Knee Down

I'm not a regular at the emergency department of the university hospital, but I was there today. It being a Monday, my youngest and I were out in less than two hours. This morning in school, during a sports lesson where they were playing rugby, my little lad found himself beneath three of his buddies who'd jumped on his knee.

I received the inevitable call at work and, as I am not a CEO or anything important, was able to leave without guilt, the sound of wailing, or frantic rescheduling of important meetings, to tend to my dear boy. As it was 11.45am and I reckoned we'd end up in the emergency department, I fed him before going to see the local GP and took a book. A wise move.

The doc was unable to straighten out my boy's leg which he held in a vice-like grip, knee totally bent, so he wrote us a note and sent us to the CHU.

There I saw a real baddie. He was handcuffed to a plain-clothes policeman and was sitting in an office off the interior reception waiting to be treated. He looked mean and mighty pissed off too so I tried very hard not to look at him (too much) so he wouldn't register my face and then come after me later. Well, you never know. I found it very reassuring that he was firmly handcuffed however, and that there were at least two uniformed, armed gendarmes milling about together with various pompiers.

It felt like being on the tele. I said to my youngest that there was a baddie in the next room and he just said, as though I were a bit of an idiot, 'Maman!!'

My son was called and we went to have his leg straightened, with a click... and then it was all okay. They X-rayed it just to make sure but it seems there's nothing amiss. He walked out, limping a tad, and we spent the afternoon watching dvds, including Next, with Nicolas Cage which had me quite entertained although my youngest told me he'd seen it already with his dad. Ah well, at least my afternoon off work wasn't completely without interest...