Our youngest daughter, Taylor, has played soccer for almost 10 years now. Other than a wrist fracture and a few minor ankle sprains, she has been injury-free, which has been a blessing. That changed in her first league game of the new season. In the first play, on the kickoff, she sprinted down the left side, jumped up and won the header. However, as she came down from the header, the defender’s head or shoulder dealt a sharp blow to Taylor’s nose, which landed her face-down, unmoving on the field. The worst fears ran through my mind and my wife’s mind, but just as we started to panic, she got up and walked over to the sideline.
I went over to check on her, fearing she had sustained a concussion, but instead discovered a broken nose. Her face was bloodied, and gauze was shoved up her nose, and all she wanted was to go back in. (Yes to all the fathers out there, that was a proud moment for me.) She went back in, and played the remainder of the game. About seven days later, she had surgery to fix her nose. (Thanks, Dr. Simon.)
She returned to soccer under one circumstance, she had to wear the face guard to protect her nose. We had to have a talk with our daughter, explaining that in order to play again, she would have to do anything to get back into the game, even if that meant wearing a face mask. Did I mention she is a teenager and the face mask doesn't exactly sit well with her?
So many of our patients experience this too. They have to endure a surgery, medicine, or therapy to get back to the things in their life they want to do. Thanks to each of you for all that you do to help our patients get back to what they need to do or love to do!
Memorable and meaningful (M&M) moment: For this blog, the M&M moment is a moment that happened the day our daughter was scheduled for surgery for her nose. My wife was already scheduled to have a minor surgery that day, and the night before, like all the great moms in our lives, she told me to just leave her and stay with Taylor. That morning, when we showed up for the surgeries, our pre-op nurse, Rachel, had arranged for my daughter and wife to be in the same room, so that they could be together. She helped create several M&M moments for us: My wife got to be with our daughter right up to surgery time, and I got to stay with both my wife and daughter as well. Thank you, Rachel, Dr. Simon, and the entire surgery team for going above and beyond for my family.
Talk soon,
Jason