This is my daughter a month ago. It’s been seven weeks of hard work in this house. Broken legs mean children who can’t walk, which means constant bending and lifting and carrying. Not much fun when you’re already lugging a big old baby bump around.
The cast came off twelve days ago and, up until last week, my four year old refused, point-blank, to put any weight on her leg. “I don’t want to ever walk again Mummy,” she said proudly, as I urged her to get up and walk. “You’ll have to carry me forever and ever. Walking is stupid.”
A hospital physio appointment and another X-ray confirmed what we already knew: our daughter’s leg had healed perfectly – she wasn’t walking because she was scared (and stubborn). No amount of cajoling would persuade her to give weight-bearing on her leg a go. Even the promise of a whole pound for her jobs jar.
And then, a breakthrough moment…
This was a HUGE deal. It happened last Friday and, honestly, I could have cried. FINALLY! Some progress.
Since then we’ve been to the beach where yet more weight was put on her foot as she jumped around with me in the sea. We’ve been to our local swimming pool twice and spent an hour practising walking and kicking in the baby pool. And then, today, the biggest breakthrough yet – a session with the peadiatric physio who Frog already knows (my daughter has hypermobility syndrome so occasionally has physio when we get a flare up of aching joints).
This woman is a magician, I swear. In a one hour session she managed to get my head-strong four year old from gingerly wobbling on her toes to placing her full foot flat on the floor. We left with another session booked for later in the week and a walking aid on loan, which is already proving a big success.
It feels like we’re finally rounding a corner. The past two months have been physically tough and emotionally challenging. Broken bones and kids are always going to be rough, but add pregnancy and my daughter’s hypermobility to the mix and it brings a whole new element to the word “challenge”.
Anyway, we’re now at my parents’ house for a night – possibly more – to do more physio, paddling pool splashing and pottering.
I even found half an hour to get my snazzy camera out (which, up until recently, I’ve been too intimated to use!) and have a play…
With the (self-proclaimed) Northern Love Machine off work for the summer holidays and a child on the way to having a fully working leg, things are looking up.
Happy days.
Yay F! Good for her. Hopefully she will be running around by the end of the summer. Fab pics too!
Here’s hoping! And thanks for the pic praise – I’m determined to at least have a go with the camera and try to get to grips with it.