The Sacrificial Leg

The leg was not broken. The trophy case was not broken. But the fall thereof was.

Alyssa's Gymnastics center is in the process of moving to new, larger facility. We went to the gym last Friday evening to help move equipment. Every member of our family helped to load bars, beams, boxes and such. We had been working for about an hour when a few people, including Caleb, lifted a mat to transport it onto the flatbed trailer. As it was lifted, it bumped into a large glass trophy case. The case fell toward the cement floor but was stopped short of a shattering fate. What kept it from its imminent crash? Jon's leg. Or more specifically, his shin.

Jon was standing nearby when he saw the case get tipped. He ran for it and out of instinct, put his leg under it to break the fall. He did save the case. The gym's owner witnessed his heroics but I'm sure has not a clue as to the physical price he paid to save it.

The leg was definitely painful but he kept his suffering to himself and continued moving large pieces of equipment. It bruised right away and was sore to walk on, but the worst of it did not show up for a few days. On Sunday his foot started turning blue. It became more and more swollen and then this morning, the area around the wound was quite red.

He limps around behind closed doors, can scarcely walk in the mornings, but he continues to put on a macho it-doesn't-really-hurt, look-how-I-can-jump-up-and-down attitude when he's out and about. He was in an increased amount of pain this morning, acknowledged that it was getting more red, and finally agreed to go see a doctor. (I've been begging him to go in for a few days now.)


Just look at the swelling in that right ankle. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for infection at the wound site. He didn't seem overly concerned about the bruising in his foot and didn't do an x-ray or anything. Hopefully it will get better soon.

The trophy case was saved but here is the lesson learned: just let it fall next time.