Not A Time To Play Through Pain

Mini-Mattis is no stranger to injury. At 7-years-old, he has suffered one (possibly two) broken nose and now a potenially ruptured ligament in his non-dominant (thumb) hand.

2006.04.13

Mini-Omega lives for football. He plays football non-stop almost everyday. Every night, I return 3 or 4 footballs to his bedroom. He does not play with toys. He is only interested in sports.

A couple of weeks ago, we were playing a Sunday afternoon game of 4 on 4 football. On one of the first plays, Mini-Mattis hurt his thumb. There were no tears. There was no screaming. He complained for a moment. Then, he shrugged it off and kept playing. Later that night my wife checked his thumb. We thought that maybe he had sprained it.

The following day the school called to say the thumb was swollen and bruised. My wife again checked his thumb. This time she realized that his thumb could go all of the way back to his wrist without any pain. She took him to the doctor. The doctor ordered x-rays. The x-rays were negative. The bones remain intact.

He was placed in a hard splint to protect the thumb. A few days later, a new (much nicer) hard splint was crafted to allow his other fingers to move.

The doctor ordered an MRI. Last Saturday morning, Mini-Mattis and I woke up early and headed to Dayton Children's Hospital. The technicians strapped him to a table and moved him into the giant MRI cylinder. He lay quietly in the cylinder for a half hour while they completed the MRI. Then, the technicians came in and gave him a contrast injection and repeated the 30-minute MRI tests.

The x-rays show that the bones are fine. The MRI report shows the tendon is still intact. This afternoon, my wife will take Mini-Mattis to see an orthopedic pediatric hand specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. We 'think' he ruptured a ligament in his thumb.

We assume there are 2 possibilities - 1) the doctor will say it is not a big deal and Mini-Mattis should just do some strengthening exercises to protect the thumb. 2) Mini-Mattis will require surgery to reattach the thumb ligament.

Keep in mind - baseball practice just started this week. He is signed up and scheduled to play. He has already missed a week of practice. I am not concerned with rushing him back onto the field. Mini-Mattis is extremely active. He is going stir crazy. He is trying to catch passes one-handed. He is still trying to throw, catch, and tackle. He doesn't understand that his body needs time to heal.

At the forefront, I want to make sure his thumb issue is addressed. Today's appointment will hopefully answer a lot of questions. Maybe the doctor will offer a completely different take on the situation. I do not know.

Hopefully, I can post some good news in the next few days.