Periodic Gimp

After an early morning of rushing around to get the kids ready and myself showered to take the kids to school, we rushed into the school with two kids heading towards their wing of the school and me following my middle schooler to her wing to sign some papers for her reading class. I get that done, she hugs me, and I tell my daughter and her friends good-bye and start the walk back to the parking lot. Half-way there, my ankle gives out, leading me into all kinds of cursing in my head towards my parents while I limp in pain back to the parking lot (which seems a lot farther away now).

Why curse my parents when they aren't even in the same state? Usually, I don't think you can blame your parents for things that go wrong in your adult life based on your childhood. I think people who do that choose to play victim to their past, use it as an excuse not to make better decisions. However, in the case of the lame ankle, yup, I blame them.

When I was in 4th grade, I was playing kickball at recess. Running around the bases, I slid into 3rd base to avoid getting out, turning my ankle in the process. In pain and not wanting to put any weight on my foot, I figured I'd done some damage and it'd get fixed up. That's what parents do right? They take their child to a doctor for x-rays, wraps, casts, etc...whatever is needed. Not mine. They wouldn't take me to the doctor. I remember sitting in pain on the couch and being flabbergasted that they were refusing to take me to the doctor. We had medical insurance so why wouldn't they?

After that, that ankle became my problem ankle. In the 18 years that followed my 4th grade slide into 3rd base, my weaker ankle gives out on me periodically. I'll be walking along and them Bam! Instant gimp!

To this day, I don't know what I did to my ankle all those years ago. I'm not a doctor or a nurse, but I sure wish one had looked at it all those years ago so that I wasn't getting taken by surprise by the weakness and pain suddenly (and embarrassingly). I doubt after all this time that anything can be done. So, I continue to curse my parents out periodically when I am walking along and suddenly become a gimp.

Why wouldn't a parent take their child to the doctor (let's assume for the sake of argument that it's not against any religous beliefs, that there was definite pain, and it was covered by insurance) if it was needed?