Broken legs and God’s mercy (2)

It was the first day of the Easter holiday, William was in such good spirits that he was doing a little dance in the kitchen, then it happened, what we always feared, his legs collapsed and he hit the kitchen floor. Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy weakens the muscles so that falls are not uncommon, we do all we can to prevent them, but you can’t stop every fall.

I was working in my study when my daughter ran upstairs to tell me that mummy wants me as William has had a fall. Rushing downstairs, I saw William on the floor and the look of fear on Dorothy’s face told me that she knew he had broken his leg. Dorothy trained as a physio and her diagnosis was correct.

If you have Duchenne, a broken leg is not just a pain, it can be life changing. The trouble is that with the leg not in use the muscles waste away and its hard to recover. And of course the upper body strength is not there either to use crutches, so mobility is seriously affected.

It’s been a hard couple of weeks, sleepless nights due to pain, and then because William is on steroids the painkillers sometimes made him physically sick.

This isn’t the first time that William has broken his leg, 5 years ago he tripped on a piece of Jenga (I wrote about it here) but this time seems more serious, he’s weaker and it’s harder to recover.

Last time I wrote about God’s mercy with the broken leg, do I still believe that to be true? Sometimes you find yourself asking the “why” question. And yet, once again we’ve seen God’s mercy.

We had previously started the process to get a powered wheelchair and we were told we wouldn’t get it until the summer at the earliest, we were hoping it might be ready for our summer holiday, but amazingly it came just a week after he broke his leg. This was a big boost! We were also still able to get on holiday (the first time I’ve ever packed a commode for a holiday!), and amazingly on the last day of the holiday we saw dolphins in Donegal!

We also experienced God’s kindness through people from church inviting us over for dinner, cooking us meals and giving gifts to William. What’s more, while we were on holiday, we visited the church we normally go to and someone there had listened to our podcast on disability and offered for us to stay at their house since they had a granny flat with a wet room – so kind!

I was also helped by Ivan Watson preaching at our Good Friday service which relieved some of the pressure of the Easter week, and it just so happened that my dad was due to visit that week and he was able to help us with some of the care. We were also greatly helped by Dorothy’s mum who had got her house ready for Elizabeth to move home, and so had a hospital bed and all the adaptations done to the house so we could stay with her in between hospital visits.

Please join us in praying that William regains the strength to walk, but whatever happens we trust the Lord’s grace will be sufficient for us and his power will be made perfect in weakness. Thank-you to all who have prayed and supported us through this time.

“Joy is the deep settled knowledge that God is in this, that nothing he sends me – nothing – is outside his care and his loving purposes for me.” (David Gibson, Radically Whole)