Challenge or Blessing?

This is in response to the StoryWorth question: What is one of the greatest physical challenges you have ever had to go through? What gave you strength?

I am extremely fortunate as I have never really had to go through any great physical challenge. Thanks God!

Oh, I remember when I was on the basketball team in high school the last person who touched the wall during those touch the line sprints had to always run an extra sprint. That was irritating as heck because I was usually the last person and I knew that I was trying my hardest. That was a physical challenge of my coach’s making and didn’t intrude on my life in general.

I have always been physically challenged by not looking like the beautiful celebrity du jour, but I am not alone in that challenge. I have never had a truly great physical challenge like so many folks do.

My greatest physical challenge happened when I broke my wrist after slipping in the bathtub. It happened during a mountain vacation in early November of 2019. I had to spend one evening of my vacation in the ER in Sevierville. I was in a splint until I could go home and schedule surgery. I did get to pick green and purple for my splint, I love that color combination!

 

                                                         ER fun!

My injury was irritating as I could not help much with anything during our vacation. I was still able to explore along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail though and that is my favorite part of visiting the mountains. I was still able to take a bunch of pictures of the beauty of the trail even though it was a little more difficult because I took them with my left hand. In some of the photos, you can see my sweater at the bottom where I steadied the camera on my right arm to take the photo. I wasn’t able to help my dad drive back home from the mountains but he doesn’t let me help much anyway.

 

                                   You can see my sweater along the bottom edge.

I had to have surgery after I returned home. I had some discomfort initially after the anesthesia wore off, but I seriously had little pain. Even when I fell and broke my wrist there hadn’t been any great pain, More than anything I was aggravated and worried about how I was going to pick my fat, wet, slippery, and naked butt off of the floor of the bathtub when my right wrist was broken and I was using my left hand to hold it! Fortunately, my daughter Alex was there if I needed her. I got out of the tub okay but I did have to have her drive me to the ER.

I am most definitely a right-handed person. If I ever had thoughts that I had a touch of ambidextrousness, breaking my right wrist quickly disavowed me of that notion!

It was a challenge to do things with one hand and especially with my non-dominant hand. Gradually, I would try to use my right hand a bit. The hardest part of that was hearing everyone tell me that I shouldn’t be “doing that” with my right hand. I told them that the doctor had told me that I could use it as long as it wasn’t too painful, still, they were full of cautions. Even nearly three years later, Mom will tell me that I shouldn’t be carrying something a bit heavy with my right hand! So it was definitely a challenge for me to not have full use of my right hand.

The hardest part of this challenge was that it happened just a couple weeks before Thanksgiving. My folks usually come to our house for Thanksgiving and it has become a sort of tradition for my brother-in-law and his family to come down from Ohio for Thanksgiving. So, I was really worried about how I was going to be able to do Thanksgiving. I wasn’t going to be able to really clean house like I usually do and cooking a big Thanksgiving meal was kind of beyond my abilities. I was really worried that we were going to have to cancel our usual get-together and have a year without a proper Thanksgiving.

Fortunately, I have three really, really great kids. Cammy told me that he could clean the house and Roxanna told me that she would come home from Memphis and cook Thanksgiving dinner for us. So, Thanksgiving was still on!

Sure enough, Cammy took care of cleaning the house. I think that Alex probably came home and helped him out some too. Roxanna pretty much took care of what I normally cooked for Thanksgiving. Of course, Mom and Dad usually bring a few dishes and Alex also helped however she was needed. My sister-in-law and nieces always pitch in and help; so everything was covered.

 

                                Even Jooniebug threw on an apron and pitched in!

Thanksgiving was wonderful; my husband and I along with our children, son-in-law, and granddaughter all together, Mom and Dad, my brother-in-law and his family, our nieces Mahdieh and Sahar, my niece Sydney and her then-boyfriend/now-husband Casey, Cammy’s girlfriend and her daughter, Cammy’s friend Adam, and Cammy’s friend Will and his girlfriend. Adam and Will are almost like two more members of the family. We could all be thankful to be able to enjoy a wonderful meal together with wonderful company in a comfortable home.

 

 

                                                             Post Thanksgiving meal prep.

I could be extra thankful that Thanksgiving. I knew that my broken wrist would heal in a few weeks and I would be back to being able to use it as I did before. Being able to see the light at the end of the tunnel made this challenge easier to bear. Some folks aren’t so lucky to experience such temporary physical challenges. I also knew that until my arm healed, if I needed help, I had all of the help that I could need. Many folks have only themselves to rely upon but I had plenty of loving family happy to pitch in.

Ironically, a broken wrist turned out to really be one of those blessings that come wrapped in ugly paper. As in the end, a broken wrist helped me to better appreciate the blessing of a beautiful, loving family.