Bentley: Out of Commission

Last month Bentley was injured by Jake. It wasn't at karate. It wasn't during a fight. It was oddly enough while they were sitting next to each other on stools with rollers. Jake tipped back his stool and it rolled forward and when he tipped it back down one of the rollers came down on the back of Bentley's heel.

There was, of course, considerable drama. Bentley was in pain, but it wasn't clear how serious the injury was. He limped around a little the next few days, but sometimes he didn't limp at all. He went to karate, but took it easy. A good week after the accident we adults started panicking and Kara took him in to a sports clinic to see if his tendon was injured.

It wasn't his tendon he/we needed to be worried about. It was the growth plate in his heel--there was a hairline fracture. He was put in a walking cast and told to keep off his foot as much as possible for three weeks--no karate and no Boy Scout camp. He was angry, of course. (I believe he threatened to kill his brother.) After venting for a couple of days, he was really good about taking it easy and letting his heel heal. And it did! All is good now. (It took another few weeks after he quit using the cast for him to get back to normal activity which is common.)

Jake went to a karate a few times while Bentley was out of commission. When the sensei asked Jake where Bentley was, this was his explanation: "Well, he was sitting on a chair reading....and there was an accident involving his heel, tendon, growth plate...I tripped...but I'm no medical professional, so that's all the details I know."

When I asked for a photo of him in his cast, he tried to run away.