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Monday, November 28, 2011

My Medical Training...

I always enjoy traveling and speaking to teenagers and adults. My Youth Pastor had a huge impact on my life and I'm blessed to still call him a friend. He's allowed me to be apart of his ministry at different times to communicate with teenagers.

With that said: I had a house full of eighth graders for the weekend to teach. Boys and girls. Guys and gals. Loud and Louder. Crazy and silly. I think you got the idea. Inbetween our sessions we had free time. We played interactive games, chatted with one another, and just laughed. After our first Saturday morning session our host reminded everyone there was a basketball goal outside. Apparently all of the students were struggling with a basketball addiction because they shot down the stairs like a 13-year-old girl after Ryan Gosling.

I get outside to play a few traditional games of Knock-Out, when I look over and see one of the eighth grade boys sitting down with his shoe off.

"What happened to you?"

"I hurt my ankle." he replied.

I now reverted back to an ignorant new born with my next question.

"How did you hurt it?" (I know I know)

My blindness to the obvious was too much for him to handle. He was unsure how to answer.

"Ummm...playing basketball?"

"Oh." I replied somewhat surprised for reasons I can not figure out. "It cant' be that bad. You've only been out here a few minutes."

"But it's huge. It's swollen." he replied back staring down at his foot.

"You lie." I said as I walked over. "It's never as bad as you...GOOD GRACIOUS THAT'S HUGE!!! IT'S LIKE BIGFOOT LET YOU BORROW HIS SLIPPERS!!"

"I told you."

"Boy that shoe is never going back on your foot!" I said with an apparent disregard for any opportunity to encourage.

"I'll be fine. But do you think it's that bad?"

"That's no moon. It's a space station, Luke."

At this point, he, like you the reader, stared blankly unaware of my vast knowledge of the sci-fi world and my ability to include it into my daily life at the most opportune moment.

We all walked back inside the house ready for the next session. One of the Host's and myself were explaining to him how he needed to elevate his ankle and it needed to be iced. We set him up some pillows to keep it raised and she got him a bag of ice. All is right in the world.

Halfway through the session the students are talking, discussing, and are really digging deeper into what kinds of decisions they make. As we are talking I turn around and look at this student with his leg is on the floor next to the pillows.

"What are you doing?" I asked

"It's uncomfortable on the pillows." he replied.

"The pillows?? Are you serious? Pillows are the definition of comfortable. When you are laying down and you can't get comfortable, what do you say...I sure wish I had a pillow? Pillows are always the answer. What do say when you can't sleep well...I couldn't get my pillow comfortable. It's always the pillow. What is the reply when you tell someone you can't sleep...Do you need a new pillow? When you are leaving for a long trip in the car and you have everything loaded and you are sitting in the car about to back out of the driveway, what stops the trip? Why do you rush out of the car and back into the house...I forgot my pillow!!! Pillows were created out of discomfort. If we had more pillows in this world there would be less war! Your ankle is uncomfortable because it's the size of a watermelon on steroids. Don't blame the pillows."

"Well it's cold too."

"That's the point. The cold well keep the swelling down. Now put it back on the ice."

"I can't stand it. My ankle is turning blue."

"Oh it is not." I again said as I leaned over for a better view. "It's just your imagina...HOLY COW LOOK AT THAT ANKLE!!! IT'S LIKE PAPA SMURF IS STRAPPED TO YOUR ANKLE WITH BLUE DUCT TAPE!!!"

I moved back over to my spot and said, "Just keep it off for ten minutes and put it back on."

In case you are wondering the swelling did go down, but he walked with a small limp in his step.

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