• Feeling: Exhausted
• Listening to: Nothing today
• Watching: MacGyver

I woke at 3am both Monday morning and this morning – hoping this doesn’t repeat tonight. Monday I was awake for quite a while, although this morning I managed to get back to sleep quite quickly, I was still tired when it actually came to be time to get up.

Luckily today was very quiet work-wise and I was able to take it reasonably easy, but I was tired all day, despite having a nap after lunch. Not much else to report from the day – D went into work for a bit, and the kids entertained themselves (F spending most of the time listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows audio book).

In the evening it all got a bit more exciting – I was opening up a computer that got water spilt on it yesterday to see if I could work out why it no longer worked (my overall conclusion – it stopped working because it got water spilt on it), when suddenly B came running downstairs shouting, and F started screaming for D.

F had been adjusting (or trying to adjust) the height on her drum stool, and as she was doing this B sat on the stool. The pad of F’s left middle finger got caught between two bits of metal, and a chunk was cut out of the finger. There was quite a bit of blood, F was in pain and crying, B was worried and upset. D was valiantly trying to deal with F, but finding the blood a bit too much (as did F and B!). Once we’d got a good look at the damage, I thought the cut was big and deep enough that we needed a trip to hospital – so D packed us a bag with water, snacks, ipad and face masks while I put a temporary dressing on the finger and off we (me and F) went.

F was still upset and in pain, but when we got to the hospital she asked for a tissue, wiped her face, and calmed down. We went to the usual A&E entrance but got redirected to “Minor Injuries” around the back (despite the entrance we had gone through being labelled “Minor Injuries Registration” and the route we had to take to the right place being boldly signposted “No Public Access”).

Once we got in there and registered I could see we were in for a pretty long wait. The waiting room was well organised with chairs (in pairs) distanced from each other so everyone could wait safely. Everyone was wearing a facemask and no drama – just waiting patiently.

We got seen by a doctor after about an hour, and she decided we should get an x-ray just in case there was any damage to the bone when the finger got caught. I don’t think she thought it was very likely, but on the otherhand it made sense to check while we were there (much better than having to go back if there turned out to be a problem). So more waiting for that, and then finally, after the x-ray showed no damage we got the wound dressed and got sent home – it was probably about 3 hours from leaving home to getting back home I think.

F was great once we were at the hospital – she didn’t complain once about waiting, or anything. She watched Upstart Crow on iPlayer and raised a smile from some of the other people waiting with her infectious giggle.

Staff (receptionist, doctor, radiographer, nurse practitioner) were all great as well, keeping F at ease and talking to her first rather than me. Also loved the fact that the doctor we originally saw came back and watched the dressing being put on (I think to see the technique the nurse practioner used) and shared that the little gadget he used to put on the outer bandage was something she remembered from having her own finger dressed when she was about 6 – just a lovely way of making a connection with F again.

Obviously D and B had eaten by the time we got back at 9pm, but D made us tea (F didn’t eat much) and then kids to bed. I collapsed and watched some trashy TV with D.

Stay safe, stay strong x