if it's not one thing ...

Amidst numerous other setbacks in the last month or so, now my 2nd daughter (12 yrs) has not only fractured her poor leg, she fractured it in such a way that required surgery. She slipped on some wet grass while playing with Maggie (2 1/2 yrs), and fractured the base of both her bones in the right leg. The fracture went right through the fibula (smaller bone) and on her tibia (large one), it was a tri-plane fracture that looked a bit like a jigsaw puzzle.

The worry was that it went right through the growth plate which would cause that leg to stop growing. We lived with that bit of information for almost 2 days! Talk about stress. Luckily, the orthopedist we were sent to said she has pretty much finished growing as the plate was starting to fuse together anyhow. Whew! Sadly though, the break was bad enough to require surgery ...

4 screws and one wire later and an overnighter in the hospital, Kate is now in a soft cast and having to keep the leg elevated as much as possible, no weight-bearing allowed. The incision is a few inches long, according to the surgeon, but none of us has seen it. The concern now is for the long run - she will almost definitely have arthritis in that joint as an adult, even though the doctor was able to get the joint and bone area as smooth as possible.

Next Wednesday, we will go back in and get a hard cast put on from toes to above her knee for 3-4 weeks, then hopefully she will be able to have it removed and start to bear weight on it with a boot & air cast. Just in time for school starting. Poor thing. She's being a trooper, although manuevering on the crutches is tough for her - especially steps - but she is already able to decline a few of her stronger pain meds.

She is my most active child, best helper with Maggie and doesn't have patience for sedentary hobbies. Only laid up since Sunday (when the break occured, and Tuesday was the surgery), she's already getting a bit bored. She's started to make tiny laps around our house to keep her butt and legs from falling asleep. Kate says that when it falls asleep, that's when the most pain occurs.

So far, this summer is not conducive to any creativity on my part, with the anxiety of my child and a few other problems going on. On the bright side, I was interviewed for a possible article about Etsy in our local culture/entertainment magazine. That means I need to get going on stocking my shop. I can't decide if that's the cherries or the pits.

Basically, I just need to vent and felt it important to let folks know where I've been lately.