Pup was nominated for an absolutely awesome award at school. Students have to be nominated by a teacher to even be considered. And obviously having more than one teacher nominate you increases your chances. But as one lady pointed out a teacher may have 4 classes so it can be tricky to pick just one student. During ‘Education Week’ the school held a morning tea to celebrate these students. Dad and I turned up to see him get his certificate, after checking with Pup to make sure we wouldn't be embarrassing him, of course...
Cub tried out for the inter school soccer team and got in. Yay Cub! Unfortunately, he then broke his arm on the flying fox during lunch. The school phoned at about 2:30 to recommend we take him to get it looked at. (Have to love those phone calls! For goodness sake, school ends at 3:00!) Of course, we turned up and yes his arm did look painful, he was extremely pale and in a bit of shock... Rather than wait at the hospital for five hours, I figured the best place to go was the local doctor's surgery that advertised XRAYS on the side of the building. Because the notice at the front said so, I informed the really unhelpful, sulky receptionist that we suspected a broken bone, and we were sent down a really long corridor at the back of the building. (I'm glad it wasn't a broken leg). We then had to wait for a nurse - we were there for a so long a woman fell asleep! She finally called his name and gave him another ice pack and sent us halfway back down the corridor to sit outside a doctor's room. The only nice thing I can say about that particular doctor is that he could type fast with only two fingers. Pity he couldn't spell, pity he had no compassion, and, pity he kept confusing which arm it was. I thought it was fairly simple to tell which one was injured - you know the one that was swollen with an ice pack would have been my first clue, but maybe that's just me...
He then told us we need to have xrays taken and seemed genuinely surprised when I asked where to go for them. His reply was, "Oh, not here! It's not working!" So off to a place that actually specialises in Xrays, only to be told that some part or other wasn't working! That's when I lost it! I told Cub to go sit down and explained the situation to the receptionists. Once I mentioned where we had come from, one actually told me not to waste our time there. Their machine is working - they just don't have the staff for it! We finally agreed to do the xray, and they would email the result to the Idiot doctor. I was to pick up the films next week. (Did I mention it was now 4:30 on the Friday before a long weekend?) We did all that, popped back to see the idiot, who confirmed it was a broken bone, and sent us back to the nurse we met earlier. She was actually quite lovely. She did a half-cast and explained what we needed to do next. Long story short, we went to the fracture clinic, they redid the half cast to let the swelling go down a bit more. The next day, he had a lighter cast put on and four weeks later he was back to normal. Just no sport for another month. Sadly, he did miss out on soccer season...
The highlight of THAT whole experience was the letter (6 weeks later) from the Idiot Doctor suggesting a "review of his condition was required". No, we've not been back for a "review of his condition". Mainly because his arm was out the cast by then...
Foal has come home as the “Student of the week” more times than I can recall. I think he's up to about five or six now. I am very proud of him but I am beginning to think that there might not be too many kids in his class. (Except that I've seen his class photo, so I know that can't be it)
