Sunday night I was at the hospital. It was not for me it was for one of my girls. This hospital visit was a long and hard due to the fact that both of us were very very tired.

So why were we at the hospital?

Saturday one of the girls fell at basketball. She was marking (in other words trying to block one girl from the other team from getting a basket), the girls of the other team bumped her and this made my daughter misstep and then fall on her knee and on her hand. Saturday night she had a big black bruise on the inside of her arm and her hand near her thumb was extremely bruised.

We decided to strap up the hand and arm to help and she kept it like this for Sunday also. However by Sunday night it was very sore and still swollen, and she couldn’t do much at all with the hand.

The concern with the hand and arm was this was the same wrist she broke years ago. So with the concern that she could have really hurt this arm and hand again, I took her to the hospital.

We got into see the triage nurse very quickly but I think my kid downplayed the pain, she still couldn’t move her thumb correctly so off to x-ray we went.

Just to give you some context we arrived at the hospital at around 8.30pm. We got to see the x-ray people around 9pm, and then we saw the doctor at 12am.

During our wait we chatted with the other people in the waiting room and also bonded over bad reality television.

When we saw the doctor he said that there are no breaks in the arm…Good to know!

He was concerned about her swelling and pain around the thumb and said that there could possibly be a break in the hand but these breaks don’t become visible until about 7-10 days later.

The doctor said that we needed to keep her thumb and hand in a certain position as a precaution until we can get her x-rayed again.

The kind staff at the hospital located an arm strap and put it on my daughter to show her how it can help keep the thumb and hand in a better position. The strap looked good and had padding but it must have been pressing her arm on all the sore parts. She was so upset and nearly in tears about this arm strap. I asked if she would wear it and she said it hurts, so the answer would be no.

I told the doctor that we are very thankful for them getting the strap but since it is hurting her I don’t believe she would wear it. The only alternative was to have her get a cast to make sure that she doesn’t move her hand and arm in the wrong position.

The doctor agreed and kindly got my kid a plaster cast and then we finally arrived home just after 1 am. And yes we were very tired.

While at the hospital I was thinking about all the times I have been there, and thinking about all the disasters was rather weird. Below is a list of what we have gone to the local hospital for:

• Pregnant with the twins – Water broke at 33 weeks so then moved to Nepean.
• Back after the twins were born
• One of the twins fell on her head
• One of the twins swallowed a rock and then had to get an x-ray
• The twin who swallowed the rock had follow up x-ray to determine if the rock was there or not (the rock had moved out of the body naturally, you know what I mean)
• One twin got a UTI and had to be on antibiotics with a drip (she had 40-degree temps)
• Intense gastro
• Standard illness that little kids get
• Hubby hurting himself
• Sick when pregnant with my third child
• Seeing midwives at the hospital for my care with the third child
• Back at the hospital after having my little boy.
• Badly ill with mastitis and had to be on an antibiotic drip (don’t recommend this as it burnt my veins and hurt)
• The third child got dropped face-first on edge of a concrete path and nearly lost all top teeth (this was a horrible visit)
• One twin broke her wrist and got told she needed to have it rebooked due to it being at a 15-degree angle (geez not good, but all ended well)
• My little boy got really ill and didn’t eat or drink this then meant his blood sugar dropped. (This was very scary and glad I took him to the hospital when I did)
• I got bitten by a suspected redback spider – foot swelled up and it burnt and was stabbing at the same time…HORRIBLE PAIN!
• And now again with the kid that broke her wrist and soon back again for follow up x-ray.

I know that hubby and I have had our fair share of accidents and sickness but we seem to be frequent visitors to the hospital and this can only be due to having kids.

Have you realised that since you have had kids that you visit the doctors or the hospital more often?

I’m very grateful that we have a good health care system that we can just get the care we need when we need it. My daughter was upset it was taking forever at the hospital. I did say yes it is a long wait but the doctors are busy, they are treating the most urgent people first and then us. I told her that we just need to wait. Many countries have to pay lots and lots of money for the care we received on Sunday and we have the benefit of having it all under Medicare.

I just hope that my boy is not a frequent visitor at the hospital like his sisters have been. He does give it a good go with all his action games.