Our first (and hopefully last) trip to the ER in London

We had planned to go to Buckingham Palace and see the changing of the guard this morning; however, last night, Lauren slid down the steps and hurt her ankle on the shoe cabinet at the bottom of the stairs.  It was pretty swollen this morning and it was really painful to put pressure on it, so we decided we should go to the hospital.

First task: find a way to get there with minimal walking.  We called a cab using the Hail-o app, and we were there in about 12 minutes.

It's not far and it is a HUGE hospital!!  When you walk into A&E (ambulance and emergency), there is a queue for triage; however, if you are under 18, you are to proceed to reception.  From reception we were directed to paediatrics (notice the odd spelling!).  We waited for about 2 1/2 hours to see a doctor, who was very nice, and who recommended an x-ray.  So Lauren hopped her way down to x-ray, and then we waited for about 20 minutes and the doctor said it was just a sprain, thank goodness!  She said Lauren needs to use her fancy new purple crutches for 24-48 hours and keep her foot elevated.  I am so thankful it's not broken....that would have been an interesting period of time "walking" to school.  The doctor also said she would put a letter in the post to our GP, which is funny to me.  I would have assumed that the NHS would have been all interconnected and paperless.

Overall, it was a positive experience, although it was a long wait.  We got spoiled by Kosair with the TV in the room while you waited and the "patient life nurse" whose sole job was to make sure the patient was happy.  I guess that's the difference in living in a city population 1 million vs 8 million!!  The adult waiting room was very crowded when we left, so I am thankful for the separate queue for under 18's.

Hopefully we will be able to have an adventure next weekend......