We had a bit of a scare at an ODP tryout a few months ago.  Johnny was in the middle of a tryout, it was very warm out when suddenly in the middle of the field he just stops and grabs his chest.  From the sideline it didn’t look like much.  He didn’t go down, he was hit during play.  He just stood there pretty still.  One of the players put his arm around him and walked him off the field.

The next thing I know the coaches are yelling for me from across the field.  They were asking me not to walk around the field but run through the field in the middle of play…  This got a bit more intense.  When I got to Johnny he had tears in his eyes and drinking water sitting on the ground.  He said he had a sharp pain right where his heart is.  In my mind I’m thinking maybe it’s something he ate or he got a knock.  After a few minutes it started to subside.  Fifteen minutes later he was playing in a pick up game.  He seemed okay.  His coaches urged us to take him to get checked out.  So we did.

He was at Children’s Hospital for over two hours of tests (this was round #1).  The doctor said he had a slight heart murmur, which apparently is pretty common.  They didn’t think that would be a cause of the pain he felt.  A big sigh of release right…  The docs said they wanted him to come back and go through a test where they see how his heart handle high exertion.  Basically they put him on a treadmill with tons of wires and a head piece that hold a tube that goes in his mouth and push him until he can’t go any longer.  Well he did awesome in the test.  He reached 92% which as I understand that number means 92% of people can’t go that far.  They classified him as an elite athlete.  The result – no issues

Confirming it wasn’t a heart issue, the doc speculated that perhaps some ribs moved in such a way that caused pain or maybe he was dehydrated.  Both of these seem very possible to me given the conditions that day.  I was really happy the doc went on a bit of a rant about hydration.  It’s good that young athletes hear about hydration from someone such as a doctor…  hopefully it’s something Johnny will remember to take very seriously.

At the end of the day Johnny checked out okay.  This was a scary time for me as a parent but also for Johnny.  He really didn’t know what to think about it.  He was scared no doubt, but after the tests and hearing the doctor say he’s okay Johnny is back on track.

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