The Road Ahead

It's taken awhile for both of us to process what happened when Mac broken his hip. I say "hip" but it was really the femur, which shattered. He said as he lay on the ground he could feel the pieces of bone and he instinctively held them together. 

He said he couldn't stop shaking. Partly because it was cold but also because of shock setting in. You lose a fair amount of blood with this kind of break. He was lucky a shard of bone didn't nick an artery.

We are now starting to understand the meaning of "lifelong injury". There's potential for all sorts of ongoing complications. And he will need physical therapy for a long time. 

We watched a video about a pro hockey player, Taylor Fedun, who sustained a similar break a few years ago during a hockey game. People who were there when it happened said Taylor was screaming from the pain. It took him doing 5 hours of therapy a day for many months to get back to skating. 

Mac does 2 hours of physical therapy a week. He's nowhere close to being able to do 5 hours a day. To be fair, Taylor is a star athlete who still plays pro hockey. Taylor was young and fit prior to his injury. Nonetheless, you can see how grueling the therapy can be, even if you are in otherwise top shape. I think we need to see if we can add an hour or two to Mac's therapy schedule and if it helps more than it hurts.

Keeping up morale is important. I've read a lot of comments from people who were permanently floored by this type of injury. If the healing doesn't go just right you can end up with a lack of symmetry in your skeletal system that leads to permanent limping and unbearable knee pain. 

The ongoing physical therapy requires belief in the possible because there are no guarantees. This is when I can see the value of having crazy faith. And at the same time, this is when I can see the value of crazy gratitude. 

Mac did do the right thing when he fell in simply holding himself together, and not struggling to move, even though he now says how scared he was until I discovered him lying on the ground in the backyard. He'd left his phone on a nearby table and couldn't reach it to call me. I am grateful that his injury wasn't worse and that something told me to go check on him when I did.