Monday, December 19, 2011

Adoption plans on hold

I haven't blogged for a while. The reason is because I had an accident six weeks ago - I tripped and fell and broke my arm at the elbow. I made a real mess of it and ended up having a three hour surgery that involved three plates being fitted in my arm.

It's my right arm which is my writing arm which has meant I've been out of action . I had a few nights in hospital as well as six days at home with my arm in a cast while I waited to go back for surgery and into hospital for the second time, My hand isn't working yet as the tendons are still healing. I'm having physio sessions one - two times a week.

I was off work for a month. But started working from home from last week - shorter hours for the first couple of weeks. I can't drive and have difficulty doing many things around the house. We have home help in the short-term. Friends and family have helped here and there. My husband is doing a lot around the home on top of his long working hours. I am dependent on others right now and it that in itself has been very challenging!

I spent the first two weeks post-accident virtually on complete bedrest. I'm up more as time goes on but still need a lot of rest/to pace myself. I'm still on pain relief. The physio exercises I do hourly are painful and my arm is very sore at night.

All in all it has been a challenging time for myself, my husband and daughter. My gym membership is on hold til next year. My life has been very small for the past six weeks. All up my recovery will take about a year according to the surgeon and I may never gain full extension of my arm again.

There are life lessons to be learnt from this, I know. But I'm still living life day by day to get through it all so don't have perspective from the whole experience yet. I know my life felt too busy and I was struggling with that - ironically stressing about work and rushing to get to a seminar about autism when I tripped and fell.

I felt as though I was making progress healing-wise about SIF so feel angry with God a bit that I have had another health issue thrown my way. I've had to put our adoption plans on hold as I am in no position to care for a baby right now. Our adoption file expires in April so depending on my recovery, we may only end up with a couple of months in the pool of prospective adoptive parents next year.

I feel as though God is screaming at me that this is not his plan for me - to have another child. Yet I still cannot accept it and my desire to mother again is as strong as ever.

My daughter finished school for the year last week. How heartbroken was I to read in one of her writing books that one day at school she'd written: "I want a brother or a sister because I am lonely." She tells me this stuff regularly but to see it written down was something else... I asked her why she wrote the story and she said because everyone else in her class has a brother or sister. Hmmm.

On Sunday I met up with some of the women from the infertility support network I started, including a new woman. I was able to shed some tears with them about the above piece of writing by my daughter. Normally I hold back my grief as they are all going through or have been through primary infertility. But I felt safe and ok around opening up around this particular group - but I don't feel like that with everyone in the network.

I've no idea where I'm headed in life at this point. I just have to recover from my accident for now and not think about the future too much.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! I hope you heal quickly and get full use of your arm back. It's so hard to have a set-back, I'm struggling with that anger and disappointment myself. I hope the holidays are wonderful for you all!

dspence said...

I am so sorry to hear about your accident and pray that recovery goes quickly.

Your daughter's note ("I want a brother or a sister because I am lonely.") is one of my biggest fears for Little K. Another child will not be happening for us and I am not sure how to help her when these feelings arise.

I hope and pray that the way becomes clear and the days become easier.