Yet another reason why I am not writing long blog posts is that at his last practice before the regional rowing championships, my older son broke his ankle while doing warm-up's playing soccer at rowing practice. He just rolled his dominant leg's ankle to a 90 degree angle and heard a snap. After this he was in dire pain but rowed anyway. He reported, "It hurt for the first ten minutes then stopped hurting after that so I just kept rowing."
That night he begged to go to the ER and it was swollen mildly with a bruise. It is just a hairline fracture which is good to know. However we had to hear a zillion legal disclaimers that the ER doctor could not clear him medically to row at the regional championships. We got home at 1:30 a.m. -- a long night!
The downside to being part of a small rowing club is that there are not enough bodies to cover the races should one rower drop out. Thus if my son did not row he would have prevented his quad and double from competing. This fact bothered him more that the loss of his own ability to row.
We were told to consult with an orthopedist ASAP but no one would grant an urgent appointment for such a minor issue until the Monday after the event ended. (I understand why but that doesn't help our situation.)
My son was pissed (the use of the word is justified). I saw a new maturity in his angst over messing up the race for his boatmates and he demanded to be allowed to race with the fracture. A year ago he would have been happy for resting on a couch watching TV all day. My husband was behind this 100%. I feared the ankle may worsen but the pain was with rotation not forward and backward movement so we figured it was okay. I told the coach and we went forward with rest, ibuprofen, using the air cast and crutches and drove the 400 miles north to the regatta. I insisted he not lift boats so as to not do weight-bearing that may worsen the fracture. I prayed that it would not worsen at the competition.
This is the season's last event and practice is over after this. It was kind of a crappy way to end the season.
At the race my son sat bow in a boat the club just purchased that he'd rowed just one time a few days earlier, before the practice. That requires the use of THAT FOOT to steer the boat. These are details about rowing that I do not know, and different boats had that feature disengaged, as it is not necessary to steer the boat for a straight sprint race. Well what happened was the foot had to move side to side, the movement he could not do, and that is one reason they did not perform as they usually do. The group has been performing well otherwise. They got a bad start and someone crabbed. As proof of just bad circumstances two of the other rowers in that boat won the gold in the region that weekend so they are capable rowers. Bad things, mistakes or problems happen to all rowers at some point and that is what helps the competitors have an edge. It was just a rough thing to deal with. This was the race which qualified the varsity rowers for nationals. My son is not varsity, this is his first year competing.
Well the official rowing season is over for everyone except those who have qualified for nationals.
What a way to end the season.
And now that the racing is over we're headed to the orthopedist for a consult.
By the way at this point the ankle is almost completely normal feeling, my son says. Kids heal quickly, I hear from other parents and the ER doc.