Hospitals, again

A couple days ago Ethan fell on the stairs when running up on ahead. This seems to often happen and we’ve since instituted a hold-hands policy. But on this particular occasion, he knocked his head hard on the edge of a concrete step. After returning home, he seemed okay until he ate a carrot, lay down and vomited it back up. I decided to keep an eye on him and he ate dinner okay and kept it down, seemed normal, slept okay (even woke up asking to peepee one time). The next morning he developed a fever, slept lots and was super fussy. I didn’t immediately think about his fall until later when he woke from his second nap of the day and threw up again. I started to get worried about a concussion and so we took him to the local hospital. They just asked a few questions, did a blood test, really told us very little except then to go to the children’s hospital to do a CT. Jack thought he was fine and wanted to wait on that but I wanted to get it done so we went halfway across town in rush hour. I should have listened to Jack because when we went to do it they wanted to give him something that Jack first said was to put him to sleep but later explained was a tranquilizer. Either way, I panicked and said no, also thinking getting on in the evening about it taking some time to take effect and do the scan, but mostly imagining putting my poor already miserable and feverish son through that unnecessarily. So we opted to head home and see what happened. I’m glad we did, because he was almost back to normal today and the more I read about CT scans and the possible dangers the more glad I was. Today he still had a low fever and fussed more than usual but has also been a chatterbox and playful.

We spent the afternoon playing in the square, which is something I will really miss. We’ve gotten friendly with a number of kids and their grannies/mamas/ayis and today the boys played badminton with several kids and exchanged their scooter for others’ bikes. There is one granny that I often see but always seemed to look at me with something resembling disgust. I was never sure if she had something against foreigners or just me in particular or what. Today, though, she approached me, to ask why the boys aren’t in kindergarten (most Chinese kids start at 3). I explained to her that they just turned 3, that we are just staying a short time and that it’s not the same in the US. She said her grandson, just over 3, would start in the fall. But we got on to chatting and joking about other things and I realized she was a pretty nice woman after all.

Meanwhile, we are planning a big reunion in Daxing this weekend. All of us who are still around that knew each other there will gather and we will probably stay the night. One old friend who has since married and whose wife is expecting offered to put us up in their apparently large house. I figure it will give them good practice for having their own kid J.

It may also be a good idea because apparently Jack’s cousin and her two kids are coming on Friday to stay with us for a few days! I’m trying to imagine this in our tiny place – it was bad enough with Jack’s dad! But still, she is nice and her daughter was just a toddler (and a very cute and clever one) last time I saw her. The only thing I didn’t like was they paid the price to have a son because apparently a daughter wasn’t good enough. It seemed he had health issues as a baby too because she didn’t have breast milk and fed him rice as a baby. But she has been friendly and helped Jack a lot last time he went to visit his family.