The World According to the DeLucas

We went up to the beach yesterday with a few of Matt's buddies and their families... we had a wonderful time.  It was so much fun to watch Matt, Jack, Anthony and Aaron running around in the surf, playing tag football, making "sand angels" and later walking hand in hand to the center to play in the arcade and eat beach pizza.  It really made me realize that my little man is growing up so fast.  All of a sudden he has "best buddies" and plays sports and games like hide and seek and freeze tag.  I hope he cherishes these days as much as I do.

And it always helps when you find out that you get along really well with your kids' friends' parents.  The day just absolutely flew by and before you knew it we were looking at the clock and realizing that it was way past the kids' bedtimes.  But at times like those you just don't care because you don't want the day to end, and neither do your kids.

And now for the bad news... When we got home last night, Matt got out of the car complaining that his foot hurt.  It was so late that after I checked his foot for any obvious splinters or cuts, I brushed it off as either a bruise or the fact that he was so over-tired from his very busy day.  So I told him to get some rest and it would feel better in the morning.  Unfortunately, he woke up this morning in tears, refusing to put any weight down on his heel.  He was crying and limping and even crawling around the house, begging me to carry him.  At first I thought, again, that he was just overtired, since there was no swelling at all and he let me touch his foot without cringing or anything, so I tried not to make a big deal out of it.  After about an hour, though, of him consistently complaining and refusing to walk on it, I started to get worried.

I took him to Lawrence General with my mother-in-law, who used to volunteer there and knows a lot of the staff, and once we got called back, she recognized one of the doctors and he personally took a look at Matt's foot and sent him off for X-rays.  He even had the on-call radiologist take a look at the pictures, and turns out that Matt has a sprain or a possible fracture of his growth plate. He has to see an orthopedist on Monday.  In the mean time, he has a temporary cast on his foot with strict instructions not to put any weight on it at all.  They tried to give him crutches, but the only ones they had were way too big and I had visions of him breaking the other leg if they let him "walk" out of there with them... so needless to say, Matt will be playing lots of Wii for the next two days.

I really hope it is just a sprain and not a fracture... poor kid - summer just started.  He is getting his white belt in Karate next Saturday (graduating from the preschool class).  He was supposed to start swim class today.  We had lots of plans to go swimming, go to the beach, the sprinkler park, etc.  If he has to wear a cast for 6 weeks or more, it's going to put a huge damper on his summer. I really hope for his sake that it's something less serious that'll heal quickly.

In the meantime, he's already told me several times that he doesn't "like this thing" and wants to know why he has to wear it and when he can take it off.