Haley & Doug: Down but not out!

Fact: I have never broken a bone. Fact: Doug broke his nose, but you can't put a cast on a nose. Fact: Because of these facts, neither Doug or I didn't really realize what a pain it is to break a bone and be casted . . . especially in the summertime.

Miss Kaiya, who now does 22 hrs of gymnastics per week, broke her leg while playing at a friend's house. Are you kidding me? Of course, I get yet another Mother of the Year award on this one. The rest of us were at a Rockies game when I got a call from the mom where she was staying. The call made me believe that it wasn't really all that bad. The first question I was asked was if she was a 'drama queen' or not. Hmm, not really. Next question was did she have a high pain tolerance. Again, not really was my answer. Then Kaiya got on the phone and the tears should have told me to go get her right then. I could tell she was hurting quite a bit, but she said she wanted to stay.

Turns out, when gymnasts gather at each other's homes, they play gymnastics related games. The one they were playing is called Lover's Leap whereby the girls literally jump sideways into each other's arms. Not a big deal for these strong girls, except that Kaiya wasn't even looking when one of the girls jumped into her arms that weren't there and came crashing down into her shin.

Fast forward to about 24 hours post incident and her whole right leg is huge and turning colors. So, I took her into the back door at work late at night to just get a quick x-ray and as soon as I saw the image pop up on the screen, I knew it was bad. Telling her it was broken was a whole different story. We had big plans for gymnastics camp again this summer. We had big plans for lots more days at the pool. Having a casted leg just wasn't in those plans.

Well, two casts and a month later, I have to say that I am as proud of this girl as I have ever been. She was on crutches for 3 solid weeks and in a hard cast for over a month. She has never complained. She has been 100% compliant with everything she's been told to do or not to do. She goes to the gym and does conditioning for hours and still hasn't complained. I am also incredibly proud of Kinley. She has been so sweet to her sister. Gave up her bed and slept by her on the floor for a week, carried her stuff and just genuinely was a huge help. Cooper also decided to give Kaiya and compliment and told her she was really tough. Ha!

We just returned from Lake Owen (post to follow soon) and she was such a trooper. She is so ready for the cast to come off in the morning! I just feel really, really bad for whomever has to cut it off. She got the green light to walk on it a week ago and has worn a hole in the bottom, had it reinforced by a trainer at Lake Owen, spilled ketchup on it and had it signed by a former olympian who was at camp. It's black on the bottom and it stinks to high heaven.

I guess this is a summer she'll not soon forget!