The Beauty of the Bandage

A few months ago, Owen came upstairs from playing and started complaining that his knee hurt.  His complaints quickly turned into tears and he started crying and crying and crying.  This isn't like Owen.  He is a tough kid and rarely gets hurt enough to cry about it.  After trying to figure out what was wrong we decided to take him to the InstaCare.  Why is it, that these things ALWAYS happen either on the weekend or in the evening?  And if you are really lucky like us, it happens on the weekend in the evening.  

The only InstaCare open at this point was one clear up in Orem.  Scott drove him up there and before they even arrived Owen had stopped crying.  Scott knew he should have just turned around and come home, but since he was almost there he kept going.  $50.00 bucks later, the Dr. said he maybe strained something, wrapped his knee with an Ace bandage and sent him on his way.  Owen was quite content with the wrap and within 24 hours, his knee felt just fine.

Fast forward to today.  Owen comes home from school with no complaints. About 20 minutes later, the whole episode starts again, except this time it is his upper thigh.  He complains and then starts to cry and then won't stop.  The good mother that I am, try to figure out what is wrong with his upper thigh.  We hot pack it, then cold pack it.  I give him some Tylenol.  See if he can walk on it, which he claims he can't. Question him repeatedly on what he could have done to hurt his upper thigh.  An hour goes by and he won't stop crying. The only thing that I can get out of him is that he wants to eat a hot dog.  Really?  That's what you are thinking of when you are acting like your leg is going to fall off?  How can he walk home from school just fine only to have major problems 20 minutes later?  It just doesn't make sense.

Of course, at this point it is 4:45.  Like I said, it never happens during office hours.  Then the big debate starts.  Do I take him to the InstaCare when I know full well they will claim he probably pulled a muscle and to just take it easy for a few days.  Then the doubt starts.  What if something really is wrong and he is suffering terribly?

Then I got a great idea.  The wrap worked last time, I wonder if it will work this time.  So I dug one out of the first aide kit and told Owen that he probably pulled a muscle and it might help if we wrapped it.  He was gung ho on the wrapping.  Sure enough, as soon as it was wrapped he stopped crying and within an hour he was walking around on it with barely a limp.  By bedtime I caught him running on it. He would suddenly stop when he "remembered" it was supposed to be hurting.  Who knows if he pulled something down there or not, but he is happy and I just saved $50.00 and at least an hour of my time.  I would call that a good ending.