Golfcart Accident

Well, never thought I'd say this but.....I'm Stephanie and I ran over my kid with a golf cart. Yes, it's true. And  yes, she's fine.  Here's the story.  The Sunday before the 4th of July we were leaving the beach heading back to the house to get Stella ready for VBS. Stella was standing up, holding on to the right post. I stopped at the stop sign and slowly accelerated and began to turn left. In the middle of the intersection Stella lost her balance and pivoted around (as she was still holding onto the post which connects the cart and the roof) and out over the asphalt. She eventually couldn't hold on any more and fell on her right side. Somehow her left leg got out of the way, but the tire rode over her right side. I believe mainly just her right knee area. I was only going a few mph, but couldn't stop in time. Really, it it felt as though I left my body to watch this happen but couldn't do anything to stop it. I felt the tire bump-bump over her little body. Thankfully it was just me on the cart and only one wheel went over one of her legs so there wasn't too much weight on her. I hopped off, scooped her up and put her around me. She was bleeding and screaming. I stomped on the gas to make it home as quickly as possible. I said to her, "This should not have happened baby, I'm so sorry." She lifted her head, sucked up some snot and screamed at me, "I didn't do this, YOU did!" It was heartbreaking. She thought I was blaming her, but what I was trying to say was it shouldn't have happened because I shouldn't have let her stand up while I was driving. 

We got home and she screamed for Donald.  Her knee was bleeding and the side of it was swollen. She wouldn't put any weight on it and I could tell she was in a lot of pain.  I got her out of her swimsuit and into the bathtub. I called Donald and put him on speaker phone thinking he could calm her down. I was wrong. I just knew her leg was broken and started thinking of what I needed to do. I knew that she usually will calm down if I just leave her be. So I left her in the tub and hopped in the shower next to her to rinse off quickly because in my mind, I was headed to the ER once I got us dressed. The sobbing and crying out for Donald continued. I wrapped her in a towel and laid her on the chaise lounge in the living room and whispered I was going to get dressed and I'd be right back. I disappeared into the closet and walked out barely 90 seconds later to find her passed out from exhaustion and pain in the chair. 

Stella ended up sleeping for over an hour and a half. At some point I started fixing supper. I was at the stove and she walked out in front of me completely naked and said, "Mama, I'm hungry." I was so happy those were the first words out of her mouth after waking. But then as soon as those words escaped her lips you could see her brain processing everything and this look swept over her face. She immediately started crying and lifted up her leg not wanting to bear any more weight.  I ran over and picked her up, put panties on her and sat her back down in the chair. Supper was almost ready. 

I took pictures of everything so I'd have something to compare if things got or appeared worse.

Poor thing-The left knee was still healing from falling while walking Jay the week before.

It wasn't until that evening while putting her to bed that I realized she wasn't just hurt on her knee. In actuality, her entire right side was scraped and bruised up. I discovered this when I offered to give her a massage. I wanted to check her out, but I knew she wouldn't let me take a really good look, but this way I could look all I wanted.  Since she landed on the pavement, there wasn't any "give" to it like there would have been if she had landed on dirt or grass. The road was not forgiving to her little body.

right ankle

right hip bone

right elbow

right knee

swollen and bruised right elbow

back-side of right knee

Good news is, I didn't need to take her to the ER. Turns out she was starving from being out on the beach all day and not eating properly. Then, she was upset from me running over her, thinking I blamed her for it all and being in pain. She also missed Daddy and on top of that, was clearly exhausted from being up late and just doing a lot of physical activity at the beach.  She ate a HUGE meal and bite after bite, her mood improved. Slowly she forgot about the pain more and more.

After supper we headed out to take Bandit for a walk. I offered to push her in the stroller. She sat down and I pushed her for the walk, but about half and hour later she was running around in Jerry and Cathy's yard chasing after their grandkids. I asked her to take it easy, and she did slow down for a few minutes, but by the end of the night I could tell she was fine as she was running around everyone and bouncing on the floor. 

The thing that seemed to bother her the most was her elbow. She favored it quite a bit for the next few days.

I was also able to take her to VBS the next night and she doesn't seem to have any lasting injuries.

When I told my dad and some friends Stella had gotten hurt, they all admitted to laughing when they found out she got ran over, but also were genuinely concerned for her and happy to hear all was well.

The rest of the summer I had no issue with her trying to stand up. We'll just let that be something she does at LolliPop's since if she falls there, she'll just land on the grass.

I am SO thankful she was and is ok from this. It could have been so much worse.