Downs and Ups

As many of you know, it hasn't been a great week. Last Saturday, just before leaving for our final ski trip/spring break adventure, Jordan took a misstep in the garden. BAM! Like that, all plans changed and off we went to the ER with a rapidly swelling, incredibly painful, right knee. His good knee I might add - not the one that has already been through a major injury and three surgeries.

After both an x-ray and a CT scan to ensure nothing was missed, it was determined it was "just" a bad sprain. He was fitted for an immobilizer (a brace that runs from crotch to calf to keep his leg straight) and crutches for the next 6 weeks. He was also given the somewhat grim, but realistic prognosis that it would be six weeks like this, with more like 6 months of recovery.

Now before you think "oh poor Jordan...but it could be worse" let me stop you right there. OF COURSE it could be worse. And you know how I am sure of that fact? Because we've been through worse. Several times actually. So in the grand scheme of things we know this is just a little setback. But we weren't immediately thinking big picture when we were faced with the immediate reality of WHAT NOW?

Cause you know, for starters, there's Asher. How does a man on crutches help take care of Asher? Well, he doesn't. So that's large obstacle number one. But then there were further challenges - like this happened on spring break when he was going to be our childcare. And Rio and I had a girls weekend planned for months. And he can't drive. And he can't shower or dress himself. Oh and he works on the third floor of a building with no elevator. So ya, could definitely be worse but certainly could be better. The bottom line is that when a parent of a child with intense physical needs goes down unexpectedly, life kind of falls apart.

So there were a few days of a pity party. I hate feeling sorry for us but sometimes life is just hard. So I cried and stressed and vented to friends and my guts were a mess - but I worked out a plan. We dealt with our respective jobs and childcare. I more or less figured out that being a single parent for the next bit is going to be a lot of work but certainly possible. We brainstormed ways a sitting Jordan could lift Asher so Rio and I can still go away today, and Jordan even figured out how to get himself showered and dressed without me. I've gotta say, having an accessible shower and shower chair have worked out really well for us! And also, this little dentist office toy - wow, who knew it would become an honest to goodness accessibility aid for a very tall man who has no way to touch the floor!

So the pity party is over. The next few weeks are going to be rough, but not impossible. And instead of focusing on the fact we seem to have bad luck, I'm focussing on a whole bunch of really exciting things that all seemed to happen to me at once the other day -  choosing to look at that as a sign from the universe that even though some bad things seem to keep happening to us, some truly wonderful things happen too.

So, life is pretty great - challenges and all. Sometimes I just need reminders of that. And who better to remind me than these three.

Happy Friday and enjoy this beautiful spring weekend! We plan to.