Sunday 12 October 2014

A&E

I'm pretty pleased that we have managed 6 years and 20 days without going to A&E. I'm sure that when we were kids, no-one ever went, but most of my friends now seem to have taken a kid at least once. Maybe it's due to living in a town with an easily accessible hospital.

It all started very happily. There was thick fog and no wind, so sailing was out, so instead we went off to explore Weldrake Woods with the usual suspects.

We took two small dragons with us:

The woods were wonderful - lots of different tree areas, not to plantation-y and lots of ditches to fall in, stumps to climb on and mushrooms to notice. We took walkie talkies and hid in dense christmas tree lots and jumped out at people. We found mysterious corals created deep in the undergrowth. We had lots of fun.

And then disaster. After a perfectly ordinary game of 1...2...3..Weeeee!, Thea started crying. A lot. Which is really unusual for her. And despite trying, she didn't seem to be able to grip Ian's hand. So the inevitable followed......

But she was a star! Despite clearly being in loads of pain (she cried out every time the car went over a bump), she was really brave, and just concentrated on eating a lolly which I had found in the bottom of my bag.

And then both kids sat quietly in A&E and chatted and read books and munched more sweets.

And all was well. Apparently a "pulled elbow" is very common and doesn't mean that you have been too rough with your child. The doctor held onto Thea's arm and twisted it a little, and then there was a little click and suddenly she could use it again. Within two minutes she was using it normally and clutching a bear she had been given (who is called Peas'n'Jim. Go figure.....). One happy girl.

Might not be doing much swinging our kids by their extremities from now on........