A Grown Woman With a Big, Purple Cast

Yep.  That's me with a fractured elbow.  You don't see grown women with big, purple casts very often.  The doctor agreed.  He usually only has to cast children and old people, he said.  So, here's how it happened:

Back on April 23rd, me and the boys were in the front yard launching foam rockets and two of them got stuck in the big pine tree.  So I tried throwing a few things to dislodge the rockets, but nothing was working.  So I got a basketball.  I was standing on the sidewalk, threw the basketball up, and when my weight shifted back down, my ankle rolled and I fell down.  My ankle was fine, but my elbow was not.  I went to the doctor the next day expecting him to tell me my elbow was just sprained and to keep it in a sling for a few days.  He did not tell me that.  Occult fracture of one of the elbow bones.   And a cast for two weeks.  Super fun.

You don't really think about the things you need two hands to do until you don't have two hands to do them with.  Like do up your pants.  Or dry your hair.  Or put your hair in a ponytail (which Darren is apparently physically incapable of - we tried).  Or get dressed.  And undressed.  Or pick up a baby.  That's right, folks.  It took me almost a week to figure out how to safely pick up my sweet little 8 week old baby.  Another thing you can't do real well with a big cast is feed a sweet little 8 week old baby.  Luckily, she was taking formula from a bottle, so I had so many wonderful people come and help feed her several times a day until I got the hang of it.  Jackie suggested putting her in her little chair and feeding her from there.  And that is how I fed her until the cast came off.  I didn't even get to hold her on her blessing day with her beautiful blessing dress.  My mom got her dressed while I hovered nearby making sure everything was perfect.

But I can do hard things and two weeks came and went.  My elbow hurt way more for a week after the cast was off than it did while it was on.  But then it stopped hurting and I started freaking out because I still couldn't straighten it all the way or bend it all the way.  Gradually it has been improving and now it almost back to normal.  And that is the story of how much I will sacrifice to play with my kids.