Eleven days ago I posted to Joan Slings Words. Then, nothing but silence. I hit the wall of life and crumpled for a bit. Why? Well, that’s a long story.

Long Story, Not So Short Version

This has been one godawful year. I won’t even go into the stressful event that kicked off the year lest you think we live under a black cloud.

The climax, or so I thought, came in June with our daughter’s orthopedic surgery. That was an ordeal on her, being made helpless and completely dependent on us until she was allowed up on crutches.

July brought complications from her enforced non-mobility in the form of a blood clot in her leg. I learned to love the hospital staff.

August brought the ordeal of watching her struggle to resume her teaching position wherein she fought the pain each day of working without the support of crutches, with only the boot to protect her precious reconstructed foot.

Finally, she was out of the boot and in physical therapy. For almost a month, we had a nearly normal life. She was able to resume driving so I was relieved of chauffeur duty. We were counting the days until she could walk without limping and the pain, still a 7 on a 10 scale, had disappeared.

What Happened

We’ve tried to pin it down when the accident happened, but we don’t know if it was when she lost her balance and lurched onto her right foot with sudden force or whether it was the next day when she was walking outside and stepped in a slight depression in the ground.

The end result was sharp pain. The next few days the pain grew in intensity so we immediately went to her surgeon. The news was devastating. One of the bone grafts in her foot had fractured.

I Confess

For the first time in my life, I could not control my emotions. I broke down and cried in the doctor’s office. She has been through so much, as have I and my husband. I would prefer all this physical agony be mine. I could bear it better than having it happen to her.

Prayers Needed

So, she’s back in the boot. Her school district granted her an exception to teach on crutches. She’s going to try to work despite the pain, now a full blown 11 on a 10 scale! In three weeks, she gets another X-ray. We’re praying of course that the bone graft will have begun to heal again with new bone growing into and around it.

Short Version

Sometimes life sucks so bad that you have to withdraw, curl into a fetal position, and weep until you feel you can face life again.

Takeaway Truth

It’s like that old Scots proverb: “I’ll lay me down and bleed a while, and then I’ll fight again.”