Tenacious

Before I start this post I need to preface it with a few words. Initially when Lily started swimming it was as a pastime, a little something to do after school to help decompress her brain after a day of academics. Because she is the type of student that she is she needs something physical to help her brain unwind. Never in a million years did I think swimming would become the competitive sport to her that it has....(insert big sigh here). Really it was quite daft of me to think any differently but I just didn't know enough about the sport. That first ribbon that she won changed the game for her.

Back to the here and now.

Thursday was the weekly, dog and pony show, x-ray and cast change appointment. Of course under the cast was some skanky looking skin complete with scabs this time around. The doc' probed and actually picked, much to Lily's chagrin and finally, albeit unwillingly, agreed to put her in a waterproof cast. This cast looked really different. The photos are in reverse order, the lining  looks almost like bubble wrap only the bubbles are square. The outer cast is still the same. This is cast number 5 and this weeks colour of choice is pink...bright, blinding pink.

Heavens above that thing is bright

all packed up in bubble wrap...where should I ship her too?

 Since Dr. Miller isn't happy about the break down of her skin we have to go back in a week for yet another cast. These waterproof casts are pretty pricey so he usually doesn't change them weekly but if her arm is nasty she has to go back to an ordinary one. If all is well, she gets another one for 2 more weeks and then one more for a week and she is done.

My little girl was thrilled. She was so so happy. Firstly she loved how light the new cast was. Then she couldn't wait to get to swimming, I mean she really couldn't wait. It was only 9am and she doesn't swim until 6pm but she was raring to go. I took her and her ear to ear smile to school and told her to have a fabulous day. She floated out of the office on a cloud. I went about my day and right before I went to pick the kids up from school was stopped dead in my tracks by a tornado warning. WTF?

I have lived her for a long time.  We get hurricanes we don't get tornadoes.  I turned on the news, i jumped on the computer. It was all true. A tornado warning until 8pm. As much as this could potentially have been very very bad all I could think of was, this isn't going to bode well for swimming. Someone is going to be very very upset.

As it got closer and closer to 4.30 I kept checking the Flying Fish page and there it was in large letters.

POOL CLOSED ALL NIGHT DUE TO WEATHER.

She was graceful but highly disappointed.

Tonight the weather threatened to be the same minus the tornadoes, which didn't happen anyway. My heart felt heavy for her. I rang the pool and they said they were open. We went, Rosie had 20 minutes of practice and then that high pitched whistle blew and they cleared the deck.

POOL CLOSED DUE TO WEATHER.

Thankfully it was short lived and they reopened after an hour.


This is what I saw.

Swimming in the rain.  She can't use her arms at all. I watched her like a flipping hawk cos I don't trust the little devil one bit. 

The cast really stands out

She pushed so hard, but so so hard. She kept up with all of her team mates and she hasn't swam in 22 days.
They say one day out of the water is equivalent to a week. I think she will be sore tomorrow. I didn't even wait until we got home. I laid her down on the stands and gave her a post event massage because her legs were like jelly. She didn't fight or complain. 

She was just so happy to be back in the pool.

Her coach asked me tonight if I thought she would be ready for a meet on the 19th? Umm, I don't think so she will still be in a cast. And unless the powers that be change the rules, you can't swim in a bandage let alone a cast! But she would if she could, you know she would.