Head Injury

Well, it just wouldn't be my life without a trip to the Emergency Room for one of my children.  The day started out lovely... it was a bit overcast but the rain had just ended.  I packed up the kids and a towel and headed out to Fortune Street Park.  This is one of our favorites here in Islington.  I'm a fan of Giddy Up coffee and the kids love the play equipment -- it's a good mix.  To separate a few parts of the park there are these bright yellow spring loaded gates that are about 5 or 6 year old height.  They are great gates that close by themselves and include a gap so little fingers don't get pinched.

However, we did learn that if you run at full speed and push the gate open, it will spring back faster than a newly 5 year old can clear the opening.  I was pushing Wren in the swings when Atticus went running at full speed through one of the yellow gates.  It sprung back, whacking him in the head and sending him flat on his back.  My heart stopped.  In the 5 seconds it took me to run over to him a HUGE knot had formed on his head over his right eye.  I'm not lying when I say that I honestly thought it was going to burst and blood was going to spew everywhere.  It was nasty.  Thank goodness he didn't lose consciousness.  I looked around at the business folks that were eating and not a single one offered to help or came over to see if we were okay.  (I'm disappointed London locals....)

I threw the remains of our picnic lunch into a bag, plopped Atticus into the stroller, grabbed Wren from the swing and made a bee line to the coffee cart.  Thank goodness he had a bag of ice and was able to break off a hunk for us.  Using the hand towel that I'd brought with us - I wrapped up some ice and stuck it on Atti's head.  He was still screaming and sobbing poor guy.

As we started walking towards the apartment, I stopped a local mum and asked her what to do.  I honestly didn't know since we still don't have our private insurance cards and I wasn't sure if we were yet eligible for the nationalized health care!  Thank you, thank you to the mum for suggesting that I call 1-1-1 a new service here that allows you to talk to medical professionals for a non-emergency.  The guy on the other end walked me through a ton of questions and then based on my answers said that we didn't need to go immediately to the ER, but we should still be seen by a doctor.  They were able to locate the closest clinic for me and let them know we were on our way.

In the midst of all this, Greg was on the phone with HR both locally and in New York trying to sort out the insurance and authentications we needed.  Ahhhhhhh....

Now, I just had to walk just shy of a mile with a 3 year old and a 5 year old with a head injury with only one stroller that really is too small for the 5 year old.  GREAT!  Oh... and did I mention that due to all the commotion, Wren didn't get to nap so she was tired and cranky?

We headed out with the kids taking turns in the stroller.  We made it to the clinic where I wrote Atticus's name on a piece of paper with our address and was told to have a seat.  There were about 30 people already there at the clinic.  I was fearful that it was going to take a lifetime!!  (It only took about an hour...) I tried to occupy the kids and keep them relatively quiet while watching a bizarrely large electronic billboard that spit out names and what room you should go to.  Apparently HIPPA laws are a tad different here in the UK!

So... we finally were summoned to Room B where we were met by both a doctor (who looked like she'd just come from chasing kids at the park herself based on her clothes???) and a nurse.  Apparently they were expecting a gash or the need for sutures, because of the earlier call -- but yay -- we didn't need those.  The doctor asked me a couple more questions.  She looked at Atticus's eyes and then printed off a piece of paper that showed a list of things to watch for with head injuries and sent us on our way.  No joke, it took less than 3 minutes.  Granted... she did tell us that the threshold for any symptoms was very low and if we thought we needed the ambulance at any time over the next day -- to just call, but still -- that was it???  She left the room, the nurse printed the paper and said thanks we were free to go.

That was it.  Nothing else needed.  No sign here.  No insurance information.  No cash.  Nothing...

Weird.

-- It's now 4 days post-gate and Atticus has quite the bruise on his forehead and the beginnings of a black eye near his nose, but otherwise seems "normal".