it cut down on my drive time. 

The trick was getting there. It started to rain near Richmond and then it was an absolute deluge from New Kent past Williamsburg. When the flow of traffic regularly drops to 30 or 40 mph on a 70 mph road you know it's rough! It wasn't the worst rainstorm I've been in, but it made the Top 10 list. It made me think about whether or not the tunnels could flood (Spoiler: the rain stopped before then, but I paid attention and noticed drains just in case).

It had already been an adventurous night when the first address Carrie gave me was wrong.

Then the gas light popped on.

And then the second set of direction took me to the hospital, but the entrance was closed. Someone told me the ER was around back, but there were no signs and Google was confused, too. I cut through a parking lot and found it on my own. Grandpa was waiting outside. They'd been told only Grandma could wait inside with Shane and he was looking out for me, anyway.

I found Shane inside and any worries he had a concussion went out the window. He was an absolute chatterbox! And he made just as much sense as he normally did!

The camp had Shane pack all his gear in case he couldn't return, so Grandpa and I moved everything to my car. My plan was to wait and see how long it took to get through the ER and grab a hotel room if it was too late. 

Grandpa thought it was better to get a hotel right away. He pulled out his phone, made a few clicks, and had a room from points. I told him Shane and I share a bed and we didn't need much, but he got us a pair of queens (A perk of being in a family of travel agents!).

Grandpa and Grandma went home afterward to go to bed. Shane was way too awake for someone who was supposedly injured. He was hungry, but there weren't good food options. He'd have loved my phone, but I wanted to save the battery and said, "Electronic screens are bad for concussions." (I admit, I hoped that would encourage him NOT to dramatize his symptoms).

Funny side story: When we went to talk to the registrar, Raven, I mentioned the camps concerns and mentioned I hoped we were there for "CYA."

Shane asked, "What's CYA?"

"Cover Your Everything." I replied. Then I thought, Crap! That didn't start with an A!

"You know, make sure nothing's wrong," I clarified. "Cover Your Bases. No, Cover Your All. That's it."

Shane nodded. Raven met my eyes and with a knowing smile and we laughed.

I told Shane there were two options in an Emergency Room. Either you're badly hurt and you get fast service, or you're okay to wait and you wait. I'd rather him not be badly hurt, so we were fine to wait.

And we waited. 

I tried to get Shane to go to sleep when it was past 10 PM. 

He wriggled and wormed around in the chair without much success. There was a news station showing weather events. Flashing Screen? Weather? Shane was riveted. I can tell you it was all about Tropical Storm Elsa, because Shane repeated everything they said. 

He did finally pass out just before we were called back around 11:35 PM. 

The doctor took one look at Shane and started asking questions. First of me, then of Shane. He kept asking Shane to do different physical tasks which Shane did without a hitch.

10 minutes later Dr John said he could write us a note so that Shane could go back to camp tomorrow. He wasn't concerned. The bump was on the top of Shane's head, but near the front. 

Unfortunately, it took nearly 45 minutes to get that note. Shane slept most of it. 

I carried Shane out to the waiting room. He woke up enough to walk to the car before falling asleep in the back. I got gas and took him to the hotel around 1 AM. Frankly, we could have crashed in the car.

But it was much nicer for me to sleep in a bed. Thank you, Grandpa! Shane slept in for him.

We took the morning slow. I planned to send Shane back to camp, but I wanted to observe him beforehand. We ate breakfast slowly. It was raining and Shane was still in his swimsuit, so I let him jump in the pool before grabbing a change of clothes from the car.

Carrie's anxiety level skyrocketed when I sent her the picture of Shane in the pool. I told her he was fine and it was only for a minute. I liked that he still showed a sense of adventure and wanted to encourage it!

The goal with going back to camp was to give Shane closure. If we left straight for home he wouldn't have a chance to say goodbye to everyone. Plus, camp was fun! I saw going back as a lesson in how to be resilient, too.

Shane learned a hard lesson about shower curtains before we left the hotel, though. For someone who complains mightily about taking showers, he can play in one for an awfully long time. He managed to soak the floor and guess what? He left his clothes on the floor, too.

And yes, I made him put them on. 

Carrie wanted to know how he was feeling, so I sent her this.

It saved her from hearing all the humming. 

On the way out of the hotel, Shane made friends with a random family's dog.

I almost let him drive away with them for the day rather than go to camp. Clearly, the boy was fine.

We drove to camp and made it around 10:30 AM. It was still raining, so I asked Shane if he wanted to use any of his rain gear.

"What rain gear?" He asked.

"....the rain gear we bought and packed for you."

I helped Shane find and put on his poncho before I left.

He went off with his counselor happy to be back.

My new problem was staying busy until 5 PM. I stopped by a shopping center nearby and went into a Gamestop to look at Switch games.

Then I went to a Panera Bread when nature called (I bought a chai latte as an apology for what I did to it!).

Carrie gave me an errand and I was thankful for it. It felt weird not having anything to do (and it's not like I could write since I didn't have my computer or anything with me).

There was a thrift store next to the Tractor Supply. I thought, "What would Nana do?" and went in to explore.

But my favorite stop was Barnes and Nobles. I used to love walking around in bookstores. I bought myself a book to keep myself busy and saw some gifts to grab for Shane and Carrie. 

I ended up reading the gifts instead of my book while eating a burrito for linner.

5 PM rolled around and I drove back to camp for Shane.

It was an easy packout since I already had all his gear stowed in the trunk.

He'd had a great time and said a special goodbye to the nurse on the way out!

We dropped by Grandpa and Grandma's for a check-in. Grandpa and Shane shared some slices of pizza (I was still full of burrito!).

Shane settled in to watch TV with Grandma and was bummed to hear we had to hit the road. 

They were thrilled to see he was a-okay. They were a huge help through this all.

We got home a little after 9:30 PM. Carrie was relieved to see Shane was still Shane. There were no adverse effects.

I got to hear more detail from Shane about the incident over the course of the day. He and another boy had been trying to do synchronized front flips. Shane jumped too soon and hit his head on the board. He said he doggy paddled to the side where a lifeguard checked in with him. He never lost consciousness or anything like that.

I told Carrie we'd take it easy Saturday to ease her worries, but by the end of the day she was ready for me to take him to the pool or do something to get his energy out! 

And so ends the camp saga....for this year. Even with the bump it was a rousing success. We're all (even Shane) looking forward to him back to camp next summer.