A first in our family: a child’s trip to the emergency room

Well, he almost made it to two without an emergency visit.  We took an early train yesterday to have brunch with a friend in the Cotswolds (including a lovely walk through hedge-and-field-covered sheep country), and Nathaniel fell down while playing in the living room.  A perfectly ordinary fall (standing next to a couch, playing with buttons), but he cried and couldn’t stand up again after it.  So, when we got home in the evening, I took him to the emergency room while Sydney stayed with Katherine, and we went back in again this morning so that Nathaniel could get a cast on his leg.  X-rays didn’t show broken bones, but the doctors said it’s fairly common for small breaks in toddlers to show up on x-rays only after the breaks begin to heal.  So Nathaniel is down for the count for two weeks or so, sporting a bright-red cast the length of his leg.  He’s been a trooper, though, playing patiently in waiting room after waiting room, and Katherine is diving into her role as caretaker and toy-retriever.  As exhausting and worrying as the ordeal has been, I saw plenty of much more serious injuries to children during our hours at the hospital, and I’m grateful that this is the first (and worst) hospital visit we’ve had to make with our children.

To the grandparents: don’t worry.  He’s fine, and he’ll be even better in a few weeks.  And when he gets out of his cast, Katherine will get him up to speed by running his legs off in the parks.  So don’t worry.

Pictures to come, but not until I get in some work and laundry first.

Erin

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *