Emergency Room!

This is how we spent our last few hours of 2008, in the emergency room.

My oldest daughter, Caitlyn, was helping her Dad with the braai outside. It was about 08h30 and was running up the tiled steps in our backyard - she tripped and fell with her knee against the edge of the step. When she rolled over screaming in pain, all I could see was bone sticking out through a cut in her knee.

My husband put her in the back seat of the car and I raced her to hospital. She was screaming all the way. I parked in the emergency zone and had to get one of the male nurses to bring a wheelchair to wheel her in. They took her straight in to a waiting bed, but after sterilizing the wound we had to wait about 20 minutes before the doctor came (you can imagine what ER looks like on New Years Eve).

I never want to go through this again, as I watched in horror how he injected numerous times inside the wound - my child was hysterical. I just wanted to pick her up and run out with her. Then, I think because the wound did not have a straight edge, he had to cut on one side. Caitlyn was going crazy, screaming "Mommy, Mommy" over and over again. All I could do was hold her tight and pray. 4 stitches later it was all over.

On a lighter note, while I was signing forms for her at the reception, in marches a teenage guy with spiked up hair and full of attitude (with his parents). I thought it was a bit strange that they were laughing and joking in ER until I overheard his mother on the phone, she said "Yes, we are in ER and he looks like a right old Mr Bean". On hearing this I looked over at him sitting next to her and nearly burst out laughing! There hanging from his finger was a metal canister, obviously very stuck. I had to show Caitlyn, just to try and bring a smile through all her tears.