Saturday, April 26, 2008

Adventures in the Emergency Room

Friday night we were heading to the store to get birthday party supplies because, well, we were having a birthday party. Above the local grocery store is where are the good party supplies lie so that is where we were going. Kaori energetically ran off to lead the way however just before she got to the stairs she tripped. Nightmares all over again because Cole did the exact same thing when he was 1 or 2 years old. Fortunately, at that time he had his head turned so when he fell against the first step he just got a bruise (albeit nasty and long lasting) on the cheek. Kaori fell directly mouth first into the first step. Lots of bleeding and crying ensued.

We took a taxi to the nearest hospital but the doctor on site said they had no facilities to do plastic surgery. What? Plastic surgery? Maybe that would be useful down the road but right now we just want to get our girl stitched up. No, they couldn't/wouldn't do it. They gave us a phone number to call to find a more suitable hospital. Well, in talking to us they knew our Japanese was verrrry limited and indicated that the hotline was Japanese only. That didn't exactly fit. I asked if he would call for us. Luckily he did. A few minutes later we were back in a taxi headed to another hospital where evidently they did have "plastic surgery" capabilities. Turns out plastic surgery just means stitches(?). Near as I can tell that is what it means because that is what they did. Kaori also had to have a dentist push her teeth back into place and bond them there. Shots in your mouth are a bad deal. Shots in your little girl's mouth are even worse. By about 100 times.

Today the swelling has gone down and the coloration is good. Kaori looks much better. She has been such a trooper throughout this whole thing. She doesn't like taking her medicine but still does. Time heals all wounds.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Kaori girl. Sounds like a medical emergency is not what you want to happen when you are in a foreign country. Even if you live there.
But the real question is: What hospital can't do stitches???? I am thinking a basic M.A.S.H. unit in the bookdocks can handle that on a routine basis. Maybe that doctor didn't take his required sewing class.
Hope Kaori is healed by now!!

AZ said...

A friend (with emergency room child visit needing stitches experience) has told me that anything on the face that needs stitches will/can only be done by a plastic surgeon here. Or something like that.

Amanda:) said...

I heard there was a pretty good sized earthquake near Tokyo...did you feel it at all? Good that there wasn't any damage. Hope all is well!