*Highs and lows*

(Dated: 24 Oct 12)

Ok so, following on from my "skating is the best medicine" post, it appears there's one thing skating can't fix - and that's a broken wrist.

Oh dear.

Having survived on this earth for three decades without a broken bone (Ok, I did have a broken leg as a tiny baby, but I don't remember that one), I now have two, and they're both in my right wrist.

Small mercy, at least, is I'm a lefty.

It's potentially the most frustrating thing that's ever happened to me - and the only thing I can think about is getting back on the ice!

But while I can't skate - and just when I felt I was starting to get somewhere too - can't work, can't feed the cats (packets are too damn hard to open!!), can't use a pair of scissors (designed for the right hand), will have to go on the honeymoon cruise that's been planned a year with a cast on, and the countless other things I'm sure I'll discover I'm going to struggle with, there have already been happy moments arising from this broken wrist, two days on.

It's all about the
people, you see. It's become very clear to me that even though I've only been skating a year and a half, I really have been adopted into my "skatey family".

The minute I fell, two of the family were straight over to check on me. And while my initial answer to "you ok?" was "yeah", it was quite clearly not the case. So I skated off, sat down and then realised I couldn't actually move my fingers, and in fact my hand was pretty much mangled, bending all the wrong way and that. Eek.

They got my skates off for me and put my shoes on.

One very special "family member" who shall remain nameless because she'll get embarrassed, got the first aider, called my husband, called my friend to say I wouldn't be meeting her as planned and filled in all the forms for me. Then she and the first aider helped keep me smiling through the agony until paramedics got there. One of the other "family members", bless her, probably froze her butt off for me because she'd lent me her fleece when it happened and obviously I could't get that off over my arm until much later.

Afterwards, I've had about a million messages, both on Facebook and by text, asking how I am and coming up with new ways to keep me smiling - such as blinging up my cast - they're just bloody brilliant and I don't know what I'd do without them.

Of course, the real actual family deserves a mention too - hubby's been brilliant looking after me and mommy got me flowers.

Then there are the non-skatey friends who are equally fabulous. They're also trying keep me from dying of boredom by arranging visits and trips out, and offering to pick me up so I can still do some things out of the house.

I'm actually in surprisingly good spirits considering what's happened, and I definitely put that down to all the support I've had. Moments that could be upsetting/frustrating I've been finding myself laughing at.

Like the first time I went to brush my teeth. Put the toothbrush carefully down on the sink, managed to get the toothpaste lid off, squeezed it on there - success. As I was putting the cap back on the toothpaste - a task in itself, the toothbrush fell over and the toothpaste fell off. Ha!

Then there was the realisation that I'm going to come back from my beautiful Caribbean cruise with one white arm. Hello, St Tropez!

Before all this happened, I was loving every minute of skating and was in one of those phases where you just can't get enough of it. It was definitely boosted by a very inspirational skate camp with Mark Hanretty. Now there's a man who's passionate about his sport.

I really felt I was starting to grow in confidence - just hoping now that I can get that back pretty quickly after getting back on the ice.

And one final thing - you'd better bloomin' enjoy reading this post - it's taken me about three hours to type!! Haha!