The Leg - Skiing Day 3 & 4

Wednesday morning was a bit more exciting as the kids had been asleep when their cousins Jacob and Sarah arrived, so they were pleasantly surprised to see them when they woke up. There were hugs all around and the playing commenced quickly. Coloring, crafts (Auntie Kari came very well prepared), slot cars, and snacks. It was a grandkid heaven. The adults went out skiing first again, and then came back for the kids. Max and Jacob were excited at the prospect of skiing with each other, so we had high hopes. But Jacob was none too impressed when he got separated from Max, and his skiing adventure ended pretty quickly after that. He was more content to stay at the cabin and watch Backyardigans.
Lucy, however, was improving quite quickly, and came back to the cabin (in tears) with quite a story to tell. She had been skiing down the hill with Papa close behind when her ski caught on a tuft of snow and she tripped, split and fell over her skis. Papa had to move quickly and do a quick somersault overtop of Lucy to avoid running over her. She caught a ski in the eye and was a little worse for the wear after that trip. Dad carried her home in tears and it was straight to the couch. She complained that her left leg was hurting and she couldn't stand up. Oh boy!
She spent the afternoon icing it and watching Backyardigans as well. A co-worker of Tyler's happened to be staying in the cabin across from us. He came over and took a look and told us to keep icing it and if she couldn't weight bear by dinner, we should take her to the hospital in Pincher Creek. So this is what we did.
She was a little upset at the prospect of having a broken leg (as was I, but I put on a brave face for my girl) but when we got to the hospital she had a grand time playing in a wheel chair and having mom and dad's attention all to herself. We passed the time by playing the ABC animal game...one of her favorites. I'm sure the nurses thought she was perfectly fine, since she was so pleasant, but a view of the x-ray showed that her leg was definitely broken.
Clean through the Tibia right above her ski-boot. The nurses found her a pair of hospital pants to put on so we didn't have to ruin the pants she was wearing and then it was time for a cast. We had told her there was a chance she would get a cool color of cast, but unfortunately, Pincher Creek only had white, which she was a bit disappointed in. I photographed almost every second of the process, because one day she'll feel really cool to look back at it, even if she's a bit nervous now. We stopped at Tim Horton's on the way home to get her some timbits to share with her family. We got home about 9pm and fed Lucy some late lasagna and got the kids into bed. She woke shortly after 11pm in a lot of pain, so we decided to move her into the bed Tyler and I were sleeping in so we could easily attend to her through the night. It was pretty restless until about 2am when she was finally able to get into some deep sleep. Needless to say I didn't get much rest that night either. Lucy likes to punch and kick in her sleep, whether she's well or not.
She insisted on keeping her broken leg a secret from people because she wanted to surprise them in person. Sarah and Tyson arrived at about 1am and Lucy made us promise not to tell them what had happened. In the morning, she was pleased to let everyone take a gander and take their turn signing the cast. That white cast was filled with color fairly quickly!

We decided to cut our trip short and packed up that morning to leave for home. Lucy's leg was a bit achy and we thought a night in our own beds before the craze of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day hit us, would be a good idea.
Some people have wondered and questioned why this would happen. I am sure that there will be life lessons learned from this experience. Some for Lucy, although in the long run, she may not remember the details of the experience very long. Hopefully it will teach her things like patience and endurance and will help her to appreciate a physical body that isn't in pain. It is helping Max to be the big-boy helper, since Lucy is no longer able to assist me in the many ways she usually does. And for me, well, I have been praying for weeks now to know how I can find opportunities to 'mother' my big-girl. So much of my time is spent mothering her little brothers who need more of my time and attention, and she has become the girl that assists me in doing those things. So I felt like I was missing the opportunity to mother her, but was struggling to find where she would need it, since she is so capable of doing a lot of things on her own. As soon as she was brought home with a hurt leg, the thought popped into my mind that I had been searching for ways to mother her. Now I have my opportunity, and I will take advantage of it. You could say to be careful what you pray for, but I prefer to be thankful that prayers are answered. So even though it is a struggle to have to carry her around, and assist her in going to the bathroom, or scratching an itch, or having to lay in bed with her some nights when the pain is more than she can handle...I just remind myself every time that this is an opportunity and it too will pass quickly, so take advantage of the moments I have while I have them.