How we spent our holiday weekend.....

Just when I thought we would spend a quiet holiday weekend hanging out at home, sh** happens:

Max had been complaining (very unusual for Max) for days that his right foot was hurting so after watching him hobble around the house I realized it was time for our semi-annual staycation at the Phoenix Children's Spa and Resort.....off to the ER we went! I decided to brave it alone so just Max and I went giving me the added bonus of being able to play the martyr with Michele. After many, many hours of sitting behind a curtain, my son on a gurney, I on the standard issue folding chair, I realized that in Max's eight years of life I have spent exactly one half of his 4th of Julys with him in one hospital or another. We'll have none of those boring BBQs, parades or fireworks -- nope, we go straight for our own special brand of fireworks!

For once Max was among the least seriously ill, this I know not because a nurse or doctor really ever wandered into Max's room and told me so but by the shear number of police (taking criminal reports -- ouch!), paramedics and security guards coming in and out of the ER it was clear that Max was low man on the totem pole. So after a series of x-rays which had to be read by no less than half a dozen doctors, we received the diagnosis of "Kohler's Syndrome", simply put the bones and joints in Max's foot have somehow been injured as a result of a vein being cut off and not sending enough oxygen to the boney areas of his feet. (Sorry, that's my best shot at a layman's translation of what I could squeeze out of the ER doc who seemed to understand little of what the orthopedist had just told him by phone or his Internet search...you pick). So after nearly eight hours we were sent home with a temporary cast, strict instructions to not allow Max to walk or otherwise put any weight on his foot, and to see the ortho doc on Monday for a permanent cast.

Now many of you might be asking the question, "How is Max to get around without walking?" Because the doctor in the ER felt crutches were not a great option for Max they just wheeled us to the door with a smile and a "good luck". I must let you know that after lugging Max's 62 pounds around all day and my inability to get anyone at a DME supplier, pediatrician's on-call service or even the ER itself to see the wisdom in providing Max with a wheelchair, we as desperate parents came through once again. Exhibit A, Michele's soon to be patented "zoombuggie":

Not pretty but it does get a kid from kitchen to potty in under 60 seconds. Necessity is without doubt the mother of invention!

And so we have arrived at the end of another star-spangled, spectacular 4th of July!