Turns out video games ARE bad for you. Who knew.

A couple of months ago Drew started complaining about a knot on his wrist. It happened to be only a few weeks before his checkup appointment with our pediatrician, so I made a mental note to ask about it. I was pretty sure it was a cyst, it moves around and isn't attached at the bone like a bone spur or a wart would be. Anyway, our ped said, yeah, he sees those sometimes, but best to have it checked out by an orthopaedic specialist just in case.  So we made the appointment for today.

So we head in there after school, and I'm a little taken aback by how many little ones are in the waiting room with casts on both legs - pigeon toe issues or similar I guess. Anyway, they X-ray Drew's hand, and then the doctor comes into talk with us.

(Sidenote, I really liked this guy. Dr. Gupta, with Pediatric Orthopaedic Associates here in Overland Park, if you happen to live near me and need such a thing, consider this a recommendation.)

So he starts asking about our summer, what kinds of things did we do - or rather, did Drew do. Did he ride his bike a lot? Did he play baseball? Golf? Ah, yes golf, that could be it - the flicking of the wrist could very easily lead to a ganglion cyst - it's basically like having a blister develop on the tendon rather than on the skin. And then he mentioned, casually, that its sometimes called a Bible cyst. Because you can smack it really hard with a heavy book, and in old days the heaviest book in the house was the Bible, and it would explode and then dissolve.

Drew visibly shuddered.

But I don't think he played that much golf, I said. And then the lighbulb went off. What about the Wii?

Aaaaaagggggghhhhhh! Was Dr., Gupta's response.

Suddenly it all made sense - it had started hurting mid-summer, he played a lot of Wii over the summer, usually using the numchuck thing and doing a lot of wrist flicking, because isn't that pretty much how you play the Wii? Yes, it is. And then lately he said it hasn't been bothering him as much, it's still there, but not really hurting unless he pushes on it. Which makes sense because he's not playing as much on the Wii now that school has started.

So there you go. Video games are bad after all. They don't just kill your mind. They kill your hands!  Gah.