Daddy's Home

Sunday's are hubs outdoor league soccer game day. This Sunday was the first day of the season, and we all piled in the car to go watch Daddy's game. He usually plays forward/striker, but the team's goalie was injured so he couldn't play. Dao has played keeper many times in the past and he enjoys it, so he took over. Shortly after half time, Dao went up for a save and an opponent jumped up (hopefully to kick the ball) and kicked Dao directly in the head at full force. He flipped in the air and landed on his side. I watched it happen and have never been so scared in my life. He popped up (never was unconscious) and the ref and his buddies came over to make sure he was okay. He answered all of their questions correctly and even walked a straight line, so they cleared him to continue playing.

When the game was over he walked off the field with a big goofy grin and said "Is the game over? What happened?". We answered him and he immediately asked the question again, and then again, and again. His teammates quickly told me that this was a common sign of a concussion and I should probably have him checked out. Wha??? A concussion?? But he played the whole game??

Anyway, I managed to get him to the car and promptly took the kids home to stay with grandma while I got him to the ER.

After many tests, and an overnight stay at the hospital he is home now recovering.

I'm not gonna lie, this was one of the scariest things that we have been through. He lost his short term memory for quite some time. He thought it was 2006. He thought Bill Clinton was president. He had no recollection of Christmas. He asked the same questions over and over again without a break for 12 hours.

I have never been around anyone that has had a head injury or concussion, so this was all shocking to me.

Here is a picture of him playing keeper during an indoor tournament last year. He thought that this tournament had happened "yesterday". It was more than a year ago, but he was sure that it had just happened.

It is true what they say, you never know when someone can be taken from you. The doctor told me that had he been hit in the head again while continuing to play after the first hit, he would have died.

I think everyone should know that if someone gets a head injury during sports, they should not continue playing. They should automatically be pulled out of the game/practice. Even if they argue that they are okay, like Dao did (his motor skills were all fine, but he completely lost his short term memory).
Insist on it, you just might save someone's life.

So for now, we have Daddy home recovering. Most of his memory has returned, he still can't remember being hit or anything that happened after and up until the next morning in the hospital.

We are very blessed to have amazing family and friends who care about us. I want to thank everyone for your help and kind thoughts during this scary time.

• Thank you Robin, for coming to the hospital and being there for me, so that I could go to the bathroom and not worry that he would be alone and not know where he was.
• Thank you Sheree, for coming to the hospital to check on Dao and for bringing me food (Dao couldn't eat) and coffee. I hadn't eaten all day, and was starving! Thank you also to David for offering to take over a shift in the middle of the night if I needed to get some things from home. Thanks to the G6 for the sweet card for Dao and the goodies for the kids who were home and worried about their Daddy.
• Thank you Heidi and Joe, for your support and for bringing Haley home from Logan's bday party. We so appreciate all of your kind offers for coffee and help if need be.
• Thanks to Xuan, Linh Ta, B and Rob, for offering to do anything needed to help us out.
• Thanks to Andria and Van for offering to bring our girls to school and help out in any way.
• Thanks especially to my Mom for spending the night with the girls so that I could stay with Dao. I didn't have to worry at all, because I knew that they were in the best of care.
• And thank you to all who have checked in to see how he is doing and let us know that you care.

Thank you all!