POPPED OUR CHERRY

Our 1st TRIP TO URGENT CARE

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.