Things you don't want to hear your children say when you return from a retreat

I went to our church's women's retreat Friday night and Saturday -- it was wonderful and I came away refreshed and blessed. Good thing. I got home Saturday afternoon and walked in the house. Sam and Tim and one of their friends were in the living room. The following exchange ensued:

Me: Where's Dad?
Tim: Oh, he's at the hospital with Joel.
Me: At the hospital with Joel! But the car's outside.
Tim: He rode in the ambulance with Joel.
Me: In the ambulance!!!

At this point, Sam intervened and started from the beginning since he thought I was getting a little excited. I thought I was handling it pretty well, but I'll admit I was showing some anxiety. Apparently, Joel had experienced some pretty bad back pain throughout the day and had been wearing Bob's back support (the kind people who have to do a lot of heavy lifting wear). Then he took it off. And then at some point he passed out right in front of the front door and couldn't get up. So they called 911. They had to take the front door off the hinges because Joel was right in front of it. He's a big kid.

It hadn't been very long, so I went up the hospital and got there before they took Joel for x-rays. It's a little weird seeing your kid laying on a back board. But he seemed to be doing pretty well. After the x-rays and blood work, the doctor still wasn't sure why he passed out, but could find nothing wrong in the tests. He said Joel probably had been having back spasms and the pain, or maybe taking the back brace off (sudden rush of blood from the upper to lower body), could have had something to do with blacking out. He prescribed a muscle relaxer and sent us home. Joel's doing a lot better -- the muscle relaxer seems to help -- but he's still having some pain. Prayers would be appreciated.

And if anyone related to me is reading this and gets concerned, it's OK. I should have called, but really Joel is doing fine and the excitement of it all has passed.