Emotionally Overloaded, part III

Wrong.

Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong Wrong.

I was SO wrong.

I thought that Happy Days Were Here Again.

I thought that The Skies Above Would Be Clear Again.

Wrong.

Noonish on Labor Day Monday, Twinks mentions in passing that her new brace is hurting "just a little bit". We decide that it must be the oft-mentioned but never-before-experienced-by-Twinkle New Brace Adjustment Pain.

Monday night before bed, I check the spot that The Twinkie says is hurting. It is bright red, but no blisters.

Tuesday afternoon Twinkle says that it is hurting more than it was yesterday. By Wednesday morning (yesterday) we knew we were going to have to call The Hospital.

I don't want to call, because I already know what they will say. I don't want to call, because I am so tired... tired of the drive back and forth to Hospital City. Tired of the same hotel room.

I don't want to call because I am afraid it will be the end of The Dream; it is that same fear, that same nightmare where I am standing in The Hospital and someone is telling me that Twinks will always have pain. That there is no relief for her.

I dial the phone, and Miss V gets Big J on the phone. We chat for a moment about how the weekend went for everyone, and then we get down to business. Big J tells me that he has to see Twinkle in the brace in order to adjust it properly; the day for these open appointments is Friday - every Friday, any Friday. It is Wednesday - can we be down there day after tomorrow?

I'll spare you the frenzied phone calls; the begging for a hotel room on short notice, the worst packing job ever in the history of travel as we know it...

...suffice it to say that we are once again in Hospital City tonight.

I'm back to numb. I have been praying all day as we drove back down here that this time is it. That this time, when we leave Hospital City that we really and truly won't have to come back for six months.

I don't know what it wrong with the brace; I don't know if it can be fixed, or if Big J will have to create a whole new brace. I don't know if the brace will even completely fix all of Twinks pain.

I just know that once again our little girl is hurting, and that the answer to her pain lies in someone else's hands.