Skateboards - Who Needs 'Em?

Today starts another week and I'm glad for the opportunity to "begin" again! Last week and the week before were a bit more than I had hoped they would be.

Chance, in the last few months, has taken up skateboarding! Yes, that's right - skateboarding! I'm learning a lot of terms and descriptions that I never really cared to know in relation to my children. Chance has decided his "longboard" is his joy and is on it - with his buddies - every opportunity afforded him!

I can't say that I allow him to do it because it's "harmless", nor because I think it must be great enjoyment for him! My real thoughts about the whole idea of skateboarding are screaming inside my head, "No, Stop Him - this is not good! This could be very bad! He's my only son!" I have tried to get him to wear a helmet - to no avail! I want to tell him to stick with computers (which he absolutely loves!), and to give up the "thrill of the board!"

Now, of course I know there are worse things for teenagers than skateboarding - but right now, skateboarding is providing my almost 50-year-old hair more gray than I think I gained in all the other 49 years of my life! I look at Chance and can't deny the fact that he is no longer a child that I can steer in another direction . . . away from danger! He'll be 18 in two months - 2 months! I now do the only thing (and really the most important) that will make any difference in his life whatsoever! I pray - daily - for God to watch over him, protect him and guide him in the choices he makes in every aspect of his life!

He's such a great kid! Even though I miss the wonderful little boy that he was, I am enjoying getting to know the man he is quickly becoming before my eyes. I thank God for our son and our daughters as well.

The last couple of weeks, as I stated, have been a little more than I hoped they would be because of a "little" accident on the longboard! It was one week ago last Wednesday as I left from work at 5:00 pm, two blocks into my trip home - I get "the" phone call! Chance had called me at 3:30 asking permission to go with his buddies to one of their skateboarding spots and I had given him permission to go. When I answer the phone I hear, "Mom, I think I broke my wrist!"

I told him I was just leaving work and would be there as fast as I could and sweet guy that he is he said, "Don't drive too fast! I don't want you to have an accident on the way!" I wasn't sure if his statement was because he was concerned about my state of mind and therefore, my driving - or if he thought that an accident would delay his trip to the ER thus prolonging the intense pain he was in!

My normal drive home is about 40-45 minutes. It took me 30 minutes to get to him and we headed straight to the ER as I called our doctor to let her know what was going on with him and to get the approval to go to the ER! You know, if you don't have permission to go to the ER from your primary care physician - insurance don't pay!

This is what I saw when I picked Chance up:

Yeah, I was pretty sure it was broken, too!

Chance is a very confident, secure guy and doesn't really care what other people think about him, the way he dresses or anything else about his person! I love that he is strong in that way, although at times I am surprised at how confident he really is!

About halfway to the ER as I was calming down a bit, I notice what he is wearing! When I look at him, really look at him, I crack up! I am laughing so hard I have tears running down my face, blurring my vision and totally breaking up the tension I had been feeling about the whole situation. I've included the picture below to help you understand why:

Great look, wouldn't you agree?

Chance doesn't own a pair of colored socks to his name! He wears - normally wears the white no-show socks with his shoes! To see him wearing those socks was absolutely the highlight of my day! You should have seen the many looks he got while we were in the ER and then when we went to WalMart to get his prescription for pain medication! The looks never bothered him at all! They don't bother me either, so it was fun to watch people as they noticed him.

Anyway, to make an already long story a little shorter - they x-rayed his arm and discovered that he had broken the "growth plate". Broke what?

I was in the Air National Guard when I was - much - younger and my job in the guard, after completing Tech School, was as an X-ray Tech. In all of my training, part of which consisted of learning all of the bones in the body and their structure, I never heard of a "growth plate"! Maybe that really shows how old I am!

The ER doctor on call told me to make an appointment with an orthopedic doctor the following week and he would probably put a cast on Chance's arm, then. She put him in a splint and a sling(for support) until we could get to the Ortho doc. The sling lasted about half an hour!

We saw the Ortho doc, Dr M, last Tuesday and instead of him putting Chance in a cast, he explained that not only had he broken the growth plate - transversely - but he had also dislocated some of the bony structure in his hand! So much for that cast!

They scheduled him for surgery on Friday, the 16th!

Thursday morning at work, right before 8:00 am, I got a call from Dr M's nurse saying that she had just received a call from the hospital and Chance was not there! Of course, he wasn't there - he had been scheduled for Friday - OOPs! There was no way I could pick him up from school and get him back to the hospital in less than an hour, so they rescheduled his surgery - for this coming Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Dr M explained that it will be a 2 1/2 to 3 hour surgery and that Chance messed up his wrist "pretty bad"! He most likely will have permanent loss of some of the range motion in his left hand!

What a couple of weeks we've had! But, there is good news - Dr M said no skateboarding for at least 3 months, the time that his hand will be out of commission! Chance also, in his cute little way, made the statement to Dr M that he guessed now he would not be a concert pianist! Dr M asked him if he played the piano before and Chance replied, "No, just Guitar Hero"! Dr M then said none of that, either. Sometimes Chance opens his mouth and finds that his foot has fallen into it! I was really glad he said it, because I would never have thought of asking about that!

Even in light of the accident and the drama following it, I have so many things to be thankful for today! I'm thankful that Chance only broke his wrist! He also hit his head, but thankfully, he has a hard head! The ER doc checked it and it seemed fine, so that's a big Thank You, God!

I'm thankful for Cheryl, the speaker at the ladies retreat I attended with Elizabeth! I have communicated, by email, with Cheryl since the retreat and she is such a wise, Godly woman and I am just so appreciative of the "truths" she is showing me about so many things. She has suggested a study for me and I'm excited to get started on it. Elizabeth and I are going to work the study together!

I have so much more to be thankful for and will share more at a later time. This post has almost gotten out of hand and if you stayed to the end . . . I'm thankful for your friendship, too!

In His Love and Blessings
annb