Back in February, my oldest daughter broke her ankle. It was a painful way to end an otherwise FUN time of jumping on an indoor trampoline. Since that break, her whole body and this family has been off kilter.
For example, in the first 7 weeks after that break, her sleep schedule was off. I swear, it brought me back to those first months after the arrival of a baby. Not able to climb the stairs to her bedroom, she slept in our recliner in the living room like I did after each birth. The pain kept her awake all night. By the morning, tiredness finally did what the painkillers couldn't: she forgot about the pain as she slept away the morning, awaking after lunch due to the pain and realizing the day was half gone.
The living room was a pile of her school books, painting supplies, clothes from upstairs, and anything else a 13 year old needs. The recliner sat in the middle of the room so that she could view the TV from relative comfort. Her toiletries relocated to the kitchen sink. A bottle of shampoo hung out there so long that it looked normal among the kitchen supplies.
Her inability to do things for herself, her need to be waited on hand (and foot), and her inability to help us with anything around the house made me feel like I had another toddler instead of a teenager. She'd regressed back to needing me to do everything for her like she did so long ago.
While she suffered the prolonged pain of this break and the house took a downward spiral into disorganization, the doctor relayed bad news last month. He didn't see her bones coming together. Normally, he would perform surgery to insert a screw for such a case. Except, her break was at the growth plate. He didn't want to interrupt the growth she is still experiencing.
She began physical therapy in a last try to promote healing without surgery. After a month of PT, she is a different girl. She hobbles around on that broken ankle without the aid of the boot or crutches. She sleeps in her loft bed upstairs. No longer does she cry out in pain when we touch any part of the left side of her body. She zooms through her school work, helps the younger children with their school, and even began helping with chores again.
From the outside, I could see she was healing. So I wasn't surprised when the doctor today pronounced that she is also healing from the inside. Her bones are coming together without the aid of a screw; her growth plate escaped any hinderance.
I'm very grateful for her healing and hopeful that she really will regain all the range of motion she lost with this break. It's good to have her back.
No comments:
Post a Comment