Right now, Gracie is under anesthesia having an MRI of her spine. She went to sleep quickly and easily, breathing in the Skittles-scented anesthesia while I told her a story. She made it look easy.

It’s not easy on us. Chad is distraught, worrying about his little girl while he tries to work. Jackson even seems a little worried about the whole thing. I am not too worried, because she’s always done so well before, but there’s always that chance… there’s always the risk that something could go horribly wrong. Best not to think about it, though. Shove it aside and get on with it anyway.

It has been a while since I’ve updated here; sorry about that. Life intervenes. Gracie’s arm is no longer infected and maybe never was. However, she had a finger wound that became so infected she probably should have been hospitalized—I’m sure that if we could have seen under the cast, we would have seen a huge red streak all down her hand. Thank goodness for the cast; we have had enough of hospitals to last quite a while. And thank goodness that she responded to the oral antibiotics, too. If she had not, we wouldn’t have avoided an admission.

Aside from infection issues, we are also now dealing with some of the collateral consequences of Gracie’s fracture. Her bone is healing—the picture below shows the huge bony callous that’s forming around the break. Apparently, it’s quite normal for kids with neurological issues to form bony callouses as they heal. I’ve seen other parents of painless kids post about it, but this is the first time we’ve seen it with Gracie. (Then again, this is the worst fracture she’s ever had, so maybe that’s why we’re just seeing it now for the first time.) The bone cloud will take a very long time to dissolve—months. She will not be out of a cast any time soon.

This x-ray shows something more than just a callous, though. The picture on the right is from two weeks ago and the one on the left is from two days ago. Although the callous is more fully developed now, the bone is worse. The head of the radius collapsed, essentially breaking again. (Off the top of my head, I can think of several hard falls in the last two weeks that could have caused this.) Even with a cast, she is not protected. She’s a little more protected now, though—her cast goes way past her fingertips so that when she falls the cast will take the hit, not her hand.

It seems like we always have a new thing to worry about—often we have several things to worry about at once. Today, it’s the re-broken arm, the anesthesia, and wondering about what the MRI will show. Tomorrow, it may be something different, some new crisis to occupy our minds. Gracie always seems to get through it, though. It doesn’t faze her. And that’s why she’s Amazing Gracie!