A young female athlete girl breaks her leg playing soccer. After treating the fracture the doctor sees the potential of a more serious condition and calls her back. While he is doing the tests she begins to study the diagnosis, treatment and outcome of the treatment and in doing so she encounters something disturbing. Are all the surgeries being done for this condition necessary?
The Reaction of the Family
Laura’s younger brother came into the room first, he hurried ahead of the others. By the time they got there he was hugging her and crying. “Laura, why did this happen to you, you’re so good a sister, why not me, I’ve been so rotten to you.”
She started to cry, “Lem, I haven’t been that good a sister, I’ve done some really rotten things. And you definitely have not been so bad a brother.”
He sobbed, “But you don’t know what bad things I have done. Remember when you couldn’t find your female things? I hid them to see what you would do.”
Her face flushed with some anger for a moment. Then she realized this little brother had been holding this awful secret because she vowed to kill whomever had hid her feminine napkins. She remembered promising a slow and painful death.
“Lem. If I had told you how important it was for you to give them back rather than yell I was going to kill someone you probably would have given them to me. I was so angry that you probably were afraid to tell me. You need to learn that girls get cranky and they bleed once a month and you need to be just kind to them and they are fine.”
“Really? They bleed? Doesn’t that hurt? Can they die?”
“Whoa, you ask dad to tell you about that, OK? Dad’s are to tell boys about girls.”
“OK, sis. Next time I see dad, I ask.”
He hugged her. That was enough.
“Sis, anything you need, you ask. Honest, I’ll try to do it. No hiding anything any more. No more playing with your crutches and making you afraid you will need them and they aren’t there.”
“Thanks, bro. You have already done a lot more than you know.” He didn’t understand what she meant but just held her. She was his big sister. She needed him. And he needed her.
Larry was a little more reserved. He seemed almost afraid of Laura. Finally she motioned to him. “Come here. Mom, Lem needs a drink. Can you get him a soda and bring Larry one too? I just finished one.”
“Sure.”
When they left Laura turned to him, “What’s up?”
“Nothing.”
“Something is, spit it out. We may fight but we don’t keep things from each other.”
He shook his head. She realized he could not verbalize what he was feeling.
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