“(My doctor told my school nurse that I was “the sickest child he ever saw that didn’t die”.) Osteomyelitis.”
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Oh my! That’s scary indeed. I’m glad you survived.
I had a distance relative (by marriage) at aged 11 who had leg pains after a normal baseball game. His parents also thought it was the normal pains of childhood, but took him to the doctor after it persisted for a week. They discovered it was leukemia after a barrage of tests. He lived another two years with treatment.
However, my sons often complained of pains and I took them to the doctor if it seemed serious. The diagnosis was always muscle-strain or over-exertion and both are healthy to this day. The exact same symptoms exist for the same—muscle strain and leukemia—when do you take the child to the doctor, and when do you tell them to take a hot shower? It’s hard to know.
But, forgive your dad. Forgiveness if only for yourself so you don’t carry that weight with you into the future. I suspect if you spoke to him seriously about it, he feels more guilt than you realize since he nearly lost his son because he dismissed your complaints.
My son, a toddler, complained to me of intermittent pain in his thigh. He would even limp. There was no bruising and no confessed-to injury. So, after a while, I took him to the pediatrician. The doc examined the leg and asked some appropriate questions. Then, he looked over to me and mouthed, “I can’t find anything wrong.” After a minute or two, the exam ended and we went home. The son declared later that night, “Doctor XXX cured my leg. It doesn’t hurt anymore.” It never did.
Same son, eighth grade at the time, complained of a leg pain in a different place within his leg. The doc checked him out, then discussed a variety of issues with him (I was present), and then told us both that the son’s bones were growing faster than his ligaments, a condition called Osgood-Schlatter disease. He felt it wasn’t serious but said the only treatment was, and here the doc looked apologetic, was for the son to not be quite so athletic. He then went on to state, “That’s not going to happen.” It didn’t.
At present the kid is an active duty Special Forces.