I got 'the call' from school today...

You know ... the one every parent dreads.

"Your child has been injured. We have called an ambulance. Can you please meet it at the hospital."

There weren't many details apart from "he's hurt his arm and it doesn't look right." I'm sure I broke some land speed records getting to the hospital, only to find I had beaten the ambulance there! After pacing up and down and getting steadily more worried, it pulled up and Alex stepped out, calm as you please, as if going to the hospital in an ambulance was an everyday occurrence.

"Oh, hi Mum. What are you doing here?"

Forcibly restraining myself from going all mama bear on him, I frantically checked him over for signs of blood and broken bones while trying to present a calm exterior. No blood, no obviously broken bones, not even any signs of shock. What a waste of my first aid training!

The school nurse, who had followed the ambulance to the hospital, explained that she was concerned that his arm was still numb after an hour and that it had gone a funny bluish colour in parts. That and the fact that he was "too calm" which apparently is very odd in boys of this age .. they're usually "passed out or crying for a band aid" (her words, not mine!)

After getting the details of how it happened and being seen by the triage nurse, we sat in the waiting room for half an hour. During this time, I began to suspect that he had embellished some of the symptoms while at school and that there wasn't actually anything wrong with him.

When we were seen by the doctor, who did all sorts of tests with a sharp implement (to test his pain response and see whether his arm really was numb), she pronounced that he had probably just pinched a nerve in his elbow and that he would be right as rain by tomorrow. Lucky us huh?

At least it got me out of work for a while. Now we just have to deal with the ambulance bill ...