Who says soccer is not a contact sport?

Well, while we were still eating watermelon at Peter's baptism last Saturday, Josh raced off to play in his Varsity soccer game. I went and watched for awhile, and then got worried about doing some things for his Eagle Court of Honor that night, so I left the game halfway through.

About five minutes after I got home, I got a call from my friend DaraDee, who I had been sitting by at the game. She said, "Josh is down on the field and it looks pretty serious. They have stopped the game." I hung up from that call and got another call from Braden, a captain on the team and Josh's good friend. He said, "They think Josh has broken his leg, and I thought it might be nice to have his Mom here on the field." That was a thoughtful phone call Braden!

I announced to Grandma and Aunt Angie what I had heard. They held down the fort for the rest of the evening - thank you so much! I found Joseph in the garage, so I took him along with me. Bruce called me next as I was on my way over there. When I got to the field, they were on the far side with ambulances all around. I was pretty calm, but still telling myself to breathe deeply. I waved Joseph off, telling him to go talk to his friends, and he gladly complied!

Josh was laying on the ground with Bruce and the paramedics around him. I knelt down and talked to him about pain management. (Birthing at home taught me a lot about that.) He had what looked like a baseball under his skin off to the side of his shin. But he was handling it really well. He only started to slightly cry once. I wouldn't have cared if he had been bawling his eyes out, but he wasn't.

What happened was that he went sliding for a ball with his right foot, and the keeper went down too, after he did. Somehow the ball got kicked away, and the two of them ended up going heel to heel. The impact did this to Josh's tibia:
OK now, just take a deep breath! Ha ha I've already talked about this so much that it doesn't affect me that much, but writing it like this, well I can see that a few of you are going to have to "get some counseling after this", as my friend Shari put it! :)

Josh said that as soon as it happened he felt the pain of course, but his first thought was to stand up, because Middleton guys stand up; they don't lay on the field like pansies when they're not hurt that badly. So he tried to stand up, tried being the operative word. He crumpled instead. As soon as he did that, Bruce ran out on the field. (He was on the coaches bench, so he could do that). At first he felt all around his knee, and was vastly relieved to see it was not a knee injury. He took off his shoe, sock and shin guard, took one look at the baseball-sized hematoma and turned to the Athletic Director and said, "We'd better call 911", which they did. By the way, the keeper on the other team had a swollen knee, but he was up walking within a few minutes.

They got Josh into the ambulance and gave him morphine in an IV on the way to the hospital. I'm pretty impressed the paramedic could put an IV while driving in an ambulance. We met them at the hospital. It took two more doses of morphine before Josh could relly relax.

Wayne Ellis, one of the guys that helps with the Middleton Soccer team, was the first to come and check on Josh. He came all the way to the Emergency Room, and comforted Josh by telling him that it was a really brave thing to do, playing that way on the field. I think at this point Josh was thinking it was pretty dumb!

They x-rayed the leg, and after a time, the orthopod, as the nurse called him, (orthopedic surgeon) came and looked at the x-rays and decided to take Josh into surgery that night. They made an incision right below his knee, drilled a hole down the length of his tibia, and inserted a titanium rod with two screws at the top and two at the bottom. They will leave the rod in there, unless there is some outstanding reason to take it out, because they want to prevent another surgery. Just before the surgery, while we were talking with the surgeon, we figured out that he knew our next door neighbors, and that his daughter had come out to our street dance the weekend before! That was a pretty cool connection. Josh and I figured she was Blonde 1 or Blond 2 or Blonde3 that we listed in the guest list! Also while we were talking, I glanced up at the clock, which read 7:15 pm, and asked the doctor if there was any way Josh would be ready to attend his Eagle Court of Honor that started at 7:30 pm. He said, "Ah...no." :)

Bruce and I both stayed at the hospital that night with Josh. I wasn't any help at all, because the night before I had stayed up feeding out of town guests (and my own family - it wasn't just them), and sewing on merit badges until four in the morning. (Dumb - I know!) Bruce was up and down all night long with Josh while slept. Thank you Bruce.

The next morning before Church, Uncle Gary & Kaleb, Uncle Rodney, Aunt Angie and their chidlren, and all our family came to see Josh in the hospital before they went to Church.
It was so neat to see everyone in the room crowded around to see Josh.

Little Alyssa reached out and touched Joshua's cast, and then touched his toes. He commented on it afterward.

During Church, Bruce brought the Young Men over to the hospital. There were three investigators visiting that day, and the Elders came with them also. The YM gave Joshua the Sacrament, and then the Elders and Bruce and Hno. Iglesias gave him a blessing. It was wonderful to feel the Spirit in the room, and to see the Priesthood in action that way.

After Church, Hna. Iglesias came with her son, and the de la Rosa children to the hospital. I was so glad Hna. Iglesias had gone to pick them up. The three of them haven't come together in a long time, and we usually pick them up every Sunday, but we couldn't that day.

Josh stayed another night in the hospital because he was still feeling a lot of pain on the pills they were trying to wean him on to, so they gave him some more morphine periodically.
Bruce brought him home Monday around noon. I was substitute teaching (my first time! - a story for another day) so Bruce took the day off and took care of Josh.

This morning (Tuesday) he is feeling less pain, but it is still a struggle to even go to the bathroom. He is in good spirits, though.

After school yesterday, Coach Weber and Coach Wells came to see him, as well as seven of his teammates, including all the captains. His friends have been so generous and nice to him. And half of it has happened on his phone, via texting. It seemed like his phone was going of constantly! I think it's cool how they can communicate that way (although I see the need for balance, etc. - another post for another day). Raigen did call him when he was in the ER - it was so nice to hear from her.

"All these things shall give thee experience" keeps running through my head! The hardest thing is that he will miss the rest of his junior year of soccer season. At least it's not his senior year. And Show Choir will be hard to keep up on, but I think he can do it. Loosing his means of income from refereeing will also be tough, but I'm sure he will be blessed in other ways.

My dear friend DaraDee brought us dinner last night. Thank you DaraDee - it was delicious!! And so many friends have called and emailed - thank you to all.