That helpless feeling....

About 7 years ago, when Sarah was five, she had appendicitis. It was a horrible experience. Kathy had taken her to the doctor earlier in the day. The physician's assistant that looked at her misdiagnosed it. She sent us home. In the middle of the night, Sarah was screaming in pain. We took her to the emergency room. It was in fact appendicitis, they rushed us to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She had surgery the next day.

There is nothing that can describe the helplessness you feel when your child is taken to surgery. You know that there is absolutely nothing that you can do but wait. The wait is eternal. All you can do is turn it over to God.

After the surgery was over, Kathy and I both stayed in the hospital. The next day, Sarah was able to get up and around. She rode in a wagon to the child's play area and tried walked around some. She walked like an old lady, very small painful steps. It was heartbreaking.

While we were in the playroom though, we met children with much more serious conditions. Sarah's condition was very very minor compared to what some families go through. Where we had one routine surgery with a fairly certain outcome, there are some families who endure multiple surgeries with a tremendous amount of uncertainty. Right now I'm thinking of a young lady named Shelby Glisson who struggled with a lung condition that resulted in a double lung transplant. Shelby goes to the same school as my children. I can remember her dragging a breathing machine around with her everywhere she went. I saw her Saturday at the football game, she is free from her breathing machine and is a beautiful healthy young lady. She does still struggle with the rejection fears. I guess what I'm saying is...what we went through was horrible, but still nothing compared to what some people go through.

By the next Sunday morning, she wanted to go to Church. We wouldn't let her, but she went Sunday night. While we were visiting with friends after the service, we had to get on to her for climbing over the backs of the pews. Kids recover so quickly.

The FCS football game that was scheduled for Friday was postponed to Saturday because of the rain that we had. It was the biggest game of the season, both teams were undefeated and are huge rivals. The game meant a lot. Chris was on the starting offense and on the receiving team. He didn't see much action as far as passes being thrown to him, but I could see that one was thrown to him. From my vantage point, I could see that has was most likely the receiver it was thrown to, but the team was in my way on the sideline so I couldn't see what happened.

A little while later, I saw him and a trainer leaving the field. I ran over to see what happened, they told me that he probably had a concussion and was being taken to the hospital for a CT Scan. I left in front of them to see if I could do any necessary paperwork ( I couldn't ) but the team doctor had called ahead and the hospital was ready for him.

To make a long story short, Chris had a Grade 1 concussion which involves amnesia (he didn't remember catching the ball) but had no other injury. He can't practice or play this week, but he will be fine.

Though divorced, Kathy and I are united when it comes to the kids. we still work as a team where they are concerned. It feels good. But it reminds me that so much of life is out of our hands...