As the mother of 2 young boys I knew that the day would come
when we had to truly break our URGENT CARE seal… it was only a matter of time
that we would get a bump, scrape, concussion or bug on a scale large enough to
warrant a trip to the local UC clinic.
I have a track record of hardly ever being in an emergency
environment or needing medical care- I am thankful for that - and then there
are times that I feel like my husband is at the UC monthly… cough, cold, busted
ribs or torqued wrist- he isn’t as lucky as I am (or maybe smart lol) in that
department.
But our boys have rarely seen the inside of a doctor’s
office. Save for well visits and one trip to the ER in an ambulance for our
oldest (then 1 year old) for a febrile seizure we have faired pretty well.
Last night we popped our cherry though- and I had to write
about it.
Painting the picture- littlest bug is snoozing away in bed
after a hard day of outside play and we are winding down getting ready for
brushing teeth with the Captain. We get into a last minute tickle fest and
chase and he scoots under one of our wing back chairs to hide/get away from
tickle fingers. Not a second and a half later we hear screaming, crying,
sobbing, pain shrieks and he scoots out- cut to 2 seconds after that and during
lap time calm down efforts we see blood- turns out that the springs in the
underside of the chair have started to pop through the flimsy fabric and they
are SHARP… Note to self #1-
replace chair fabric on underside.
A brief assessment, and a few damp paper towels later we make
the call to get him to the Urgent Care for what we assume will be a few
stitches to close up a nasty gash. YAY for bedtime drama!
Our local Urgent Care is DOCTORS EXPRESS DOWNINGTOWN in the shopping
Center next to the new Kimberton Whole Foods. I would just like to say that I would go there time and time
again. We had a great experience and I thought they deserved a shout out.
We arrived at 7:45pm (they close at 8pm) and got signed in.
We arrived at the tail end of what the desk girls described as a “crazy rush”
of patients needing attention – great- they said it would be an hour wait…
yikes but beats the E.R. I guess.
We hung out, watched Curious George on my phone and the
Captain narrated to the entire waiting room what was happening not just in C.G.
but in all of the stock lobby photos hanging on the wall. If you have ever met
the Captain you will know that there are times when it is like living with Rain
Man- he doesn’t stop talking… as any mother of a 2-3 year old can tell you it
is like a flood gate opens and they don’t shut up - so while I felt sorry for
everyone in the lobby to have to bear the burden of the monologue – I also was
thankful that this post bedtime trip was going relatively smoothly to this
point. (We have a legendary history of Doctors office melt downs- and I do not exaggerate
when I tell you that it more often than not has taken 2 nurses to run an
appointment for us with the Captain- one to hold him down like nurse Ratchet
and the other to administer whatever relatively painless procedure (think stethoscope
here people) that is required of the visit. )
Anyway- I digress- the gist is that the Staff at Doctors
Express were AWESOME. It was the end of their ridiculously long 12+ hour day
and they treated us as though we were the first patients of the day and they
had just had a hearty breakfast and 3 cups of coffee- cheery, accommodating and
so helpful and understanding of what it is like to be in a packed office with a
one hour wait with a wounded 3 year old in tow.
They whisked us back to an exam room so we didn’t have to
hang in the lobby the whole time, plied us with pretzels and water while we
waited, popped in our room to say hi and tell jokes and give high fives every
few minutes, gave us a tour of the XRAY machine and showed us how it worked,
and of course gave the Captain a wonderful parting gift of a information folder
about Spinal Kinetic XRay that has not left his side since it was gifted to him
(a little light bedtime reading I guess).
Needless to say I STRONGLY Recommend this clinic – and while
I don’t look forward to the reasons why we will visit this office again- I do
know that the only form of stress I will have will be the injury not the
experience.
5 our of 5 glasses of wine for DOCTORS EXPRESS Downingtown.