Need Some Arnica With That?

On Thursday Muriel and I were killing a bit of time at the Migros center before going to pick Niamh up from Jardin d'Enfants. I was sitting on some square backless seats that were topped with metal. While standing on the ground Muriel somehow wedged herself between two of the seats and fell (How was there enough room to fall? I don't know), the bridge of her nose hitting the edge of one of the seats. The cut bled quite a bit for a few minutes, but thankfully stopped quickly.

It wasn't too long before a nice stranger stopped and asked if I needed any help and when I said no asked if I wanted any arnica for Muriel. "For the crying" she explained. Completely flustered, I assured her that we were okay and hurried off to pick up Niamh, pushing the stroller with one hand and holding a wailing, bloody Muriel with the other hand.

When we arrived at Niamh's school it turned out we were a bit early and there were a bunch of parents waiting outside the door, all a little alarmed at Muriel's state. One very sweet woman asked if I'd given her any arnica and when I said no, searched through her purse to see if she had any on her. She didn't, but thought that Niamh's teacher would have some.

Well, by this time I wasn't surprised that once inside the school Niamh's teacher immediately offered Muriel some arnica, without my even asking about it. It can be found in two forms, either a gel for putting on the skin or little granules to ingest, a bit like the Hylands Teething Tablets you can get in the States. Andréanne gave me three granules for Muriel, but Muriel was too upset to eat them, so I didn't even get to see this magical remedy in action. I wonder if arnica is popular across Europe or if it is a Swiss thing?


Anyway, Muriel is doing much better now. The swelling in the above picture (taken the day of the accident) is gone and has been replaced with a nice bruise from the corner of one eye to the corner of the other. Though on Saturday I did give her fingers a nice audible crunch in the lid of our coffee/game storage table. Given her recent wave of accidents I guess I should try and remember to pick up some arnica at the pharmacy this week. When in Rome Switzerland...