broken toes

Joel broke three of his toes in wrestling practice a week ago. His foot didn't move when it was supposed to. We spent several hours in a clinic waiting to get an x-ray, boot, and crutches. He was pretty tough about the whole thing as long as he didn't have to put his foot down at all. We had to wait almost a week to get in to see the orthopedic surgeon, so I was afraid to let him do anything at all. He got a little bored staying at home all those days watching t.v., so I'm pretty sure he's really ready to agree to anything to go back to school. I want him to stay in his classroom the whole day because his class is on the second floor (no elevators). The doctor said that the boot was just as good as a cast, and that he could put a little weight on his foot unless it hurt to do that. He has to wear the boot for five more weeks (school will be out by then), and go back for another x-ray at the end of May to see if the bones and tendons heal correctly. If they didn't, he'll have to have surgery to put in a pin to hold everything together correctly so that he doesn't have foot pain the rest of his life. If they do heal correctly, he'll start some rehab exercises to get his foot back to normal. Yesterday, he was home the entire day, so his cousin Gavin came over to play with him for a couple hours. Joel and Gavin both had SO much fun!! I had thought we'd be at Luke's wrestling tournament until about 2 p.m., but it ended up lasting till after 7 p.m.!! I'm so glad Gavin was able to keep Joel company for some of that time! Today, Joel went outside to play with our little neighbors. They all had fun :-) It was sweet to see my big sixth-grade 12-year-old playing with smaller children.

Of course, with my kids, there has to be something funny in every situation. Here's Joel's funny: When he took off the boot to show the doctor his foot, Joel saw that the side of his foot was a little green and yellow. I told him it was probably bruised. The doctor looked at the foot and the x-rays and started explaining to Joel what kind of injury it was and who first documented this type of injury. He told us that way back then (1800's), people usually had to have the injured leg amputated because of gangrene. Joel just heard the "green" part of that word and said, "My foot is green!" hahahahahaha!!!!