Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Welcome to Crutch World

Last night Big Daddy came in from work limping. He has a desk job, so I knew it wasn't a work injury. He suspected a sprained ankle and after dinner I ran to the drug store to get him a brace.

This morning he couldn't put any weight on his foot at all. He had to crawl down the stairs backward, and I ran another errand: to get a pair of crutches so he could go to the emergency room to be treated. There were quite a few things already on my plate today, none of which involved being home or spending extended periods of time hanging around emergency-room waiting areas, and some of which I could not easily cancel, so my father-in-law graciously agreed to chauffer his son to the hospital.

Meanwhile a neighbor scrounged up a walker from another neighbor and brought it over. It turns out that it was a sprain, and Big Daddy now must use the crutches as well as wear an air cast and stay off his foot.

But all the orthopedic equipment that has made its way into our living room has provided endless amusement for the kids. Since the crutches are adjustable, Big Brother has been tweaking the height and testing his prowess with crutches, not to mention planning their future use as pole-vaulting tools (should I invest in that personal X-ray machine now?) All the kids are enjoying the walker, even Little Brother who is shorter than the hand grips. The boys have figured out how to attach Little Brother's favorite toy sword to the walker. Big Brother and Middle Sister hoist themselves up on the hand grips and try to vault over the front of the walker (I definitely need that X-ray machine!) And Little Brother has resorted to faking an injury so he can have a bandage Just Like Daddy.

The upside here is that Little Brother has had a bit of an anatomy lesson, since just yesterday when I picked him up under the arms, he yelled out, "OW! My ankle hurts!" The kid didn't know his ankle from his armpit. I think he's clear on it now, though.

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