Accident Prone
So we haven’t been to the emergency room in a while. So I have the first test in EVERY class I have (calculus, physics and cosmology) this week. So I needed to rest and clean and study and do ten million other things this week. Kali decides things for her own reasons and in her own time.
Last night, in his infinite wisdom, Spence decided to play with a knife he had. It wasn’t a big knife, but it was sharp, and while I wasn’t concerned he had it, I certainly didn’t expect him to be playing with it. Respectful, that is the term for use with very sharp objects. Well, he apparently missed that talk. But he knows now. No, nothing serious. Just lots of blood, and a pretty pronounced limp today from the stitches in his thigh where the knife plunged in. He got 3 internal stitches and 3 external. It hurts, but probably not as much as his pride. A life lesson I would say…
And that wasn’t enough for Kali. No, since I didn’t have to take Spence to the emergency room (he was with his Dad) Mark decided he’d hurt himself at roughly the same time. Last night about 7 pm, Mark tried to jump over one of the railroad ties that border the playground and landed on his ankle sideways, twisting it under him. He called me from the playground and was limping but wasn’t crying and was doing ok. A sprain, I thought. Nothing big deal. We’ll sleep on it and it will be gone tomorrow.
I stayed up reading and studying until 2 am last night thinking I could get up at 9 am this morning to get ready for church. At 7:30, his usual waking time, Mark was limping down the hall toward my room, crying a bit. I put him on the bed and took a look. No swelling, no bruising, it was tender, and he definitely hurt but it didn’t look bad. On the other hand the only other broken bone we’ve had in the family was Katie’s finger that never swelled or bruised either. Still sure it was a sprain, I got things ready, took a shower and off to the emergency room we went. “My other son was here last night,” I said as I smiled at the EMT who directed us to the children’s wing. We went through the usual triage, Mark in a wheel chair. Got sent to a room, Mark placed on a bed, calmly watching Toy Story II. Outside the door I heard babies screaming, reminiscent of when Aaron was younger and seemed to break his head open once a year.
Finally the doctor walked in. She asked him how he’d done it, then turned it all around and looked at it, made sure he could move his foot, asked him where it hurt, poked and prodded. Still sure it was a sprain (oh yes, I know you see this coming) I started to ask the doctor about what we would do to help him walk (he walks back and forth to school while I am in school and his babysitter works from home), when she looked over at me.
“Oh it’s not sprained.” She smiled. It took my brain a minute to catch up with my mouth and then it clicked shut. “It isn’t tender in the places where a sprain would hurt, he has a ‘growth plate’ injury.” I kept my mouth tightly shut while she explained that that is the place in the ankle where in a child the hard bone is separated by softer tissue that eventually hardens to bone. It is a very important part of the ankle bone, and is either bruised (probably not) or broken so that the hard pieces have come back together and squashed the softer tissue. We got an XRay which as she had predicted was unable to show anything.
He’s in a temporary cast, and I am scheduling an appointment with an orthopedist this week. He can’t put weight on it, and is hobbling around like tiny Tim on crutches. We’ll find out in a few days if we can remove it, or if they will put on a regular full walking cast.
This morning I lit a candle of both concern and gratitude in church. Two boys, both wounded, but both very ok.
Maybe this means that Kali is done messing with my life…
