Growing Pains

It is a bit unnerving to hear that your child has been injured, especially when she is several hundred miles away. Thank God everything is okay.

Our daughter has taken to snowboarding, although she has only done it a few times. For sure, she has great potential but she is, nonetheless, a novice. And, as so often happens, after a weekend of fun in the sun and snow, she asked to take one more run down the hill and ended up crashing.

For whatever reason, she simply lost her balance and fell forward. She extended her arms to break her fall but nearly broke both wrists in her effort. She was immediately taken to a nearby medical for an examination. Both writs were swollen, especially her right wrist, which she uses for writing. Doctors obtained permission from us to conduct an X-ray, and shortly after we were told the results were negative.

It is strange what thoughts come to mind when one experiences such an accident. For our daughter it was guilt; she was at fault; she was stupid. Shortly after receiving the results we spoke directly to the embarrassed victim. "I am afraid you are not going to let me come up her again," our upset daughter lamented, "That you won't let me snowboard again." Of course, we assured her that that's not true, she could go again in the future. She reported the pain was nine on a scale of one to ten, but she showed strength and courage in dealing with the injury and pain.

So our barely teenage daughter encountered one of life's unpredictable setbacks and survived a little wiser. The upside, she was able to return to school the next day, one arm in a soft cast and sling, bask in sympathy while telling all her friends about her most memorable adventure. These are life's growing pains, literally!

UPDATE: A New York orthopedist reviewed our daughter's injuries and took x-rays. It turns out that she has a small buckle fracture below her left wrist and a small fracture on the growth bone of her right wrist. She is now wearing removable splints and should heal in two or three weeks. "She will be back on the ski slopes in three weeks", the doctor proclaimed. The young heal quickly, ah to be young again!