Friday Night in the Emergency Room

He fell right out of the sky.  Literally.  Yup, son Caleb - he who loves extreme sports - was Power Kiting.  It was a windy and blustery day yesterday, which is normally good for kiting.  However, when power kiting, windy is good.    Blustery is not.  Definitely NOT.

The cause of Caleb's unfortunate injury is now safely packed away inside its storage bag - a Rush IV 350 Pro Power Kite.

Caleb was having a great time with his kite, and getting some good exercise out in the fresh air.  The kite was flying well, and then it took Caleb for a ride up in sky.  About 15 feet up there.

If you are a power kiter, you hope for a ride in the sky, and you think this is the biggest adrenaline rush ever.  If you are a mother, you wonder why these foolish people risk their life and limbs doing this hope your child comes home safely.

Whatever happened to those small SAFE diamond shaped kites we had as kids?  Just fit in the two dowel pieces, tie on a tail and a 25 yard string, and go out in a field and fly it.  We had numerous of those for our four kids throughout their childhoods.

Then we advanced our family kite technology to THE SHARK.  Every year when we went to the New Jersey beach for vacation, we made sure THE SHARK was packed.  Let me tell you, we had prestige on the beach flying that thing.  Every other little kid watched and drooled when that kite went up there.  They begged their daddies to get them one.  The dads inquired as to where they could buy one.  It made all the other kites look tiny and ridiculous, in comparison.

Well the kids grew up and went along their ways, and I don't really know what ever became of THE SHARK, but apparently Caleb wanted to upgrade again.
It seems that flying a kite is no longer enough; now one flies the kite AND oneself with it.

In case you've never seen how power kiting works, take a look at this little clip I found on You Tube.    This kiter is not my son, so please excuse the descriptive flight terminology at the end:

So let me sum up what happened to send Caleb to the emergency room yesterday.  The wind came, the kite flew, and Caleb was taken up for a thrilling ride with it.  All was good until a gust came that immediately died down, dropping Caleb down about 15 feet to a slam landing on the ground.

Here he is, waiting to be taken for some xrays.  At this point he has major pain in his left hip, left knee and left ankle.

Preliminary exams were done, ice was put on the ankle, and then the wait for transfer to the xray department began.  Caleb was hurtin' for certin' and began playing with the lights and remote switches because men are amused easily by this stuff to distract himself.

Thankfully, the xrays showed there is no serious damage and no broken bones.  He left the hospital with a diagnosis of sprained knee, sprained ankle, and pulled muscles in hip.  He'll be taking some pain medication, keeping it elevated, and applying ice for several days.  On a side note - for some reason all the medical personnel thought our crutches from home were hilarious.  Apparently they are from back in the dark ages or something.  They mercifully issued him a newer, more modern pair.  I'm sure our insurance company will be glad that he is now in style while crutching around.

All in all, I wasn't planning to spend my Friday evening in an emergency room, but since emergencies are never in the plans, I'm thankful that his injuries weren't worse.  He could have landed on his head, or broken his back, or become paralyzed, or......Ok I'll stop.  Just being a mother again.  I can't help it if I love my kids.