A weekend in ED x 2

Alex's latest injury

Apparently it was quite a spectacular highside type fall when his pedal hit the ground on a fast corner. His bike, separated from him, bounced harmlessly to the ground with barely a scratch on either it or the wheels. He on the other hand is less skilled at bouncing harmlessly and he has a fractured clavicle.

Once again there was the telephone call beginning with "Are you Alex's mum?......" and  that was the beginning of a long, physically restful weekend gaining first hand experience of the efficiency (or not) of 2 easternhealth emergency departments.

He was taken to Box Hill Hospital via ambulance and so got priority intake as opposed to the next day when we were "walk ins" at Maroondah Hospital and I had to wait over 30 minutes in a queue for  the 1 nurse on triage duty to attend to him.  However the magic words "head strike" and "broken helmet"  raises the priority level and so speeds up the process more than somewhat.  At least when we arrived at Maroondah ED there were only 2 people ahead of us rather than later on in the day when the queue stretched almost to the exit.  Good care was provided in both places once we got in the door, however I still favour a private hospital ED for minor injuries.

The Sunday visit to Maroondah was due to ongoing issues with nausea that could possibly have been concussion...in the end it was  more a case of dehydration, with 3 litres of IV fluid +oral fluids needed before a trip to the loo became essential.  So we are now armed with Xrays to cervical spine(normal) and right shoulder and, following a CTB, the knowledge that his brain is also "normal" (and yes all the usual jokes have been made). 

As with me every time I have a colonoscopy,  a low resting pulse rate gets staff in a bit of a tizz...mine sits at about 43 and Alex's is even lower.  He also has quite a low BP and it was this that caused the extra long time at Maroondah (the entire day) as they monitored  and re-hydrated him. The doctor there had the strongest Irish accent I've heard in a long while, which made him a delight to listen to.  One could argue that a CTB is going overboard given the end conclusion, but nowadays medicine practices a "worst case scenario" approach which results in what  a few decades ago would be considered over servicing.

If Alex had a desk job, was older and was not an elite athlete with a World Championships in August,  the clavicle would be left to heal...however none of the above are correct and so we're off to find a surgeon to pin it for him.