Josh’s Saturday afternoon playdate came to a sadly abrupt end when he somehow landed on his foot weird on the trampoline. We went home, iced it down, gave him ibuprofen… and it just didn’t seem to be getting better. It turns out that what I thought might have been a bad stubbed toe was a dislocated toe that may or may not have a bit of a fracture on one of the bones. We hit the ER at about 7, hoping to beat all of the usual Saturday “festivities” that happen at the emergency room, and we stayed until 2 am. Yeah… anyway… some thoughts that occurred while we waited.

1. You see all kinds of people at the e.r., it’s a real cross-section of humanity.  As I discovered when Josh said to me “Mommy, why does that guy in the green outfit (jumpsuit) have handcuffs on his hands and legs?”

2. Some e.r. peeps are really over-worked.  Some apparently have a lot of time on their hands.

3. thank goodness that the Albany Med ER has cable.  Josh’s DS only held so much appeal and so we watched Finding Nemo, some football, Food Network and Home Alone 2.

4. when you hear the doctor talking to the guy in the next “room” (the walls of our rooms were curtains) and saying “well, you might have the BAD kind of meningitis”, it kind of makes you want to find somewhere else to be.

5. there is a seeming lack of communication going on in that particular er. i won’t write everything i could about that, because i will probably say things i’ll regret. Suffice to say that Albany Med could really brush up on making sure communication between residents, specialists and nurses actually happens.  no patient should be relied on to relay information between those groups of people. it is NOT okay to do that.

6. there was a little dude who came in at the same time as us, who had jumped off the couch and hit his face on the coffee table, putting his tooth through his cheek.  he was FREAKED OUT.  but, because he was able to watch Josh getting his vitals taken in the registration area, things went a lot more smoothly when it was his turn.  his mom actually commented that she was thankful another child had been next to them, because she felt that her son would have totally melted down without the chance to see that happen before it was his turn.