Frances' Head

So this weekend, I took Frances in to the local walk-in clinic (which is associated with our hospital).

When meeting with the nurse practitioner, I explained that Frances hit her head on the corner of a wall on Wednesday, had blood come out of her ear on Thursday and that we wanted to get it checked out. I also told her that she still has a tube in that ear which may also explain the bleeding.

I was hoping for a "Well, we probably can't do anything here but let's take a look at her ear" followed by an "It's no big deal" or a recommendation to go to the hospital for X-rays.

Instead, she said "So, this happened on Wednesday... and today's... Saturday", followed by condescending look. She then asked "What made you come in now?" with the undertone of "why didn't you come in right away sooner".

I told her that she had seemed fine and wasn't exhibiting any other symptoms of head trauma, no dilated pupils, no grogginess. She had been acting normally and wasn't complaining of any pain other than the obvious bruise on her head. We just wanted to get another opinion.

The nurse told me that you should go to the emergency room right away for every head injury. (Which I guess means that we should be going each time the kids smack their head against something. So, about twice a week. I didn't say that because I was to busy trying to convince her not to call social services. Also, I didn't think of it.)

After being informed that we should take her to the emergency room (and that I am a terrible father) over and over, we went home.

We consulted with various family members, noted the continued normalcy of Frances' behavior and decided to just keep an eye on her. Which is what we probably would have been told to do had we taken her to the hospital.

mwz