It’s taken me a few days to process this all and make sure it’s not a dream or I’m not getting Punk’d but Monday could have seriously taken that cake as the worst Monday in history.

It all started on our drive to practice, when we were about 10 minutes into our drive and I heard a big thunk. Arizona roads are crap, can I just put that out there? I think I’ve had 3 cracked windshields in 3 years because of all of the rocks and gravel. So thunk happens, Sporty turns to me and says “well there’s another chip in your paint.” I’m like “At least it wasn’t my windshield!” Well 10 minutes later my low tire pressure warning light comes on. It happens sometimes with the fluctuation in temperature but it was like 108, so the air should be big. 10 minutes later Sporty stated she feels like the car is slanted, I tell her we’re on a hill, that’s why. It sounded good. We’re still 20-30 minutes out from practice. We keep plugging along and finally get to our exit. At this point my car is angry with me, it’s flashing and by the thumpity, thump, thump, it’s clear my tire is F-L-A-T! I scroll through the tire pressure and the front passenger side tire is at 3. Like it’s missing a digit 3. The rest are at their standard 32ish. Fantastic.

Somehow I manage to get Sporty to practice, on time and I start calling AAA. Silly me thinking I have a spare, gets AAA out there in 15 minutes. I empty my trunk, open all of the secret compartments. Remember it’s like 108 out. No spare. Seriously!?! Apparently cars don’t come with spares anymore. Thanks for the warning (side note, I learned spares cost $500 and new tires are like $260, something seems off there). Anyway, AAA will town 5 miles and it’s $4 for every additional mile. I’m like 30 miles from home and I start doing the math and I’m like hard pass. So I call Acura Roadside assistance back (I called them right after AAA to see who would come first!) and change that to a tow because they’ll tow 30 miles to the dealership where I bought it which is by the house. Hello easier morning. At this point Papa Bear and Young Jedi have joined me at practice to drive us home or to follow us or however it was going to shake out. So we’re kicking back, sweating cause it’s summer in Arizona, it’s been an hour plus so I call Acura back to see where my tow is and as I’m watching Sporty is batting. She hits a nice shot with her new bat, runs to first, hits the outside of the bag to avoid the first base-woman and I see her ankle twist and tweak. And I knew it was not good. So I’m on the phone, a coach goes to talk to her, helps her to the dugout, I’m still on the phone, Papa Bear finally goes into the dugout and tells her to man up, still on the phone, and she’s like “I can not stand on it.” Somehow she hobbles to the other dugout where their bags are. I don’t know because I’m still on the phone. She didn’t cry but she couldn’t walk so she got a lift from her teammates. Seriously the best group of girls! They wheeled her out just in time for the tow truck to arrive and tow my car to Scottsdale.

I was really hoping she would go to sleep and wake up and be fine. I know she was worried about her screw so I asked her if I could get her in with her dr, would she feel better if she confirmed her screw was ok. She said yes so I promised as soon as I knew the status of my car I would take her to see him.

Well the next morning she still couldn’t stand. I still thought it was a bad sprain so I made her clean her room. (To my defense, if she had cleaned it Friday-Monday like I had asked, she wouldn’t have had to clean it injured). But even I could admit, it didn’t look great. I made an afternoon appointment and made the dealership have my car ready by lunch, so I could get Young Jedi from camp, drive him home (cause Covid he still can’t come with us), and drive her down to the dr.

Again, still thought this was a sprain. Thought he would x-Ray her, show her the screw was all good, wrap her foot, tell her to rest for a week or so and we’d be back it. Clearly the x-Ray tech is nicer than me because he wheeled her around so she didn’t have to walk. Side note, her room was the cleanest it’s been in months, with an ankle that looks like that!

X-rays taken. Doctor comes in, asks her where it hurts, she points, he says “yep, that’s where your fibula is fractured.” I yell “No!” Sporty starts tearing up and cries (remember she didn’t cry when it actually broke but at the thought of missing tournaments, tears) “But I have softball tournaments.” Cast for 4 weeks, though she negotiated checking at 3 weeks since it is a minor fracture and since she’ll be missing her overnight tournament which she was so excited about (me not so much!), he’s going to try to clear her for our tournament in California in July. So we got our first non-Clubfoot cast, we got our first Arizona cast, and somehow we made someone mad enough to make a cast happen in June/July in Arizona. The screw is still in place, in fact, the screw prevented her tibia from breaking so it actually made the fracture less severe than it would have been if the screw was not there.

The good news is, because he got images of her right foot he was able to do a preliminary measurement and so far we have gotten 2 degrees improvement in her right foot in about 2 months. So it looks like the guided growth surgery is working even though I die a little bit inside every time I see her walking on her toes.

I have to admit, I’ve had a bit of a pity party this week over this. How many road block, obstacles do we have to face? Why can’t we just catch a break? But I spoke to our Rabbi today because I’ve really been struggling this week and she said “what if to Sporty, her life isn’t harder than it needs to be. It’s just her life.” And it’s so true. Sporty really doesn’t know a different life and despite all of this, she still fights on and does all she needs to do. It’s me that knows things could be easier for her and so I wallow in that. I know she’s bored and wants to be with her teammates, she finally found her softball home, they won their last tournament, of course she wants to be out there, but she’s right, this is just her life and in all these days, I haven’t heard her once say “why me!?!” So I’m a few days, I’ll put aside my pity party and we’ll trek forward like we always do. And quite honestly, of all the thousands of times she’s run through first base or hit a bag wrong, we’re lucky this is our first break. The timing just really sucks.