Going For Broke

What is the aversion males have with oral communication? Or is it just teens in general that hate filling their parents in on any of their life's details? Unfortunately for me, I've got a male teenager as a son and I suspect those two qualities have made one lethal combination. I find out the oddest things at the oddest times and sometimes I find out the most important things at the most inopportune times.

I related last week that The Bear hurt his ankle during basketball practice. We found out today that his ankle has a hairline fracture and he will need to see an orthopedic specialist.

Why are we just now seeing the doctors when the injury happened ten days ago? Blame it on that ol' communication problem! The gist of the conversation immediately following the injury went like this:

Him: "Someone tossed a basketball at me, I didn't see it coming and I twisted my ankle. It hurts."

Me: "Did you sprain it?"

Him: "Yeah."

(End of conversation.)

As a consequence, his father and I packed his ankle and foot in ice until the swelling went down. Then we soaked it in witch hazel and wrapped it in an Ace bandage. He used crutches for three days before proclaiming himself well.

And he seemed well for a couple of days until too much exertion made his foot swell to epic proportions. We removed the bandage, packed it in ice again, and put him back on the crutches.

Oh, yeah. And we left town to attend a Bible conference. That's where the part about finding out important things at inopportune times comes into play.

At dinner Wednesday evening one of the preachers struck up a conversation with The Bear about the injury. Details spilled out of the kid that I was hearing for the first time! The basketball that was thrown? It hit him directly in the inner ankle. That twisted ankle? More like he fell and landed on top of his twisted ankle!

The preacher asked him if he'd had an x-ray taken? Nope. And he hadn't seen a doctor either. As the man turned to stare at me I felt like the worst mother on the planet!

Our dinner partner went on to discuss The Bear's future college years. Specifically, he asked if he has a career major in mind. He doesn't.

I just hope he doesn't choose the area of "communications."