Before and after

#2 son has the great honour of starring in two consecutive blips, yesterday's being before, and today's after, being whacked on the head with a hockey stick during a match. Just as I thought my days of haunting A&E departments with various offspring were over too. He answered "no" to everyone who asked if he'd been knocked out, so was classified as a minor injury, patched up and sent home. On the way back he inquired why they had kept asking that, so I posed a few questions of my own. It transpires that he has no memory of what happened between being struck in the face by the stick, and lying on the ground surrounded by concerned faces, while wondering why his face and hair were covered in something warm and sticky (and red); great. After washing all the blood out of his hair (I can never get used to that without feeling queasy) I now have an evening of not letting him fall asleep to look forward to, followed by a night of constant checking up on him.

Poor chap; he already has a wonky nose from an old sporting injury (scheduled to be fixed once he's 18 next February). The smile in this pic is the result of a pretty triage nurse telling him he has lovely eyes. Bless.