My son Jeremy and sports

• by ellen
• 2010-01-04 09:01:14
• Exercise & Sports
• 2074 views
• 5 comments

My son Jeremy has had a pacemaker since the age of 3. He is now 16 years old and all male. He is the middle son of four children. Gorwing up I made a point to treat him just like the rest of his siblings. In all things but sports. His brothers played football and basketball while he is in band.
I have always told him he could do anything if he just put his mind to it. He even wrote a paper at school on this which made me cry. We only had a problem with this is middle school when he decided he wanted to be like his uncle and brother in law and go into the armed services when he got old enough. We had a good fight over this because I treat him so normal. In fact most people don't know he has a pacemaker and are shoked when they find out. We got over that time though but his ego was hurt some.
This year he decided he wanted to play basketball and take P. E. in school. In the summer I ask one of his doctors who said as long as he had protection he would be fine. There are two parts to this story.
The first is I told the coach at school he had a pacemaker. He said that Jeremy would let him know what he could do and could not. I quickly told him he would not and Jeremy even told him would not. Jeremy at home is a regular male (playing football, basketball, and often wrestling with his dad and brothers). When school rolled around the coach sees Jeremy has a pacemaker appointment and has a fit. He wanted a note from the doctor saying what he could do and wanted Jeremy out of PE, I had a fit because he had already been in PE for 6 weeks. Anyway he wears protective gear now for PE.
The second part is when I took Jeremy to the doctor to get a note for him to play basketball this doctor did not want him to play. Instead of just telling him no the doctor turns his pacemaker off for anywhere from a minute to 3 minutes ( without letting me know adead of time). While my son is laying there the doctor kept aking how he felt. After a while my son said he felt pretty bad. The docotr's response was "Well that is how you would feel if you get hit in the chest with a basketball. You don;t want to play now do you?"
My son goes on to tell him "Yes I do." His tech ( a guy who has known Jeremy since the age of 3) had the sheet filled out.
Needless to say my son will not go back to that doctor.
He has had his thrid game and is loving it. I sit on the side and bite all my nails off. He knows I will not let him play without the protection (which he hates). His confidence has went up. I worry that he will get hurt but he is more likley to get hurt with his younger brother outside.
I am blessed that my children are so very close even though sometimes it can drive me crazy. It was Joseph (my youngest) who told Jeremy he is good enough to play on a team and should do it. It is like having the three stooges at my house but we have a lot of fun.