Last year, Larry won a 'Champagne Brunch for Two' gift certificate at one of his golf events to the Intercontinental Hotel, which just opened here in Suzhou. We'd heard from friends that the brunch was quite good. I made reservations to go the Sunday before Easter. We woke up early and were getting ready when I heard a thud, then a wimper. When I called Sarah's name and I didn't get a strong response, I went downstairs to investigate. I discovered a naked, wet, shaking, crying and dazed little girl. Katie said she'd slipped on the wet floor and hit her head on the bathtub. Uh-oh. I scooped her up and carried her to Katie's bed. I asked Sarah where it hurt and she pointed to her forehead. I couldn't find any kind of bump or mark and was immediately reminded of my mother's remarks. Swelling bumps are good, no bumps are not good. Great! I sent Syd to the kitchen for a bag of ice. Sarah kept saying over and over, "I don't know what happened. Why does my head hurt". I started with some easy questions like her name and where she lived. When I asked her what the last thing was she remembered about the morning, I gauged roughly a ten minute gap. At this point, I knew brunch was not going to happen. I was debating whether a trip to the children's hospital was advantagous. We'd gone there in December and I was not impressed due to the communication difficulties and the not-so-sanitary facilities. Instead, I thought back on what my mom did with me after each concussion. Syd was in the bath by this point, so I carried Sarah over and set her in. The water was lukewarm and I thought it would feel good to her since she'd broken out in a sweat. While washing her, I checked her pupils and continued to ask her questions. She was so upset and just couldn't understand why her head hurt so bad.
I brought her up to my room while I got dressed. She immediately went to sleep, but woke with a shot, saying she was going to be sick. Uh-oh, that wasn't good. Time to break the news to Larry. He handles the girls being hurt about as well as I handle slimy critters. I suggested he take the other two out for lunch and I'd stay with Sarah. Nope.
For the next five hours, I laid with Sarah, watching her like a hawk. She got sick a half dozen more times, and I was ready to call Mr. Liu to bring us to the hospital. By three that afternoon, she seemed to have turned a corner. She woke from a short nap and exclaimed, "I hit my head on the bathtub" and then touched a spot above her right ear. I felt a large welt and actually breathed a small sigh. Ok, so we'd been icing the wrong spot all day, but at least now there was a visible spot. As I was getting her into bed later that night, she began to remember other things from the morning...another small sigh from me. Since she slept most of the day, waking her each hour that night was not difficult. Neither one of us slept well. She complained of a headache, and I was worried. I let her sleep the next morning as her sisters got ready for school. After they'd left, she crawled into my lap and started crying. "I'm sorry I made us miss the brunch" she sniffed. I lifted her chin and said, "There's always next weekend for brunch, but there's only one Sarah."
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