Warren's first trip to the Children's Hospital

Just another lazy Sunday turned into a trip to the emergency room at the Children's Hospital. Brian had taken Charlotte and Warren to the grocery store to get them out of the apartment. Charlotte was trying to be helpful when they got home and push Warren in his stroller down the two steps from the elevator landing on our floor while Brian was opening the apartment door. Unfortunately, it did not go as planned and the stroller tipped over with Warren in it resulting in Warren smacking his forehead on the hard tile floor. 

We were able to calm him down enough to see the purple and blue golf ball size welt on his forehead. It was such a hard fall we decided to look up urgent care.... well, urgent care is not as big of a thing here as it is in the states. There is not one on every corner and honestly, good luck finding one in every arrondissement. After googling medical care that is open on Sunday (because pretty much everything is closed on Sunday in the 16th), a medical clinic within 5 minutes walking distance was open. We strapped him back into the stroller and I started walking quickly to the clinic. We ran into a school friend on the way who helped me find the entrance to clinic. The receptionist explained the clinic was not an urgent care and Warren should be taken to the Children's Hospital across the Seine River in the 15th. 

She wrote down the address for me and I was out the door heading up to Place du Trocadero to find a taxi otherwise it would have been a 45-minute walk. I jumped in the first one available (cloth seats...I sure did double check for bedbugs), handed the address to the driver and 15 minutes later we were entering the Necker Hospital campus. The taxi ride was a little less than 13 Euros. It is a rarity that I have cash on me but I had a 20 and handed it to the driver. He said he only takes card. Of course, I was in a hurry and did not ask for the ticket. The taxi driver ended up charging me 112 Euros. Classic Jill. Taxi drivers always want cash here...it should have clicked to me when he did not take the cash. Lovely day to get taken advantage of in front of the emergency room.

Entering the waiting room felt very normal. I filled out the shortest form of information and explained what happened. I was told it would be a 20-minute wait which about knocked me off my feet. The last time we went to the emergency room in Houston, the wait time was six hours. We ended up waiting about an hour and a half before entering the triage room. The nurses were great with Warren and asked several questions. Communication was easy. They gave him a hospital bracelet and sent us back to waiting room to continue our wait for the doctor. 

A couple minutes later, we were being called up to the check-in desk. Based on the nurse's evaluation, Warren could be seen by the doctor in the building across from the emergency room faster than if we stayed in this waiting room. I think that was her way of nicely saying you can be seen by the expat doctor. We crossed the courtyard, headed into the very very quiet building, and got completely lost. Finally, I saw someone walking and somehow managed to express we are looking for the doctor. She pointed down a long hallway in which we found another waiting room with a couple of the other parents we had seen in the emergency room. Sounds like all of us were expats.         

We waited another hour and a half before being called into the exam room which also doubled as the doctor's office. The doctor was great with Warren. Warren probably had a concussion but his eyes were good, reflexes were great and he had not thrown up yet. The doctor continued to play with Warren while typing up a prescription for any pain Warren would have over the next few days. He mentioned the blood will drain down into Warren's eyelids and around the nose making those areas look swollen. The doctor said he could talk and play with Warren all day based on his charm. Warren was going to be just fine. 

The doctor gave me a list of side effects to watch for as Warren's unicorn of a welt started to heal. Most important one was if he threw up THREE times, we need to come back to the hospital. Luckily that never happened. The experience overall could not have been easier and to top it off, we did not have our health insurance yet and our trip to the emergency room only cost us 60 Euros! My taxi ride was more expensive...

We got lost trying to exit the hospital. It is a fortress. We wandered around the 15th trying to find a busy street to hail a taxi. I learned the G7 taxi service is THE taxi you want to use. There was a taxi driver wiping down his car so I knew that was the one to get in. He took cash. Another 20-minute drive and we were home by 5:00 p.m. Poor Charlotte felt awful the entire five hours we were gone. She was super sweet with Warren the rest of the evening waiting on him hand and foot. He loved it.