broke his arm on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\nWe had a follow-up doctor\u2019s appointment yesterday, at which they removed and re-applied the cast (OK, technically it\u2019s a splint, not a cast) because the first was too tight. \u00a0Then today we saw a pediatric specialist to confirm (big sigh of relief) that he doesn\u2019t need surgery, or, at least, at this point it appears that way. \u00a0We\u2019ll have a further appointment next week, then another one in a further week or two. \u00a0And we\u2019re now trying to find activities to replace sailing camp (remember, I work at home, so I try hard to keep busy doing at least something to keep him out of my hair) and hoping that he\u2019s sufficiently healed up by the time Boy Scout camp arrives, that he\u2019s still able to go and participate in, if not all, then at least most of the activities.<\/p>\n
And again the litany of the at least<\/em>s.<\/p>\nAt least the doctor was able to reposition the elbow without calling in a pediatric specialist or sending us to the children\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n
At least he doesn\u2019t need surgery.<\/p>\n
At least it was his left, not right arm.<\/p>\n
At least it was only his arm, and he didn\u2019t injure his head.<\/p>\n
At least this was the week that my husband wasn\u2019t travelling, not last or next week.<\/p>\n
At least we\u2019re financially comfortable enough that meeting the deductible for the year isn\u2019t going to be a major, or even minor, crisis. \u00a0We won\u2019t have to pay the bills by credit card and defer paying, or be short the money for school clothes in the fall, or any such thing.<\/p>\n
But at the same time: \u00a0it was a freak thing that he was injured in the first place. \u00a0He jumped, not out of a tree, but, in his telling, off a waist-high tree stump. \u00a0This isn\u2019t, \u201cfor the nature of the fall, he\u2019s just lucky it wasn\u2019t worse.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s \u201cfor that minor a fall, it\u2019s unlucky the injury was that bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
What it comes down to, though, is that I have a hard time with the notion of \u201cbe grateful it wasn\u2019t worse\u201d or \u201cbe grateful for all the \u2018at least<\/em>s\u2019 above.\u201d<\/p>\nBecause there are now, and have been, people in those situations.<\/p>\n
The right-hand broken arm that required surgery (twice!)? \u00a0Well, that was me, actually, when I was in first grade \u2014 I always blamed having my right arm in a cast during those crucial formative months for why I had such bad handwriting. \u00a0My school picture that year is of me in a cast.<\/p>\n
But the head injury? \u00a0One of the sailing camp instructors, who also happened to have lived across from us at our old house, and whose family attends our church, did indeed have a head injury, going on two years ago. \u00a0Lost her memory \u2014 to the extent that, last summer, her sister re-introduced me to her: \u00a0\u201cthis is Mrs. ____. \u00a0They lived across the street from us and later we used to babysit for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
So to say, \u201cI\u2019m grateful that he didn\u2019t injure his head\u201d feels wrong. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019m grateful he escaped C\u2019s fate.\u201d \u00a0If I\u2019m expressing gratitude to God, that implies that God in some way prevented a worse injury, and yet didn\u2019t see fit to protect C.<\/p>\n
Or, heck, \u201cI\u2019m grateful my family is in good health\u201d \u2014 when we learned today that a family friend, battling cancer (some backstory here<\/a>, in what I\u2019ll admit is a post with fairly similar content), has found out that the cancer has worsened despite the past several months of treatment. \u00a0If our family\u2019s good health is due to God\u2019s care, why not so for our friend?<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the end of the school year. \u00a0I\u2019m relieved that my kids made it through the year with good report cards. \u00a0Both the middle and oldest improved their grades substantially, no mean feat for the oldest, with his first year of high school and with honors math and science, so this had been\u00a0a big worry. \u00a0But am I grateful? \u00a0I don\u2019t know. \u00a0Likewise, does it make sense to be grateful that we live in a safe neighborhood, in a comfortable, weatherproof house, and have no financial worries?<\/p>\n
Do you see what I\u2019m saying, or has it been to long a day and is it now too late at night?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Backstory: \u00a0my 12-year old son broke his arm on Tuesday. We had a follow-up doctor\u2019s appointment yesterday, at which they removed and re-applied the cast (OK, technically it\u2019s a splint, not a cast) because the first was too tight. \u00a0Then today we saw a pediatric specialist to confirm (big sigh of relief) that he doesn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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