Vomit during football

Trevor needed his vaccine for school. Tetanus was a standard easy decision. Trevor was bound to step on a nail or poke himself with something rusty sooner or later. He has a lot of me in him, a little accident prone. The other shot is the meningitis shot. That's the one that kills college students quickly. In schools packed with students, I also saw this one as reasonable. I checked the shots for the mercury preservative. The tetanus was a child's dose so it was safe. The meningitis shot was also clean. There were the regular warnings in the fine print about reactions. I didn't think much about it at the time.

Two hours later Trevor had a rip roaring headache going. I reported it to the doctor's office and gave him ibuprofen. There was no pain in his arms though, at the injection sights. He was still bothered by the headache at football practice. He let the coach know and was asked if he still wanted to play. He said "yes", he would try to continue with practice, play through the pain. 40 minutes later he moved off to the side of the practice area, removed his helmet and vomited his dinner into the grass. I found him lying on the hill with his hands on his head. Still feeling the pain.

I called the doctor's office again. It was after hours but the on call doctor called me back shortly. He said to give him Tylenol. I asked if it was OK for Trevor to sleep or if I need to watch him for seizures. I am sure he thought I was over reacting, but we hadn't expected the headache. I kind of expected the vomiting if Trevor practiced. But I figured he could lie at home feeling miserable and making the whole family miserable or try to distract him with practice. If he wasn't faking there was a chance he would vomit from the head ache, been there done that. Dwelling in a dark room is even less fun. Besides he'll get points with the coach for trying to play through the pain.

On the other hand, I am sure I lost points with the coach for being a mean old mom and making my kid play when he wasn't feeling well. Coach said "Please, Mom take him home."
Trev can be such a whiner though, you never know quite how sick he really feels.

I could always tell when Riley felt bad. He was a straight up sick kid. He would say he didn't feel well, and there would be a temperature. Or he would be hacking and coughing with a regular cold.

Trevor would just try and sleep in and be late for school. He would say he was sick, try to fake cough, couldn't keep a straight face, no fever. I warned him he had a reputation that we couldn't trust his word. So I was impressed that he wanted to try and play through the headache. He wasn't in tears. I think he was proud of himself too, for trying. It was also a hot evening 90 degrees. That didn't help Trevor feeling any better.

He had taken a cold bath the night before for his knee, which has bothered him. He needs to strengthen the muscles around his knee. He was not thrilled about another cold bath. Coach said to ice the knee. I told him to just take a regular bath, he would feel better afterwards. We could ice the knee.

He did feel better. The Tylenol kicked in and now he wanted to play with Riley and his friends over at the house. I told him if he missed practice he needed to go to bed. I am a tough mom.
You cant skip out on your obligations like school or sports teams and get to have a treat. I made him drink lots of water and stay quietly in his room. Tom concurred. Trevor pulled out a book to read, but now he was complaining about his confinement. I knew he was all better, no more worries about reactions. I could go to bed myself. It was after 9:00 pm by this time.

His vaccines are now current. We had been slow, spreading them out over time. We wont be getting a letter from the school nurse this year. Its nice to have them done.Riley caught whooping cough, the P in the DTP shot, as an infant and almost died, so I do believe in vaccines.
You just need to make sure your child is healthy and well hydrated when you vaccinate. I will be forcing the liquids for the next week on Trevor. He should be doing that anyway with football.

We are off to Dicks sporting goods to see if we can get some decent pants for Trevor. The replacement pants provided came with longjohns with pads. The undergarment is too short. The pads don't cover the knees. The over pants are too long. I am hopeful we can find some under armour pants that fit appropriately. I really need Trevor's knees protected with his weak knee issues.

Once he starts strengthening his legs, this problem should resolve itself. I just think about his skeletal frame at age 13 now carrying this much weight. Trevor claims its all muscle as he squeezes his belly. I love the conditioning in football. All of a sudden Trevor does lean up and become a mass of muscle. He has energy and focus. Too bad football is only in the fall.

Trevor had a teacher that said swimming was really good for the student's cognitive abilities. Having the arms and legs going at the same time doing different motions, stimulated the brain. Students were more attentive in class. I am going to try and get Trevor swimming again. Last year his grades prevented me from putting him in any after school activities. But maybe if I start right after football, Trevor wont slide in the grade department.

Meanwhile, Trevor loves football enough to vomit on the field. Horrible that I think that is kind of cool to have that passion for the game. I didn't know if he really loved it, or if it was his Dad's influence or mine that kept him going. He has got to love it for himself to put himself through that kind of misery or he would have pulled himself from practice before he vomited. Cool kid.