“We seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life.” - C-3PO, Star Wars IV: A New Hope
Padawan Learner is a bit…high action, shall we say? Rambunctious. Active. Um… Accident prone.
Thursday afternoon PL and I met up with Jake, Jake’s Mom, M, T, and MT’s Mom at a new park that has an observation tower. The tower is really tall and it has a fun circular staircase with steps that have some cool padding material on each landing step (probably as protection for kids that end up falling down the stairs) that were so impact absorbing that you can jump straight legged onto the landing steps without feeling a thing. Well, wouldn’t you know that Padawan Learner and M decided to climb up those stairs and then jump down onto the really cool, padded steps all.the.way.down the really tall staircase. Such fun! We heard them from outside the tower, wondering what they were doing.
clink, clink, thwunk, clink, clink, thwunk, clink, clink, thwunk…clink, clink, no thwunk
Can you guess why? Huh, can ya, can ya, huh?
Two calorie-free double, chocolate brownies to whoever guessed that it’s because there weren’t anymore cool, padded steps at the bottom. Coming around the final steps, too late did Padawan Learner notice that the bottom of the tower was – wait for it – concrete. Yes, concrete. Impact unforgiving concrete.
He came out of the tower in incredible pain, which seemed to improve after a few minutes and he and M took off on their scooters and I didn’t think another thing about it. This is par for my course, you see. Hurt, drama, better, forgotten. He didn’t say anymore about it that night and I figured it was over and done with. Well, he rode his bike home from piano lesson this morning and said his left foot hurt, really badly. Could barely walk on it bad. Yes, please, call the doctor bad. He didn’t tolerate it well when I took a look at it and could pinpoint the pain exactly. Uh oh. I know from personal experience what that can mean.
A 1:30 doctor’s appointment was made and attended. “Probably a hairline fracture or a crack in the first metatarsal bone.” 2:00 had us in the local radiology department for x-rays. “No obvious break, but the radiologist will look it over this weekend and report to the doctor on Monday. Probably a hairline fracture, which is going to hurt like the dickens for a bit but should heal up fine.”
My young Padawan’s assignment from the doctor: keep foot elevated above heart to minimize throbbing; ibuprofen every four hours for pain and to minimize swelling; ice foot for 5 minutes at a time to reduce swelling. My assignment from the doctor: keep PL off foot; keep PL amused to keep mind off pain and to keep PL off foot; ensure ibuprofen schedule is maintained.
So he’s watched Finding Nemo, Leatherheads and is about to watch Bucket List with Dad Windu… The TV will dominate our household this weekend, I have a feeling.
