Maya gets a CT scan

Maya had a little accident at dinner today. She was standing on a chair in a restaurant eating noodles when she accidently fell off the chair and hit her head on a hard floor. She was very upset, and Mike took her outside to calm down. The servers at the restaurant rushed after him with a big bag of ice to put on her head. She cried for about 15 minutes, which is a really long time for her, and then started whimpering a lot. When she didn't bounce back into her normal happy self we decided to skip out on finishing dinner and took her home.

At home she was clinging to me, and Mike went upstairs to make her a bath. We thought a bath would make her feel better. But once the bath was ready, Maya decided she didn't want to get in the bath, which is not normal for her as she loves taking baths. So I took her into her bedroom to get changed into her pajamas. Then she vomited, and then seemed to feel better, then vomited again.

We couldn't reach Dr. Sherif, so we called Mike's aunt, who is a pediatric nurse and who always gives us great advice when we are freaking out (Thanks Mary!). We decided to take Maya to the emergency room just so we wouldn't have to worry if she was really hurt or not. We went to As-Salaam Hospital in Maadi -- we went there because we thought it's probably slightly better than the As-Salaam in Mohandiseen where we would normally go. It seemed like she at least had a concussion.

Anyway, as soon as we told them what happened they bumped us to the front of the line and we were seen by a doctor within five minutes. He called a neurologist, Dr. Wael, who came and decided to give Maya a CT scan to make sure there was no bleeding in her brain or any skull fracture. It was impossible to get Maya to go to sleep for the CT scan though, and after two failed attempts at the CT scan, we were sent downstairs with a totally ineffective benadryl-style drug that was supposed to make Maya fall asleep so we could get the scan done. But of course Maya was completely unaffected by the drugs. It was like adrenaline versus watered-down benadryl, and the adrenaline totally won. After about two hours of fruitless efforts to get her to sleep, Mike went and bought some milk from the cafeteria, we filled her bottle, and she was out within 20 minutes. So we went back up to the CT scan room and were finally successful.

In the end, Maya turned out to be the picture of perfect health. The doctor said her brain was completely fine, and her skull was in great shape and there were no signs of trouble at all, and we went home after paying the hospital bill, which was 380 Egyptian pounds or about $67 for everything. Maya is now sleepin upstairs in her crib. I hope she feels better tomorrow.