Ouch.
A little over a week ago, Boy Three got his hand stomped in football practice. It swelled and appeared generally painful but since our youngest male child has a gift for milking injuries, we decided to just watch it a few days.
One day turned to three turned to five turned to a week and the hand wasn’t looking much better. Luke and I had been told the doc wouldn’t do anything for a finger so we buddy taped it and hoped it would miraculously heal. Something about getting it re-stomped in football practice 4 days per week seemed to hinder that from happening so Monday, I decided to sacrifice the co-pay and take him to the orthopedic office.
It was fractured. My heart AND his finger.
I did feel a little better when the doc suggested we keep buddy taping (taping the pinky to the next finger) because that proved that my internet diagnosis and subsequent medical treatment wasn’t too far off base from the guy with 8 years of highly specialized training. However, when I told him he wanted to keep playing football he came up with a plaster splint option to protect him from getting stomped again.
Because all good parents send their kids right back to the field with broken bones, right?
Dr. P. is a sports medicine guy so he didn’t look at us like we were abusive freak parents although I’m feeling the glare through the screen from some of you who may. No worries. Our son couldn’t love us more because he’s convinced that any kind of paraphernalia that makes you appear as though you are playing through some level of pain makes you incredibly cool.
So I’m wondering, am I the only mom who has ever put off a doctor’s visit only to find out the child should have been there forever before?
I’m totally hoping you say yes. If not, just leave your address in the comments so I’ll know on which doorsteps to leave my children.
xoxo,
Lisa
No worries Lisa!! We did the same thing with Montana during softball season. She had a fractured thumb from batting practice. It will eventually heal and they don’t seem to mind.
I’m really bad about taking my kids to the doctor. I usually take them when they are on the downhill side of being sick. Instead of the uphill side when medicine can help!
Well, when my youngest was 12 she just barely ‘failed’ the eye exam at the pediatrician’s office. It was only one eye and like I must emphasize the word
barely. Anyway, I did take her to the eye dr. like a good mom and she was beyond excited when he said she might need some glasses. This one loves a bit o’ drama and wearing glasses had been a longtime goal of hers. So, we get the glasses and pretty much immediately I notice she isn’t wearing them and when questioned she would say, ‘They don’t help at all mom’ and pretty soon she ‘misplaced’ them. Still she continued to complaincomplaincomplain and eventually another check up rolled around and we re-visited the eye dr. As I was enjoying my magazine and the dr. was conducting the exam I heard the following exchange: Dr-just read the line you are most comfortable seeing. My daughter-Um, I think that’s an E. Hello! WHAT? Ooops…her vision had radically changed…it all had to do with her hitting puberty with a vengence and nothing to do with me being a bad mother.
Flash forward about 4 years and same child is injured in a football game (technically she was on the side line and not even playing but see comment above about drama)…complained alot and two days later we did indeed learn that the collar bone was broken.
I’ve learned my lesson now.
forgive the typos-thought I was previewing but hit submit…please remove the word like from sentence two in my original comment as you are reading…a total pet peeve of mine and I’ve no idea why that word is even there.
Goodness I’m wordy today..forgive that too please.
Girl, you are so not alone. Last year our son got hurt in football practice and he limped around a bit but we kept sending him back. He even playing in a game before we finally took him to have it checked out. I can’t remember exactly the injury but it was something with tendons (?) in his foot. He ended up having to wear one of those walking boot things for about 3 weeks. Yes, I felt like a delinquent parent.
Just wanting to reassure you this morning. There’s just something about guys and their football…
Lisa, I was just the opposite……..took my daughter to the doctor for every little thing……or called him on the phone!! I was 29 when she was born and felt so inadequate to properly care for my precious baby and I just wanted to be sure to do the right thing!
Been there done that….only my number 1 had broken her ankle. I kept taping it and sending her out to play basketball. I told her that she would just have to get tough and hang in there…..well the ankle bone had popped off the main leg bone…..YIKES…..GUILT…..felt horrible…her response…..”I told you it hurt.”…..more GUILT.
It eased my guilt when the Dr. said that if we hadn’t done the “non” covered MRI he would have never found it either………SIGHHHHH
The trials of parenting……there is no perfect parent…..I am so grateful….
Nothing new under the sun………..I did this 40 years ago. It even required an overnight stay in hospital. He liked the attention. We still talk about my “goof” and the loves still flows both ways.
My children seem to be blessed with my genes – not a single broken bone in my life until adulthood – so I haven’t missed a fracture yet, but there’s been a time or two that I’ve waited longer than I should when they were sick. My oldest daughter is a drama queen and she’s convinced that every little sniffle is some Dread Disease of Death! It’s hard to tell when she’s *really* sick.
Though to be honest, I’m much more likely to ignore my own “stuff” – like a broken ankle/foot… or a broken nose… or pneumonia for 13 weeks. Heh.
With Boy #1 I ran him to the Dr. for everything…I was over protective! Boy #2 here and he gets less attention for bumps and owies. If God blesses us with a 3rd, I am wondering if we will take him to dr. or just say, “Walk it off!” :) Love being a mom of boys!
In answer to your question. Yes. My son has an s shaped spine because I did not get him back to the doc. in the right timing for his yearly follow up. Which turned into two years and then he was to old for the doc. to do anything about it. Talk about feeling bad. Every time I look at his back I feel this twinge of “Wow, I really dropped the ball”. He does not mind at all and he is totally not resentful or bothered by it. Just I am.
Oh I am so glad to know I am not alone! My oldest was born a drama queen and really did have some medical problems and I was constantly torn between truth and fiction. One night I had her on my lap facing me and she would lay back and then I would pull her up by her arms. At one point she started screaming bloody murder and would not move her arm. We panicked about what to do. After about an hour of her not moving her arm we rushed off to the ER. As soon as we got to triage and the nurse touched her she reached for me…with both arms!!
