Tough Boy

We had no school last Friday for records day for the teachers. My older 3 were scheduled to go to a friend's house to play with the older kids there, and I was taking her 3-year-old twins to play here with Erik. Austin, not wanting to get dressed and do his job, was harassing Victoria instead. A big door slamming fight went on between her and him, contrary to my council, ending with Austin's big toe being slammed on the hinge side of the door. I knew it was bad from the sound of his screams and from the fact that Victoria felt instant remorse, something she doesn't usually do. We iced it for a while, but I told him he couldn't go play with Max and Zach because he didn't get dressed or do his job. Suddenly, he moved faster than I have ever seen him move. Getting dressed and cleaning up the 20 toys in the basement, with no one else down there (very unusual for him), happened in a few short minutes before they were to leave. I decided he could, hoping the injury would help teach him the lesson.

When they returned, we were scheduled to go sledding with our neighbor. Austin screamed with agony as we tired to put his boot on, but insisted we still go, even though his toe hurt. He cried the whole way to the park, because of the pain from the boot, limped his way up the hill each time, but had a blast. On the way back he said, "My toe doesn't hurt that much!"

I wondered if I should take him to the doctor, but kept thinking, it's only his toe, it'll be fine. Saturday, he limped around at the church Primary activity and then got invited to go to the science museum in Detroit that afternoon. I asked him if he thought he could handle all the limping around the museum, and he assured me that he would be fine.

Sunday, more limping, but no complaining ever. He just always insisted putting he socks and crocs on himself (church shoes on Sunday). When we asked people what they thought, they always said what we thought, "It's just the toe." Online, though, it said that an injury to the big toe is more severe, so I decided Monday morning to take him to the doctor. I watched him limp to his classroom Monday morning and picked him up a couple of hours later.

The doctor ordered some x-rays, one of which they thought they saw a chip in the bone, but it turned out there wasn't. So, not broken, whew! The doctor said it was good we went in, though, because if it needed medical attention, it could have affected the growth of the toe had he not gotten what he needed.

This was three days later Still swollen and of course black and blue.

He just has to not jump up and down on it right now, according to the doc. It seemed his limping to class today was not quite as bad. He has been a trooper with getting around with this injury. Let's just hope everyone learned their lesson from this experience!