Pain of the Sprain

Wednesday night, Adam sprained his ankle during his usual Wednesday night stake basketball gathering.  It's rarely for a good reason (like desiring to go to bed early) that he returns home before 11:00pm on these basketball nights, so when I heard the garage door opening at 10:15, I knew that either too many people had shown up so the chance he had to play again before midnight was slim, or he had been injured.  As he limped into the house the reason was clear.  Dang it! 

The first night the pain in his ankle was pretty awful, but since then, with a lot of icing, ibuprofen and elevation the first couple of days, a snugly wrapped ace bandage and a borrowed pair of crutches for when he has to really get around, the discomfort is down to an ache today.  I am so glad it seems like he is healing quickly. 

But there is still plenty of "pain" to go around.  It's still a pretty big "pain" to have my comrade in parenthood only able to function at 30-70%, depending on the task.  Adam thought it was a huge "pain" to miss out on skiing with Zac last Friday when the kids were out of school; and depending on how healed he is over spring break next week, it's likely he will feel the "pain" of missing out on more ski days (although that means I get to go in his place, which isn't too big of a "pain" for me!).  It's a "pain" to have to be on crutches and not be able to get around like he wants to.  And it's a literal pain to try and drive a clutch with an injured left foot!

I am trying to encourage him to take up a nice, easy non-contact sport, like table tennis or curling.  I don't think I'm going to win this one.  Adam does have one comfort in all this pain.  He still made the basket on the play that took out his ankle. :)