So, when she fell at church and complained of her leg hurting I was not so sympathetic or quick to rush to the Dr. The next day two of my friends came by to check on her and finally talked me into taking her to the doctor. She had fractured the growth plate in her knee!!!!! I was subsequently punished for my bad mothering by getting to potty train a 2 year old in a full leg hot pink cast. :)
Oh yes, there was the time when my daughter came home from winter retreat limping badly. I always thought if you could walk on your foot it wasn’t broken. One week later we found out not only was it a broken ankle, it broke in the growth plate!
Sigh.
I feel your pain.
Well, I’m sure there have been many moments of “I so should’ve taken her to the doc before.”
Today, I thought there might be another. Only new territory. My oldest is pregnant. I listen and try to console her aches and pains. But I know here. She’s a wimp.
Today in the car she complained about, “OH MY GOSH I’m hurting! I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
I was calm. She’s only six months. I told her I had Braxton Hicks way earlier with her youngest sister. And besides, I did finally convince her to increase her fiber intake. But that’s a whole other story.
I went on to tell her about my thinking I was dying on several occasions only to discover later that I had severe indigestion. But when she kept complaining, I got worried.
I remained calm, however, and told her that maybe she should go ahead and call the nurse. A few minutes later I did hear a burp. She said she’d hold off a while and see what happened. I’m thinking it passed. LITERALLY! ;)
OH my goodness…..we (sort of) had one of those incidents this summer. Our little boy, who was 18 months old at the time, was limping pretty badly after a day at VBS. I didn’t think anything of it, until he was still doing it the next morning. We called our pediatrician, who was on vacation (of course), but the nurse said to bring him right in. We saw a different pediatrician who scared us to death by telling us that toddler’s present leukemia this way. WHAT?! So, blood work and x-rays were done and this momma was a sobbing, bawling mess. We got a call that afternoon saying everything came back just fine. But, G still had a limp. I had a feeling something was wrong, but let it go since the DR said everything was fine. We let him walk around all weekend – he even danced at a Todd Agnew concert at church – still limping, but as happy as he could be. On Monday morning, I finally told my husband that we were taking him back to the pediatrician. She looked at him again, said he looked okay, but when I asked her what she would do it if he were HER CHILD, sent us to a pediatric orthopedist. We were in the exam room no less than 15 seconds, when a PHYSICIAN’S ASSISTANT looked at the X-ray, said “Yep, his leg is broken. Let’s put him in a cast.” UGH. He was in a cast for 3 weeks and is now as good as new. So that’s the story about how this momma let her baby walk around on a broken leg for 5 days. At least HE won’t remember it. :)
Yep! Been there-done that! As a matter of fact my Boy is playing football with two fingers taped up as I type this. At first they said he needed stitches but have seen way to many and knew better. He just ripped the skin so off to the tub where it made it soft and he was able to get the rest off. Neosporine and athletic tape and he is good to go. He has played with a broken thumb and I think another finger but can’t recall. Plus I think for boys it makes them “cool” to be injured.
My 2nd daughter is tough like that to. She played baseball and got hit not once but twice in the same game and refused to get off the field until she made it home. lol So yep we do that whole injured thing. Now with my oldest forget she gets a paper cut and it is all over. lol :)
Girl, no condemnation here!
tell your Boy Three about a tee shirt I read when we were leaving football practice Monday night… it said, “Pain is weakness leaving your body” :)
my son and his friends LOVED it!
now I gotta find him one…
I so understand. Last time this happened was back in December 2008. Our 18 yr old son was on the wrestling team at his high school and during Christmas holidays, he had practice. He came home one day and complained his shoulder hurt…we gave him ice/ibuprofin and he went back at it. Several weeks later, his shoulder was still swollen and he was having pain while lifting weights. His coach told him he should get it looked at…turned out he had a separated/sprained AC joint and he had to go to PT for about 4 weeks. He had been lifting and wrestling like this for a month! Needless to say, he had to sit the rest of the season out…He was funny…he wore it like a badge!
While I’m contented being a lurker, I HAD to comment on this post! So funny!
When I was 9, I had had one too many pancakes for breakfast. That’s why, when I started to complain of a “hurting tummy” when we were walking around an art fair later that day, my dad told me “walk it off; walk it off!”
Several days later, after the pain had intensified, my parents finally brought me to the hospital. Even the doctor wasn’t sure what was going on with me, but decided to remove my appendix anyways.
Good thing too, as it had actually ruptured. I wouldn’t have made it if my parents had waited even a couple hours before bringing me in.
And the story makes me laugh to this day!
Lisa @ The Preacher's Wife Reply:
September 15th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Welcome Lurker!! :))) I’m so glad they figured out it wasn’t just the pancakes..lol My answer for the kids every time they have a stomach ache is that they must need to ‘go to the bathroom’ if you know what I mean…lol
Lisa,
I read this late, so forgive the belated response. When I read this I just had to laugh. We took our daughter to the Orthopedic Dr. last week for an arm. The girl fell off the monkey bars on the first day of school. While she screamed for about 10 minutes after it happened, the arm didn’t swell and since she is predisposed to be a “diva” we thought nothing more of it. After two weeks of intermittent “ouch!” from the girl we took her in for an x-ray. Sure enough- she had a hairline fracture. After the looks from the nurses and the questions, “She’s been like this HOW long?” “Why did it take you so long to get her in?”, we met with the dr. “No worries, just keep her out of PE for two weeks so it will finish healing.” But next time, we’ll take her immediately!