Under the knife

 While we were exploring in St. Louis, Mark had an unfortunate accident while doing a box jump at the gym. He knew instantly that he had really hurt his knee. He went in for an MRI and they confirmed that he had torn his ACL. He also had some additional damage on his meniscus. 

I was BUMMED. 

He needed to wait for the swelling to go down before they could operate. 

Finally the day arrived. He was ready to get this behind him and start recovering.

He said his goodbyes...

Coming out of anesthesia and hearing the new that the surgeon trimmed the meniscus was pretty hard for him to hear. He had hoped it could be repaired. 

Getting him in the car wasn't easy. He was so sick and struggling to stay awake. I was glad that Mark Anderson insisted on being there when it was time to get him from the car to the house. 

So he waits. He heals and does his physical therapy. 

He comes to the gym to see friends and get out of the house.

He takes terrifying picture of his staples. And maybe shares them on social media without warning. 

I'll be so glad when he's not hurting and can get back to doing all the things he loves. 

Deranged

 Just as we were leaving St. Louis, I got a frantic phone call from Janelle, one of our coaches at the gym. "Mark is hurt! You gotta get over here!"

It's hard to get over there when you are a four hour drive to the east. 

We headed back to Kansas, and Mark went over to Kansas City Orthopedic Institute to have it looked at. It was swelling up fast and after an MRI, it was determined that he had torn his ACL and meniscus. Or as they put it..."internal derangement of the left knee". 

Looks like it's surgery time. 

I guess 5 days of golf and high box jumps are a bad combo? 

Pinky popper

 One minute you are chillin on the floor and the next minute your big sister walks by and accidentally steps on your hand and dislocates the tip of your pinky. 

We have a lot of experience with overdramatic wailing when in comes to being injured by a sibling. 

This was not that. 

I can only say that I'm glad Mark was the parent on duty

Yeesh. Kiss you pinkies tonight, folks. 

Don't do this at home kids

There is a trend going around. Someone does something cool or crazy or hard and then they post it online. Then people all around the world see that and they copy it...it become popular and it will morph it a "challenge". There was the cinnamon challenge and the Ice bucket challenge. 

And then there is the "throwing boiling hot water into sub zero temperatures challenge". We did it once...it was super cool.

Mathew did it again....

And it wasn't so cool.

He had blisters all over his back from the burns he got when the boiling water came down on him. The poor guy.

Megan was feeling very protective of him.

Some lessons are more painful than others.