Luck Ran Out

As parents, we want our children to grow up as strong, good, and well-rounded individuals. So, we make sure to take them to church, set up play dates, encourage good friends at school, and sign them up for sports or karate or dance classes. Four years ago after we moved to Arizona, Jabon and I decided to sign Cody up in full contact football at the suggestion of my uncle. My uncle had been coaching my cousin's football team for a year or so (this particular cousin of mine is about a year older than Cody). Cody was 8 at the time. He was excited to play but has always been a little nervous about getting hurt. If you caught what I wrote up above, I said full contact football. That means full pads, helmet and tackle.

Cody has been steadily getting a little more aggressive each year, which is hard for him. Not only is he scared of getting hurt (he was never one to be on the bottom of the pile) but he is just not an aggressive type of person. He doesn't like conflicts or fighting. This attitude, thankfully, has allowed him to escape from injury besides the occasional bruising, sore ankles, and scrapes. Sometimes, not being aggressive enough can get you more hurt, so he was lucky. This year, for whatever reason, he has started to really let his vigor for football come through. Instead of hearing the coaches call out things like: "Eagar, where were you with that one?" or "Eagar, stay on your man!" we were hearing shouts of praise like: "Good block, Eagar!" and "Alright, Eagar!" Cody has been working hard and he loves when he can throw his teammates around and is known as one of the stronger guys.

So, naturally, it came as no surprise to me last night when I went to pick him up for football practice and found him standing on the sidelines with an ice pack on his hand. (I will insert here that normally either Jabon or I stay at his practice to watch but we were both at our church for a talent show). Upon inspecting his left hand, it was very easy to see where he got hurt. His thumb was so swollen that it looked like he shoved a golf ball under his skin in the palm side of his thumb. As I was determining whether or not Cody needed to be taken to the emergency room, I drove us back to the church house. I had taken Ashton with me to get Cody, so I knew whatever I had decided to do I needed to drop Ashton off. There was no way if I was going to pull an all-nighter at the ER that I wanted to drag along my 2 year old.

Cody and I showed up at the ER by 9:00 last night. We got through triage and x-ray in no time at all--30 minutes--and I was hoping that was a good sign. I was wrong. Way wrong. He was officially discharged at 12:30 this morning after waiting for hours to see the doc and have a splint made for his hand. I got to see the x-rays as they were being taken and it was pretty clear to me where the break was. I think x-rays are so cool!

I have to tell you this funny story: Cody and I were led into triage where the nurse took his vitals. Then the doc came in to determine his needs. He walks in the room and says, "Hi, Cody. So, what's going on?" Cody replies, "Oh, not much." I told Cody, "I think he wants you to tell him what happened." This made the doctor laugh and I heard a nurse on the other side of the curtain giggle. So we were teasing Cody by saying that we had just come in to say hi and see how their night was going. It was pretty funny, but you probably had to be there.

So, by the time we left the ER, went to the 24 hour Walgreens and got his pain med rx, and went to Walmart to pick up the half time snacks for his team's game today and got home, it was a little past 2:00 this morning. And of course, Ashton came in my room at 7:30 this morning to wake me up. I love getting almost 5 hours of sleep. It's so stinking refreshing. Do you feel my sarcasm? Hope it doesn't hit you too hard.

We will call the hand specialist Monday morning and schedule a follow up with him for this coming week. We hope all will go well and his bone will heal correctly and quickly. He may be out for the rest of the season, which is a bummer since their first game was last Saturday.

Cody with his splint on.

Here are the other two boys. I had to take a picture of them since a camera was out. They are not shy.

I know you've read a novel here, but I will tell you that Brett is really enjoying kindergarten. He loves to learn. I think his biggest fault is the fact that he doesn't want to do anything wrong so he is too hesitant to try to spell words for fear that it "won't be perfect!" Ashton is progressing with his talking. We can mostly figure out what he wants. He is really good at saying please, though sometimes it sounds like 'peas' and sometimes it sounds like he is letting air out of a balloon: 'psss'.

I just love my kids!