I started this blog and actually published the first post and then my daughter breaks her arm. You’d think I could take her in, get it casted, give some medicine & love & after a few days, move on until cast removal day.
No not with my nonverbal child who may or may not understand what has happened.

The doc couldn’t cast due to the location of the fracture. But I’m supposed to keep Grace in a sling (notorious for not staying on) for 6 weeks. That’s been fun! Grace doesn’t understand that if she escapes the splint & tries to push her wheelchair, hr arm will ache later. It doesn’t always hurt right away.

The first week of the injury, Grace laid around in her bed with me by her side or sat in the rocker with me. She wanted my presence but just listened to music requesting kisses occasionally. If I tried to use my iPad she came up with a reason to need me or she wanted me to help her interact with her iPad. She knew when she had my full attention & when she didn’t. It’s like when she was a tiny baby & she was only comfortable if I was walking around with her. And that’s what I did for 8 hours a day back then, with some help from others.

Not until the third week after her injury have I realized how similar these 2 time periods were.

I have awesome friends who insisted on helping me by setting up “meals on wheels.” What a life saver. I didn’t know I had needed it. Sometimes I’m the last to understand the toll additional complications take on me.

Now, in the third week of recovery starting to pull my house back together, meal planning & shopping, even had a moment to get to Costco.  And now I can get back to focusing on some of the goals I have for Grace. I’ll go back to using PODD with Grace. Toileting will have to wait as I don’t have room to lift Grace from the side to put her on the seat. Usually I lift her from the front under her arms to place her on the seat.

It’s funny how when Grace gets uber-sick or like now when she broke her arm, all I want is to get her back to how she usually is- with all her developmental delays, feeding challenges & physical issues.

I spend so much time trying to help her develop that it is nice (but due to an unfortunate circumstance) to just want her back, as she usually is.  It’s like seeing another child with more severe issues than my Grace & being grateful for the issues I have to deal with. Then others see my Grace & are grateful they don’t have to deal with our issues but their own kid’s issues.
It’s a present moment reality check. And so as Grace gets better & takes another step forward in her toileting and communication goals, I’ll start again & move along my blog development goals, no matter how slowly that might be.