Richard's goings-ons

Poor Richard!

Nothing awfully serious, but a bit frustrating and trying nonetheless.

Episode one: About 2 weeks ago Ben and the little boys were at a church dinner in the gym. (I was at work.) All the kids were running around the gym having fun, typical of a ward party you know, and Richard got thrown by a child who wanted the ball he had. He consequently got knocked out as he hit the hard gym floor. Ben went running to access the situation and Richard's eyes were dilated (huge!) and he wouldn't answer or respond to Ben's calling his name, 2 signs of concussion. After about 30 seconds Richard 'woke up' and answered questions and said he was ok. Then Ben noticed Richard had wet his pants...another sign of a concussion. The Bishop helped Ben clean him up and then I got THE phone call at work. Of course, this is the phone call I've always anticipated, but thankfully never gotten. "Corinne, there's been a bit of an incident and I think Richard should be taken to the Doctor." I don't remember exactly how he described it, but Ben is very good at breaking bad news. He was calm and gave only enough details to let me know that everything is ok, but needs to be taken care of now. So he came and picked me up and we were at the ER for about an hour. They took Richard's blood pressure and asked lot's of questions. Bascially they said he had a slight concussion, but there wasn't anything to be done except to watch him. If he started acting unusual, bring him back in. We went home, gave the boys a bath and put them to bed. We checked on Richard a few times and since his breathing was regular we went to bed. The next morning Richard was telling me all about how he hit his head on the gym floor. He's fine!

Episode Two: We didn't notice this until Richard was over a year old, but the tendons and ligaments in his left foot turn inward, pulling the bones and muscles with them. It just makes his foot turn inward and looks kind of funny. It's called metatarsul adductus. We're afraid it'll inhibit his ability to play sports and run correctly so for the last two years he's been wearing kiddy orthodics in his shoes. We're on our 3rd podiatrist (the first two just didn't do much, I felt) and this Dr. suggested putting a cast on his leg to help right the foot. So that's what we did yesterday. Richard now has a cast on his left leg from his foot nearly up to his knee. He has to wear it for 3 weeks and then we'll take him back and I just pray that it's helped. The problem with doing this cast now is that he's so old...his bones and tendons have basically hardened into the position they'll be in for the rest of his life. But the other 2 dr.s never suggested it. So this process may take a long time. But, it's better than nothing. The good thing about doing it now is that we can explain to Ricahrd why we're doing this. Luckily, his personality is such that he is very easy going, and content to let us help him get dressed and stuff.