We hadn’t been to ER since Sam was four and gashed his head jumping from the couch to the coffee table just like his monster truck. Needless to say, that experiment ended as well as Evil Knievel’s 1974 attempt to jump across Snake River Canyon. (If you’re too young to know who Evil Knievel is, he’s on Wikipedia.)
So anyhow, fast forward almost nine years to this week when Sam woke us up at 5 am. He’d gotten up at 3:30 to use the bathroom. Then he couldn’t go back to sleep because of horrible pain on left side of his chest. Yes, the left side, the same side as the heart. So scary! He said it hurt even more when he lied down or even sat, so he just stood there. Then the poor thing didn’t want to wake us up until 6, but finally at 5 he couldn’t take it anymore. HE DIDN’T EVEN READ! THAT’S HOW MUCH IT HURT! Of course Daddy Mac and I were dazed and confused and then terrified he was having a heart attack at age 12. Aie! I had to sit down on the floor; I’ve never been so close to fainting in my life.
After waking up my awesome doctor friend Andi, we were off to the ER. THERE WAS NO READING IN THE BACK SEAT THE ENTIRE WAY THERE! NONE! However, I was too busy having a mini heart attack of my own to take a picture of this rare occurrence. And no discussion of borderline inappropriate memes from the internet. He was hurtin’ for certain.
With some Advil, he started to feel better within ten minutes. After a chest x-ray and EKG, they said it was his chest wall muscle on the left side flaring up. Who the heck knows what triggered it? Was it playing tennis the night before? Growing pains? A sleeping injury?
We were just thankful that he read all the way home.
LibbY