First ER Visit

We hit the ER Saturday for Abbie. She fell off a water trough at Brendan's soccer, landing head first on concrete. She got a bad cut on her forehead. Fun stuff! On the bright side, I got to experience getting to the ER and navigating the Swiss emergency medical system for the first time when it wasn't a *true* emergency. It was amazing! We walked into the ER, and you're right at the nurses desk. No triage or waiting area -- they put us right into a room. Abbie got a "get well" donkey who had quite a collection of embroidered band-aids, stitches, etc. on him (not visible in the photo). The nurses put her at ease right away. They called in the doctor who decided (partly because Abbie was screaming "No stitches! No stitches!") that they could just glue the cut. We were out in 30 minutes. The receptionist said they'll just send us a bill in the mail.

The parents at the soccer game were really nice. They don't really speak to us, but they immediately switched to English when Abbie got hurt and insisted that we needed to take her to get "scotched up". I guess that's the British word for stitches? They made sure we knew where the closest hospital was, which was great. One person even called the pediatrician to see if he was in and we could just go there. The coach was a different story. Brendan was in the locker room getting changed after the game, so John ran in to get him. On the way out, the coach handed John a bag with the dirty uniforms for the whole team. We didn't get any instructions, but my guess is the parents take turns doing the laundry for team. I'm all for doing my part, but I can't believe the coach decided it was our turn as we were leaving for the ER. I just can't imagine thinking, "Oh, your daughter is seriously hurt? Here - take the laundry." In the coach's defense, he doesn't speak English, so maybe he didn't understand what was going on.

It was a bad week for Abbie. Earlier in the week, she had a trampoline accident. One of her bottom teeth caused a big gash inside her cheek/lower lip. I ended up calling the after-hours on-call doctor that night to make sure that she didn't need stitches insider her mouth. It was a pretty big cut, and a few teeth that weren't previously loose, felt loose. Since they were baby teeth, the doctor agreed that it wasn't a big deal. Then, the ER visit. Yesterday, she got stung by a bee on the bottom of her first. I hope the girl stays injury free for a few days!