Hello Everyone!
I am writing to you today with a reflection on something that happened almost a year ago. I have sat down to write this blog post a million times, but going back to this place a year ago is scary, and almost every time I breakdown crying and need to stop. I feel like enough time has passed to thoroughly reflect on this event, and bring to light what happened.
As most of you know, my husband Chase was in a pretty rare and freak accident at his adult league softball game. He was hit in the head with a softball about 2 mm above his right temple that caused a traumatic brain injury, a subdural hematoma, concussion and lots of stressed out, sleepless nights.
So I’ll start from the beginning, for those of you who don’t know the full story. I’ll add bold titles so you can skip around to what you really want to know. I will also post this story in a series of blog posts, as it’s quite long and honestly so crazy, it wouldn’t do this story justice to fit it into one post
The Night it Happened
It was Wednesday, November 14th, at around 7:15 P.M. Kennedy, my sister Morgan and I were at Chase’s adult league softball game in Pacific Beach (P.B.) in San Diego. I snapped a picture of Kennedy in her stroller at the softball field literally seconds before I heard what I can literally only describe as the sound of a hand slapping a back or bare butt cheek as hard as it possibly could. The sound echoed around the softball field. Everyone was silent. Chase was on the ground rolling around, writhing in pain, holding his head. So many things were going through my head in that moment, “is he okay?” “oh he’s moving, I’m sure he’s okay” “Where did that hit him?” “Is he conscious?” Seriously it was like 1000 people were asking questions all at once in my head.
Chase had been running from first to second base. His teammate who had been up to bat, hit the ball to the 2nd baseman, who underhanded it to the shortstop on second base. The shortstop then turned to make the double play at first, and instead of completing the throw, hit Chase point blank in the head. Now if you’re a baseball player and reading this, you KNOW how close you have probably come to being hit by a double play that was being turned from 2nd to short to 1st. Unfortunately, Chase was the one in a million chance that actually got hit with this throw.
After I gathered my thoughts, and realized I was standing up on top of the bleachers pushing off onto my tiptoes to try and see, Chase got up and started to walk off the field. He seemed to be fine, and was just rubbing his head where he got hit. One of his teammates ran to get ice, and he came over to me outside of the field.
He said he was fine, just a little rattled, and that he was gonna go back in once the next inning started. I didn’t believe this was a very good idea, but my husband, being the athlete and competitor he is, was convinced he was fine. Then his nose started to bleed. We both mutually agreed it probably wasn’t the best idea that he go back into the game, and that we go to the urgent care right down the street. With my two month old baby, and sister in tow, got in the car to go to urgent care, and my husband, ice pressed to his head, claimed he was just fine, and that we would be out of there in no time.
At Urgent Care
We got to urgent care and checked in. Thank GOD my sister Morgan was with us to watch Kennedy in the car while we were inside. The urgent care we went to was right down the street from the softball field in P.B. The lobby was small, dank, and the lights were REALLY harsh and bright though it was somehow also unwelcoming and very dark. Chase sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting room while I checked in at the small window in the front of the lobby. As I was checking him in, he called my name, not loudly, but intently. “Kayla, something isn’t right.” he said. He didn’t sound worried, but more confident that something was wrong. I told him that we would be back to see the doctor soon, as we were one of two couples there. I remember thinking about how many times I had been down to P.B. and never noticed this urgent care. I thought about how many times I had probably passed this place on foot or in my car, and not even thought about it. Now, I will never forget it.
Chase started to get worse from there. I sat in the chair next to him and asked if he needed anything. He couldn’t really answer me, and just kept asking for tissues because the ice he had on his head was leaking a steady stream of droplets down the right side of his face, and dripping off his chin. He didn’t want to be touched, talked to, or bothered. All he wanted was more tissues.
Finally the nurse called us to go back. Chase tried to stand up and get out of his waiting room chair, but it was clear he couldn’t balance by himself. With the nurse on one side holding him up and me on the other, we shuffled him back to the urgent care room. She began to ask him questions about the accident and he attempted to answer but his demeanor went from slightly there and with it, to totally gone. At that moment the nurse left the room saying “I need to go get the doctor, now.”
In about twenty minutes, Chase went from walking and talking, to barely being conscious. He was throwing up uncontrollably and he was barely able to sit on the exam table. His balance was gone, he couldn’t open his eyes, he couldn’t speak because he felt so nauseated and was too sick to even communicate with me.
The nurse came back in with the doctor who had a very worried look on his face. He didn’t have to say anything for me to know that this was about to go from bad to worse. He looked at Chase then over at me and said, “You need to get him to a hospital now. Scripps La Jolla and Sharp Kearney Mesa are both equidistant from here. We can call you an ambulance if you’d like.” My heart stopped. I couldnt breathe. “What do I do?” I thought.
