Parker's Ankle Injury!

 I was subbing a couple of weeks ago on Friday (3/21) when I got a text from Travis saying he was on his way to CHS to pick up Parker because he had hurt his ankle playing basketball during PE.  Parker is pretty tough when he is playing, so we figured that it must be serious if we had to go get him.  Travis took him to the ER while I worried at school for a while.  Then, with enough prodding from teachers, I left during lunch to join them in the ER.

 When I got there it looked like he had a tennis ball on the side of his ankle. He was in pretty good spirits, but was very worried about his prognosis because it is volleyball season and he is also supposed to go to Virginia for his Show Choir tour in 3 weeks.

The took x-rays and examined him, but couldn't determine if it was broken (in the growth plate) or just a bad sprain. They told him to ice it and elevate it and keep off of it until he could see a podiatrist on Tuesday.

He went back to the doctor on Tuesday and he was better able to examine him because the swelling had gone down quite a bit. The doctor said that it was definitely not broken, but was a grade 3 sprain (the most severe which generally has torn ligaments). They wanted to put him in a cast for 4 weeks and then reexamine him and start physical therapy.  Travis and Parker both talked him out of it and then went on their way not knowing what they should do, or if he'd be able to put weight on it, etc. Good news was that it was not broken. There is so much pressure on him because of Show Choir and VB. It was a stressful first week because we just didn't know how it would respond.

Here is a gross picture of the bruising about a week later.  It was still quite swollen.  He had it wrapped with an ace bandage, wore the boot to school, and used his crutches (which he hates in the rain)! He tried the hot/cold therapy for several days and that seemed to help quite a bit.  

He smiled for this picture at his VB game, but it's been killing him to sit on the bench and watch.

Two weeks later, and he's starting to put some weight on it.  He's had a priesthood blessing and our family fasted for him on Sunday.  He's hopeful that he'll be able to dance with the show choir next week on tour and that he'll be back playing VB soon! (In the meantime I'm driving him everywhere he needs to go, and he's getting antsy to get back to him normal life!) Heal fast Parker!