Fractures, Prequel

To all the people who said Caren was faking or pretending, getting hooked on pain meds, failing to put forth enough effort or not trying hard enough, just making excuses - to all ya'll I say, "Shame on you!"  Caren was in pain, genuine pain.

For ten months these ribs, two through eleven, had not healed; and, neither had the scapula healed.  Doctors do not know the reason why.

One therapist at MFB advocated for Caren, but was repeatedly renounced and ignored. Caren's PCP listened to Caren.  To find out where all this pain was coming from, she ordered CT scans. The IME doctor wanted CT scans.  God bless these folks.

Her osteopath was horrified, and ordered immediate surgery.  Caren now has plated and screwed ribs, and pieces of her scapula removed.  It may still require surgery later, doctors still don't know. Besides the flailed chest, Caren's chest was more crushed that they at first realized.  How painful!

What we do know is that Caren feels like she is at square one - starting all over again.  What we do know is that she is in agony, and has been sent to an acute care facility for pain management, and to start therapy - again.  What we do know is that, according to the doctors, Caren will probably never regain 100% use of her right arm.  Caren is struggling to come to grips with "the new normal."

You know what?  I am so very glad some peoples ignored the many quips and quotes about the negativity of looking back, of dwelling in the past.  Had the past not been reexamined, perhaps Caren would have gone the rest of her life with unhealed fractures, a flailed and crushed chest.

We pray this recent surgery will do much to correct and heal Caren, and that she will once again live a life free of pain from these injuries.

Thanks to the therapist, the doctors, the Great Physician for sustaining Caren through these troublesome times.  It is often in our seemingly darkest hours we appreciate most our Inner Treasure.

"Am I less man because I believe in a man?
The barriers of flesh and bone fell down when the Poet of Galilee spoke to me; and I was held by a spirit, and was lifted to the heights, and in midair my wings gathered the song of passion.
And when I dismounted from the wind and in the Sanhedrin my pinions were shorn, even then my ribs, my featherless wings, kept and guarded the song. And all the poverties of the lowlands cannot rob me of my treasure."  Khalil Gibran