3-2-1 No Contact

H's contact sport career is over before it began. Five months ago he suffered a concussion by falling in our neighbor's garage. A week ago he had another fall, this time by falling face first off one of our cheap IKEA dining chairs (we were waiting till the kids were past the crayon scribbling stage to get a "real" dining table and chairs). The first time was worse since he fell on the back of his head--disorientation, vomiting, loss of focus. We went to the ER and they did a CT scan, luckily no internal bleeding in his head. This time was not as bad but he is still out of sorts and not acting like himself--he even asked for medicine because he felt sick. What kid does that? So basically he can't have any more concussions because there is a well-documented risk that it will increase his chance of having Alzheimer's, already in his family history. After a week he seems to be getting back to his old self, but definitely no contact sports for him.

I was the manager of my college football team. As a perk of that role, I met a lot of future and former NFL players. I have autographs from Charles Woodson and Peyton Manning before they entered the NFL. I've been on the field at Soldier Field and Giants Stadium. One of my dreams was to have a son who could play on my college team and/or be the first Korean-American player in the NFL. Those dreams are now dead. It's strange how small things dictate the course of someone's future. I have to believe that he can still be an athlete. If he doesn't do something physical to release his enormous amounts of energy, I don't know how I will survive his childhood. Perhaps he can race in the Tour de France or outswim the Thorpedo one day.

This Black Friday I will be shopping for heavy heavy wood dining table and chairs.