My Children Need Helmets to be Near Me

Friday afternoon. I pick Tipton up from school. He and his friend, Samantha, are the last two kids on the playground. Adriana (Samantha's Mom) and I decide it is time to leave. We hustle the kids off the playground and start heading towards our cars. I open Tipton's door for him to get in the car, then walk around the back of the car to get Lilli into her seat. I am carrying Lilli. I stepped partway into a hole with my left foot. My ankle twisted and I went down, still holding Lilli. I tried to twist further to cushion Lilli's fall, but still she hit the ground. I heard her head hit the pavement - not a sound I will ever forget. She started screaming. I started screaming. Tipton yelled for Adriana. We must have been making quite a lot of noise, because a woman from the pizza parlor across the street came running out. Adriana (and Samantha) came running back. A man drivng by (the Dad of one of Tipton's classmates) stopped his car and got out. The woman from the pizza parlor took Lilli. Adriana helped me up off the ground. Lilli looked okay at first glance - no blood, no scratches. I had twisted my left ankle pretty bad. I could barely put any weight on it. My right knee was skinned pretty bad, through my pants (which now had a hole in the knee.) Adriana put Lilli into her car seat for me. I leaned in to buckle Lilli up. Her hat had slipped down over her eyes so I pushed it back up. That's when I saw it. Lilli had a knot on her head. About two inches long, 1/2 an inch wide and popped out about an inch. (NOT an exaggeration.) I was pretty unsteady on my feet before I saw that. I started shaking. It was all I could do to say "Adriana." She leaned into the car and looked at Lilli and saw the bump. I don't remember exactly what she said. But I do remember her telling me to breathe. And that she would follow me home. Good thing, because I hyperventilated all the way home. At one point Tipton said "Mommy, is your ankle better? Because you've been staying off of it." Such a little sweetheart! Once home, Adriana got Lilli out of the car. I held Lilli while Adriana held ice on Lilli's head. After a few minutes we could see that the swelling was going down. I put on a DVD for Lilli. She started dancing as soon as the music came on, so I was pretty sure she'd be okay. Then Adriana wrapped my ankle with an ace bandage. Then Adriana started making lunch for the kids while I tended to my skinned knee. After the kids ate, Adriana helped me write out a list of things I needed/needed to know for an emergency over here. Like where our Vardcentral is. (The Vardcentral is the clinic you go to if you're sick.) The numbers for an ambulance and/or taxis. A first aid kit for the car. All things I know/had back in the US. Things you don't even think about until you need them.

Then I called the private doctor to see if I could get an appointment for me and Lilli for that afternoon. (They will speak english to me at the private doctor, not so sure about the Vardcentral.) I got an answering machine. So I called Eva. I explained my situation and she said she'd see what she could do. She called back about 5 minutes later and said that Lilli and I had an appointment for 4:00 that afternoon.

I called Dave and explained what had happened. He was in meetings all afternoon, but said he would be home by 3:30 so that he could drive us to the doctor.

Adriana left around 2:00. She had to go grocery shopping and prepare for guests she was having over for dinner that night. Bless her! I dont' know what I would have done without her! She was having dinner guests, and yet she stayed to help me! What a wonderful friend! (Her and Eva both!!)

Dave got home at 3:30 and we bundled the kids into the car. Lilli's lump still looked pretty bad, and I could barely walk. We got to the doctors office and were seen immediately. He checked out Lilli's eyes and ears and nose and throat and felt around on her head. Then he pronounced her to be fine, albeit with a lump and a bruise. Then he checked me out. I had - wait for it - a skinned knee and a sprained ankle. He said the ankle would probably hurt for about two weeks. I asked if he had crutches. He said no. I asked if I could get crutches at the Apoteket (drugstore.) He said no. He said that I would have to go to the Vardcentral to get crutches. Ugh! He did, however, write me a prescription for pain medication.

So we got back into the car and drove to our Vardcentral. It was about 4:45. The sign on the door said the were open until 5:00, but the door was locked. We rang the buzzer and a nurse opened the door. She said they were closed. Dave and I both looked at the sign on the door again. She said they took their last patient at about 3:45, then stayed open ONLY BY PHONE until 5:00. Lovely. She said we would have to go to the Jourcentral (after hours clinic.) She wrote down the address for us and we were off, again.

We drove around for a while before we found the Jourcentral. Then had to park a block away. (Meaning I had to hobble for a block. Only later did it occur to us that Dave could have dropped me and the kids off and gone to park the car.) We went in and I filled out a form and then we sat and waited. About 20 minutes later I was called to reception. The woman there looked at my form. I explained that I had already seen a doctor, a private doctor, and just needed crutches. She said that I would have to be seen by one of their doctors, because I needed to have a prescripton for crutches. A prescription for crutches???!!!! You've got to be kidding. So back out to the waiting room. For an hour. Then the woman reappears and hands me a pair of crutches and a number. They were able to contact the private doctor (to verify that I needed crutches?) When my number was called I could go up and pay. Ten minutes later I was hobbling out the door on my shiny new crutches. Now, these aren't the crutches I'm used to. I'm used to the kind that go up under the arm and have the little bar halfay down that you hold on to. No, these were like polio crutches. Like the crutch that Dr. Weaver used on ER. They are short and only come up to just below the elbow. A little plastic cuff wraps around your arm just below the elbow. Not the easiest things to use. Rather unstable. But they were better than nothing.

Dave dropped us off at home and I got a DVD playing for the kiddos and some frozen pizzas in the oven. It was well past dinner time. Dave left in search of an Apoteket to get my prescription for pain medication. He ended up at a pharmacy about two blocks from the Jourcentral. He could have gotten the prescription while we were waiting for my crutches! D'oh! It turns out the pain medication was pretty much just tylenol with codiene. Better than nothing.

ALl in all, I am less than impressed with the quality of medical care in Sweden.

It was a very, very difficult afternoon. Dave now says that he's going to get Lilli a helmet to wear when she's around me. He keeps making jokes about me dropping Lilli. My reply is always this "I did NOT drop Lilli. I held onto her all the way down!" If I'd dropped her, she wouldn't have hit her head!