September 13, 2011

An update on Man-Child (and a PSA; seriously)

As I was perusing FaceBook - which is a rare occurrence for me (especially of late), I came across a couple of pictures and realized.....I kind of left y'all hanging as far as Man-Child's injury goes.

Ooops!  Sorry about that!

But seriously??  YOU should have reminded me of this!  (Why yes; I AM making this your fault!  How very astute of you to notice)

At any rate, as you can tell from the following photos....he may be down; but he is NOT out!




The VERY astute of you will notice that he is not wearing pads and is not in uniform.....which is to say ALL of you immediately noticed this....

But he IS at the game (which is a round trip total of 4 HOURS away!  See the previous link) and he is NOT on crutches nor does he seem impaired in any way.

Which is a GOOD thing!

After a full weekend of suffering and worrying; we FINALLY got to see the orthopedic doctor (go figure; they usually have Saturday hours but, with our luck, they were closed last Saturday because the parking lot was being re-paved that day)....(if we didn't have bad luck; we'd have no luck at all!) only to discover he has a tiny tear in his MCL (jeez, I hope I got that right!).

Which basically means - no surgery.  No permanent damage.

But the only "fix" is to "rest" it....to the tune of 2-4 weeks; according to the orthopedic doctor we met with yesterday.  Which, with our recent schedule (considering all the re-schedules to the ONE game - again see previous link - this game has been re-scheduled/cancelled at LEAST three times!) means possibly 5 games (and; if you know high school football; then you know that could be a significant amount of time to be out) that he will be sitting on the sidelines.

But considering the alternative?  I'm not complaining.  AT ALL!

Especially, considering we recently (I mean VERY recently) had a local (and I mean VERY local) player die.

The gossip was that he had a concussion that he refused to admit to - because he didn't want to sit out for requisite 10 days.

But according to the news (the real news; not the gossip) was that he was in pain (what kind, we don't know) and rather than admitting to the pain he chose to hide it.

And then chose to self-medicate - from his parent's medicine cabinet.

As a result, he accidentally over-dosed.  Another bright future snuffed out - far, FAR before his time.

According to everything I've read recently; today kids aren't dying from the stuff they can get on the street.

No.

Today, they are dying from stuff they are finding (and sharing) in their parent's medicine cabinets.

Seriously.  If you've got stuff in your medicine cabinet that you don't need - get rid of it.  And if you need it - lock it up.

And talk to your children about the importance of 1) the dangers of prescription drugs and 2) the importance of not hiding (or self-medicating) an injury.

You have to remember that kids think they are invincible.

And kids who are athletes - REALLY think they are invincible.

This child was hurt on a Friday....he was gone by the next Wednesday....and his parents didn't have a clue.

11 comments:

  1. That is just so, so sad, mostly because it was preventable. At least I think so. You're right, though: teenagers think they are invincible. Glad to hear MC is all right, even if sidelined for awhile.

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  2. MCL-Medial Collateral Ligament. If I know you, you got it very right. He's very lucky it wasn't worse.

    That's terrible about the other young man.

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  3. Sorry that Man-child is going to miss a few games, but glad to hear he's on the mend.

    Good PSA, Gigi, about hiding injuries and self-medicating. There's been a lot of talk in the news about concussions (and hockey) recently. They can sideline kids for months and they are nothing to be ignored.

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  4. How totally heartbreaking!

    Hope your son recovers soon :D

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  5. the loss of a child is always heartbreaking. Glad to hear Manchild wont be out for the season.

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  6. Exactly why I was glad to have a musician and not an athlete! Because, you know, musicians never do drugs...

    The Boy is 27 now, and every six months or so I tell him, "No powder drugs. No needle drugs. No pills not prescribed to you." This is always met with "MOM! GAH!!!"

    I tell him it's in my contract.

    :-) Even grown, you just never know.

    Pearl

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  7. So glad to hear there's no permanent damage. I have trouble with my MCL on my right knee and it rarely gives me pain now (but when it does, ouch!).

    And yes, you have to keep your drugs safe because unfortunately a lot of teenagers (and some adults), just don't think things through to realize it might be a mistake.

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  8. Sorry about your son. It's so tough these days- so much pressure to have kids play sports, but the injuries- ugh. The other boy- oh so terribly sad!! Heartbreaking.

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  9. Sorry i missed this..so glad he is okay.
    How awful for that boy and his family...devastating. :(

    My son came home on Saturday after a match and proceeded to tell me the gory details of ALL the injuries from the rugby matches that day! :( x

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