Forced Rest

Well, I guess God found a way to get my attention and actually force me to rest. The bleeding in my early pregnancy didn't slow me down. The fainting and dizziness in the middle months only made me cut back a bit on the number of activities I was involved in. The shortness of breath in December got me to drop band. But the only thing that could have stopped me from the non-stop running that is my daily life was to break my leg, I guess.

I'm feeling very frustrated, worried, and useless right about now. I need help to do the simplest things like getting a glass of water or getting in and out of the van. Being eight months pregnant even makes it difficult for me to balance on my crutches, so I keep tipping over backwards. I can't have an actual cast on my leg because of the risk of blood clots during my pregnancy. So I'm wearing a splint for now. This means that the kids have to treat me like I have the plague and stay far away from my leg because if I bump it or hurt it in any way I'll have to have surgery to put the pieces back together. Right now the two halves of the bone (my fibula) are lined up neatly along the crack. Let's hope it stays that way.

I wish I could point to what caused the accident, but there's no reason for it. I was just walking normally down the stairs, holding onto the rail when all of a sudden my feet started sliding. About the 4th stair down I heard a crack and my ankle went the wrong way. I screamed for the kids to wake up Daddy. Daniel helped me scoot up the stairs and hop out the door. We waited in the ER for a couple of hours until they could X-ray it. Our friend, Debbie, from church came and took the kids home in our van and watched them for us until we got home.

Currently we are waiting on delivery of a special scooter that will help me get around a little easier without the need for crutches. Our insurance is going to pay for it completely. I'm thinking what I'm really going to need, though, is a small wheel chair. I'm already exhausted from trying to swing myself around on crutches. My leg and arm muscles are constantly shaking with the strain. Every time I use them it's pulling a muscle in my belly, too. It really hurts. So, while I'm out of action currently I've been spending a lot of time working on the baby blanket I'm making for Katie, reading scrapbook magazines, using the computer in bed, having bouts of weeping because I suddenly realize that I won't be able to carry my baby or some other problem, and generally driving everyone crazy by trying to micromanage from another room. How will we survive this for 8 weeks or more?