The day I have been dreading

It started out like any other day, we ran a few errands on the bike then stopped off at the park on the way home. It was a nice warm day and some of the older kids were out so Ebi-kun had someone to play with. It was lunch time and I was thinking about heading home, Ebi-kun was racing against the other boys then he fell, no biggie, he falls over all the time but this time he screamed and I knew that something was wrong.

I ran over and he was screaming about his arm, he could move his fingers but he was obviously in agony, luckily the park was full of mom's including one that spoke a little English (well, her English level is about the same as my Japanese so conversations never get very complicated). I had no idea which hospital to take him to, she suggested one but I had no idea where it was, then someone mentioned it was lunch time and it would be closed. Hina-chan's mama called them and they said to take him round she also offered to drive us.

The doctor had a look at his arm and decided it needed an x-ray at this point Ebi-kun was in shock, all wobbly legged and white as a sheet but the doctor was "come on, your a boy, gambaru, do you best" (I am sure it would have been a different tale if he was a girl!) So, off we go for the x-ray, this is when the sobbing stopped and the questions started, poor technician probably wondered what had happened, Ebi-kun firing off a load of questions about how it all worked. He came out of the room super excited because he had seen his bones on the computer, that's my boy :o)

So, the outcome is a fracture near his wrist, he got what I can only describe as half a cast, they put a big wet pad on it then bandaged it up and now it is hard, we have to go back this morning to have it checked.

I really don't like going to the hospital here because of the language barrier, I can handle something simple like a cough or cold but get nervous when it is something else, what if I misunderstand or they misunderstand me? And even my basic Japanese goes out of the window, yesterday I managed to get the words arm and leg muddled up! Luckily, I now have a number of friends I can call if I need help and I have a great couple of neighbours too. I spent last night baking cookies and making a little bag to put them in as a thank you for the neighbour who took us to the hospital.

As for the little invalid, he is fine, slept OK last night, they gave us painkillers but he hasn't needed them, I think the excitement of the seeing the x-ray killed the pain.