Turns out, Alex slipped/tripped/fell off the monkey bars on the school playground (before school started). He landed hard on his right hand, and as you can see above, has a nice new temporary cast. He was fairly miserable when I arrived but was calm. I stopped at the house for reading material and change not knowing how long it would take and then we headed to the Royal (i.e. National) Hospital in Derby. This is on the way to Nicole's school so at least we know where it is. I now know where to park for Accidents and Emergencies too.
You hear horror stories about the waits, etc. when using the national health system (NHS). The staff wasn't exactly running around, but we didn't have to wait too long. They did cycle us through quite a few people though: receptionist, triage nurse, nurse practitioner, x-ray technician, back to the nurse practitioner, the cast nurse (?) and back to reception. All in 2 hours, so that's hard to complain about -- could have been worse. The NP and the lady who put the cast on were particularly friendly and empathetic. The X-rays were the worst part since he had to move his arm around and the tech did a horrible job explaining what she wanted (it wasn't clear to me either) but we made it through.
They gave him a temporary cast to allow room for further swelling and he gets the real deal on Tuesday. 4-6 weeks??
I've included the x-rays below where you can see the break in the radius towards the wrist (you can see some swelling as well). Unfortunately, it is his right hand. We'll struggle through together -- Nicole is already "whinging" about the extra chores she's going to have to pick up.
He was much better after the cast and some minor pain meds. I like to think the rainbow we saw later in the day was a sign of good things to come (and a healthy recovery). See picture below.
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