The First Cast

Apr7

image

Today my son Evan got his first cast. I got a call at work around 10:30am from the school to say that Evan had hurt his wrist and they thought I should come take a look. So, I shut off my computer, grabbed my purse and headed over to the school – half expecting to tell Evan that it looked fine and he could go back to class. But one look at it, and I was pretty sure it needed an Xray. To the hospital we went!

This is Evan we are talking about. I’m amazed that he has made it 9 years WITHOUT a cast! This kid is a daredevil. He plays fast and hard and pushes the limits. Always has, always will. He is just that kind of kid. He plays hockey, football, soccer, baseball, snowboarding etc…and he skateboards. My guess would have been a broken wrist at the skatepark. This was my kid at 6 years old, dropping in the bowl:

image

He scraped off his nipple at the Canmore skatepark, nearly lost teeth at the Magrath mini-ramp and busted his chin in at the Lethbridge skatepark. I have seen many falls with swellbows and nasty, nasty scrapes but no broken bones….until today.

How did he crack his wrist you ask?? It wasn’t an x-games worthy spill, or anything daredevilish at all. He was laying on the ground and his buddy at school did a handstand, lost his balance and landed on Evan. And bam, just like that…cracked wrist!

We had a great experience in the ER, in and out quickly with a very friendly doctor looking after Evan. After she put Evan’s cast on, we got a quick sandwich from the cafeteria and back to school he went. He couldn’t wait to show his classmates his new cast! He told me he felt famous all afternoon haha. His cast has some lovely autographs on it already.

I felt so bad for the poor kid who accidentally hurt him. He cried and felt so awful when Evan showed up in a cast. We made sure to comfort him and tell him it was ok. Accidents happen. We knew he never meant to hurt Evan. Evan knew exactly how this kid felt because Evan accidentally knocked out his best friend’s 3 adult teeth in a friendly game of mini-sticks last December. I have never seen Evan cry as hard as he did that night, feeling so sorry and worried about his friend. I still get a sick feeling when I think about that night, even though I was right there when it happened and saw it was an accident. This time Evan was on the other end of the accident!

I’m really proud of Evan for looking at the positive side of this crazy day. He was thankful for the nice doctor who cared for him, he was thankful he isn’t sick like some of the people we saw at the hospital today, and he is thankful his cast will be off before golf league starts!

When I woke up this morning, I never thought we’d end the day with Evan in a cast. You just never know what the day will bring!

 

 

No whining!

Apr3

no whining

Yesterday my  9 year old son and I went on a bike ride. It was windy, and not regular wind – Lethbridge wind! Gusts to 60  km/h! My plan was to quickly ride around the block, then he would see how windy it was and we would move onto the next activity. Evan decided he wanted to ride all the way to his favorite park which is 25 mins away. I told him that wouldn’t be a good idea because the ride back would be against the wind and it would be really difficult. But this is Evan, who thinks he is bigger, older and stronger than he really is. He insisted he would be fine and to give him a chance…so I did. Urgh.

We rode to the favorite playground, parked our bikes (which immediately blew over). We played hide and seek tag for 45 mins in the gale force winds. It was actually pretty fun and we had a blast! But THEN it was time to ride our bikes home…directly into the wind.

We rode for a few blocks in first gear. Peddling hard but getting nowhere. If our helmets weren’t fastened, they would have blown off our heads. This wind was crazy – but we had to get home!

Evan started to whine and complain! I immediately said,”No whining! You chose this and you need to make the best of it!” We had a long talk, as we pushed our bikes uphill in the wind, about making the best of the consequences of our choices. We had such a fun time at the park and we weren’t going to let a little wind (ok, a freakin’ hurricane!) bring us down.

We pushed through (literally) and I thought my life lesson was successful. He wasn’t overjoyed with this part of the bike ride, but at least he wasn’t whining. I thought to myself, “Wow, we are actually going to make it home without a meltdown”.

Then, 2 blocks from home (so close to the finish line!), a rock blew into Evan’s eye. And the freak out started. Tears the rest of the way home. Urgh.

So close…so close.