Tuesday, August 22, 2006

I'm Out On Sick Leave But I'm Not Sick...

...and yet I am not playing hooky from work. I had to take my son to the doctor today, an orthopedic surgeon to be exact. This past Saturday evening my son punched something, let's just say for the sake of this piece, that it was a punching bag. He hurt his hand and wrist while at it, as a matter of fact he walked in the door and told me he thought he had broken his hand. I looked, felt, prodded, and squeezed. He did not go ouch too much, no swelling, no bruising, so on the ice it went. It stayed the same until last night, Monday evening when it began to swell. Oh well, a call to the pediatrician who told us to see an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in hands. Brendan was seen by the OS today. First order of business was an x-ray, then about a 2 hour wait to see the doc. Doc asked what happened, and Brendan told him about hitting a heavy bag. Funny how the doc immediately joked that a broken hand on a Saturday night was usually the result of a fight! Brendan's eyes opened in surprise at that, but the doc insisted he was only joking. The OS said he did not see any fractures, but since it was the hand and the wrist that was hurting and swollen, off to a radiologist for a CT Scan. After about a total of 4 hours at doctors, good news - no breaks.

As it turned out, the OS told us if not broken he can shoot next week, but it probably will hurt quite a bit. Hopefully he will need only one shot. If we are lucky Brendan will still be able to shoot straight on his upcoming hunting trip to Maine this coming weekend. By now he has already figured out that you have to think before you do some things, punching something is one of those things to which you have to put some thought, at least just a bit of thought anyhow. He is 16, maybe it will sink in. He is missing a week of work that he did not have to miss, and he will miss the money sorely, maybe more so than his hand hurts. He has also been grounded to avoid any other unfortunate decisions on his part that may lead to another such accident. In addition he is wearing a wrist brace, and will be for a couple to a few weeks. Luckily it can come off for the hunt.

Life goes on.

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