Worst case scenario

I was switching off my computer while still on the phone, not even sure if I had actually saved anything before closing the programs.

As I put down the phone the girl sitting next to me asked what had happened. My kid's been in an accident I replied and then started looking around for my supervisor. I'll tell him you left she said. Grabbed my coat & my bag and ran out the office.

Frustratingly enough I had just missed a train so I had to wait ½ hour for the next one. It's the waiting that is so frustrating. Well that & not really knowing what was going on.

O wait you don't know either. Let me back up.

I was at work when I got a call from Himself. The school had called him and said that Cat had been in an accident. He was on his way to the school. (We live in Alsemberg, the kids go to school in Waterloo & I work in Brussels). I had to take the train and then switch to the bus to get home since Himself would be at the school.

On the way to the station I started thinking .... Cat knows my phone number off by heart. She always gets the school to call me if she's sick or hurt. The fact that they phoned Himself means they checked the file to see who to call, meaning that she could not talk (panic sets in). He said they said she had been in an accident. That sounds like a car. How would she have been in a car accident. The only thing I could think of was that I had happened in the car parking lot when their Logopede (a Logopede is like a speech therapist but they also help kids with dyslexia) came to pick them up. But then Tiger would have been involved. O sh!t, what if she got hit in the car park by another parent, that is going to be bad, especially if Himself finds out cause he'll just totally loose it! (more panic).

Isn't it crazy all the things that goes through your mind in such a short period of time, not to mention that your mind always comes up with the worst possible possibilities, well mine does in any case.

Once I was on the train Himself called me back to say that Cat was ok. She had fallen at school & was having difficulty breathing. He could not get hold of our GP (he doesn't have a receptionist so he answers his own phone), so he was going to take her straight to the hospital.

About 2 minutes after I got home our friend Jay dropped Tiger off at home after fetching him from the Logopede. Why are you so stressed mommy, Cat will be fine, were the first words out of his mouth.

So I tried to carry on as usual, fed him, checked his homework, shower, pj's and bed time.

I also spoke to Himself who told me they were still at the hospital waiting to see a doctor.

5, I'm not kidding you, 5 hours after getting to the hospital they finally got to see a doctor. X-rays showed that she had cracked a rib. The doctor prescribed some pain medication and sent her home with instructions that she was to take it easy for at least 2 weeks. No sport, no carrying her school bag.

We decided to keep her home from school today despite the doctor saying she can go to school. Really, sometimes I wonder about doctors thinking. The kid is in pain, breathing hurts and she got home and to bed close to 11 o'clock last night, why on earth would he think it would be a good idea for her to go to school?

Needless to say I am so glad that my worse fears did not come true and that it's 'only' a cracked rib.

The other thing that I find strange is the fact that this is the second time that Cat gotten seriously hurt at school (another kid tried to pick her up and dropped her resulting in a concussion about 3 years ago) and Tiger is still 'uninjured'. One would expect that if you have a boy and a girl it would be the boy who was getting hurt.

Touch wood, nothing bad is going to happen to either of them.