My Maddie had an injury, that was reinjured yesterday. It was nothing. Until yesterday.

But my girl is SUCH a tough cookie, with a pretty darn high pain threshold…she was telling me “No, thanks” to my offers of an all-expense paid trip to the emergency room. We iced her ankle, we elevated her ankle, she went to bed. This morning, we reached “doom level” for pain.

So, Moses zipped off to school with Lara on her way to work. Maddie and I zipped away to the ER.

I’m a very law-abiding human being. This morning, I parked in visiting physician parking. The nurses all laughed at me, since I was so apologetic about breaking the rules, and told me to go ahead and remain parked there. We had X-Rays, we waited. We read (she read, I forgot to bring a book because I was nervous). We waited. I paced. We waited. Maddie had been relegated to a wheelchair, over her protests and grumbles. We finally were called back and seen by the doctor (who, in the way of small towns, was the parent of one of Moses’ classmates) and happily found out that there were no broken bones. Yay!!!

But, my tough cookie is in a splint and on crutches. 🙁 I know it’s such a minor thing, but my heart hurts just watching her hopping along on crutches. She’s nearly a teenager now. She’s a tiny bit older than I was when I broke a bone. I know these things happen.

But my mind takes me to a strange place. Being in a hospital with her after so many years (she was sick at age 5) churns up a lot of ghosts. Even for something as simple as a sprained ankle. Maddie glared at me at one point in the hospital, pointed her finger at me, and said, “Don’t you dare start crying!” I laughed. She knows me so well.

On a strangely interesting note, it turns out she is 5’4″ tall. But, I’m still taller than she is. I thought I was 5’4″ and the ER docs are saying 5’5″ in flat shoes. I guess we are all so much taller than we thought. Ha!

Tomorrow is thankful Thursday. I’ll have my game face on again by dawn. For now, I’m just grateful to have all of us well, bruised but not broken in one case, under our little roof.

Goodnight, and blessings to you all…