Written by Julie Jones, Have WheelChair Will Travel, November 28, 2024
If you’ve been following along with our family’s adventures for a while you know that I try to always balance out the social media highlight reel with the realities of living with, and raising, Braeden who lives with cerebral palsy. I know many of you celebrate with us when we post Braeden’s progress on Facebook and here on the website. But, in an attempt to keep it real I also wanted to share the pitfalls of Braeden’s newfound strength and physical ability. Unfortunately, while we were travelling in Western Australia, we experienced one such incident. I am not posting the worst of the photos just because the internet is forever and we all like to look our best.
The pitfalls of progress
Braeden works extremely hard in the gym, at hydrotherapy and at frame running. The positive outcome is that he has gained muscle, strength and confidence. Braeden used to mostly move around the house on his bottom, bum shuffling. As he gets older, he is finding that increasingly hard work. I’ve tried it myself and it is quite the work out. It’s hard to do, plus the view of the world is a little odd from floor height. So, with the extra strength, Braeden has been walking around more with our assistance or with the walking frame and enjoying it. His motivation is such that he stands up from the lounge with great ease and then starts to take off. We call it “fall walking” because while he can walk for several steps, he can’t maintain it for long periods and in his excitement he is likely to not look at what is in his way. Braeden quite enjoys the power of standing up as he knows whoever is in the room will run to get him and then he immediately has assistance to go wherever he likes. The wicked smile that spreads across his face says a lot.
One night in Carnarvon we were staying in a two-bedroom apartment. Hubby and Braeden were sharing a room and Amelia and I were in the room beside them. I heard Braeden groaning as he often does in his sleep or when he is about to get up. The next thing I heard a thud in the lounge room right in front of my open door. I assumed Hubby was walking Braeden out in the dark and Braeden stumbled but no, Braeden had got up out of bed and walked to the lounge room falling as he got there. He was lying motionless in the dark making a strange sound. Having just arrived that afternoon I had no idea where the lights were so Hubby and I picked him up and got him back onto the bed where Hubby felt blood coming from Braeden’s head. I found the light and saw a cut above Braeden’s eye and already a lump was forming on the side of his head. We have no idea if he was disorientated because we had moved accommodation quite a few times or perhaps was dreaming he was walking. That will remain unknown.
To say we were alarmed would be an understatement. It was 1am and we had all been sound asleep. Fortunately, when we arrived I’d had a flick through the old fashioned compendium and had noted there was a hospital in town. We all got dressed and headed to the hospital. At first I was concerned it wasn’t open as it was so quiet and there was no one visible but after ringing the call bell a nurse came to the door. There was only one other person in emergency and she slept the whole time so Braeden had three nurses and a doctor virtually to himself. Braeden was kept for about five hours under observation. He wouldn’t cooperate to have glue on his cut and a CT scan would be impossible without a general anaesthetic, so it was a case of watch and hope for the best. After the observation time the nurse gave Braeden a tetanus shot and we were on our way as the sun was rising. We hung around town for a couple of hours to be cautious and then continued with our itinerary to our next stop. We were due to drive from Carnarvon to Monkey Mia.
Carnarvon hospital gets a big thumbs up and no snakes were spotted during our stay (see sign above). The staff were measured in their approach, listened to us as parents and indulged Braeden in scalp massages which he tends to seek from anyone that’s willing. We hope this is the last hospital review we write. As many of our long-term followers will know we’ve previously had a stay at Alice Springs Hospital while visiting the Northern Territory and last year I had a trip to Cairns Hospital Emergency after being thrown from a horse. We are done with hospital reviews!
Braeden seemed tired all day but we all felt that way after five hours in hospital in the middle of the night. He was eating and relatively bright so we felt cautiously confident in travelling on to the more remote Monkey Mia.
At dinner time Braeden wasn’t enthusiastic about eating but did eat and just before going to bed he started to become restless and began projectile vomiting. Hubby and I were very concerned as we knew this was a sign of concussion. There was no compendium in the room so we were reliant on Amelia looking up local medical help. I phoned Health Direct and after providing all the details of the fall and the current state of play I was put through to a local nurse. She advised we should stay put as it was too dangerous to drive to her due to the abundance of wildlife in the area that is active at night. She was incredibly reassuring and gave us information on what to watch for and what to do if things escalated. Thankfully, Braeden went to sleep and woke up the next morning much brighter. Over the next week the bump on his head reduced in size, his eye turned various colours of black, purple and yellow and became quite bloodshot. Thankfully he returned to his happy smiling self quite quickly.
Braeden has taught us many things in life and resilience is top of the list. We were happy to be able to continue on with our itinerary and not miss any of the activities we had planned. Braeden bounces back well and we take our lead from him.
A lesson we took away from the incident is that there is still a place for an old fashioned compendium listing local medical facilities. I realised afterwards that the resort at Monkey Mia had an online compendium which they had text messaged to us on check in but in an emergency it’s hard to even type anything into a phone to search for something like medical facilities.
I can report that Braeden thoroughly enjoyed his travels despite this hiccup. He was back at hydrotherapy this week and will be back at gym on Friday. We know that the positives of gaining skills far outweigh the pitfalls. Unfortunately, or fortunately, because he was knocked out he is now more cautious.
Make sure you follow along for our less dramatic but definitely fabulous Western Australia adventures.