Reportable

Since moving here, there have been countless times that I have thought about making a practice run to the nearest hospital. I did realize that not knowing exactly where the hospital is and not knowing where to park or how to read all of the signs or speak to very many people could be very stressful in an emergency. I have a friend who had to call 100 (the equivalent of 911 here) and found that the person who answered did not speak English. As she described watching her baby being taken away in an ambulance by people she could not communicate with and how she tried to follow them, but lost them in the traffic, I was mortified. In the end everything turned out okay, but I realized after hearing her story (and several others) that it would be wise to have a plan in case of emergency.

However, I never made the practice run. I never wrote up some key words to keep by the phone in case I ever had to call 100. I never could figure out exactly what that "plan" was. Can we say, "denial"?

As was inevitable, time ran out for practice and we had cause to make a real trip to the hospital on Monday. Thankfully it is not a scary story.

As evidenced by our last post, we are excited that Sarah is thinking about walking. So excited that I forgot the process involves some side effects. Hannah was such a cautious walker that she managed not have too many bumps and bruises, but with Nathan the bumps and bruises were an every day occurrence. I would say Sarah is even more cautious that Hannah was, but that has caused us to let our guard down, a lot. Monday afternoon, just after I asked Hannah to go and put on her shoes so that we could go pick up Nathan from school, Sarah tripped, fell and hit her face on the coffee table. It took a minute (okay, not really a minute, but time always seems to move so slowly when there has been an accident) to get to where I could see how bad the injury was, but then I realized her tooth had gone through her bottom lip. Lots of blood, lots of screaming, but I managed to remain calm. Calm enough that Hannah just kept looking for her shoes. She was outside waiting for me while I tried to decide what I needed to do. I called the pediatrician because he speaks English and I wanted to be sure the ER was the right place to go. He agreed it was. It was then that I panicked. I just didn't want to have to go there. It has been a big fear of mine since we moved here, not because I'm scared of hospitals, but because I'm scared of not being able to communicate or find who/what I need. I don't feel I can be the best advocate for myself and my children when I can't fully communicate. So I called a friend and asked if she would go with me. She must have thought I was crazy because she has 2 kids and with my 3, it would have been insane for us all to go to the hospital. She rationally said that she would come and get Hannah and pick Nathan up from school for me while I took Sarah to the hospital. So I got myself together, got my GPS, my phone and got a lot of cash because every other doctor only takes cash, and a lot of it, so I could only imagine what this would cost. Finding the hospital wasn't as difficult as I'd been warned, but parking WAS. I managed to find a lot after I had to go the wrong way down a one way street and turn around. The lot was several blocks away, but with only Sarah, it wasn't too difficult to get back to the hospital. Finding the ER was more difficult, but I found someone who directed me to it. They were very helpful and we didn't wait long. I am so glad I didn't have fear of hospitals on top of my fear not being able to find help, explain myself or understand anyone. The nurses were so sweet with her. I only understood a little bit of what they said. It seemed very important to find out if it happened at home, but I don't know why. The doctor didn't speak much English so he didn't really speak to me much at all, which I understand. I had so many Spanish speaking patients and it really is hard to say anything when your basic knowledge of a language doesn't really apply to the situation. She ended up with no stitches, just glue and she didn't cry at all during the ER visit. It looks so much better today and really never seemed to bother her at all. That same evening she was chowing down on pigs in a blanket provided by the lovely friend watching the other two kids.

I must say if I had to have a trip to the ER, I am so thankful that this was our experience and not something much more scary and traumatic. I didn't take any pictures on Monday or Tuesday, but here are some today. It started looking better before we ever saw the doctor on Monday and is hardly noticeable today. The whole experience hasn't made much of a difference in her little life. She's just as sweet as she can be and still trying to maneuver all over the house. When I went to pick up Hannah and Nathan after we were done, I let them jump on the trampoline for a bit. Next thing I knew, I had another bleeding child. Hannah hit her mouth on Nathan's head. This one was less serious, but evoked much more drama from the drama queen. You'll be happy to know that we managed to get through the remainder of the evening without any bleeding from the 3rd child!

Yesterday and today have been far less eventful. We are enjoying sunshine and warmer weather which we are so thankful for. Daddy has had a busy week in Hong Kong and was able to enjoy a nice dinner with family last night. We are excited to see the pictures and hear all about his trip when he gets back. We're sorry that we've had a couple of reportables with the boss gone. So now, we're starting over. We have been accident free for 1 day.