Where are the pictures?

I was going to work on getting some photos in here, but then a new development. Jessica hurt her foot today, possibly another broken bone. We RICE'd it (rest, ice, compression, elevation) and put it in the brace she's used twice already this year, in April and September. I had just told her the other day that she's already broken bones twice this year, so NO MORE! Clearly, she didn't listen. She evidently twisted it coming down the stairs, somehow. I'll try to get her in to see the orthopedist tomorrow to get an x-ray, but really didn't see the need to rush off to an ER tonight. Kind of sad that this is getting so commonplace.

Sometimes I wonder... Where is this going? I thought about whether it would have mattered if someone had been with her today, and I don't think so. If I'd been home, she still could have, and probably would have, slipped coming down the stairs. If someone else had been staying with her, same thing. So I'm not sure how to protect her from these things happening. I do think that at some point she will not be able to stay home alone, and I always tell myself that I'll know when that time comes. But sometimes I wonder... what will that look like? Will I really know? And how will I accomplish that anyway, since I'm not yet able to retire and stay home full time myself. I cannot see her living in a nursing home situation, can't bear the thought. A group home or assisted living situation of some kind? Hiring someone to stay with her 9-10 hours a day while I work? She adamantly does NOT want a "babysitter." And even if she agreed, or if I insisted without her agreement, could I really even afford that? I don't think so. So what options are there? That's always the question, and the answer always is the same... I don't know. At least not yet.

These thoughts seem to occupy an inordinate amount of my time. I think I just keep hoping/praying that she can hold out, relatively unscathed, until I can manage to be home full time, and most of the time I think that's a real possibility. Every time something like this happens, though, it makes me question whether that's a realistic expectation, whether I'm deluding myself just because I so want to believe it.

So, at the end of the day, where does that leave her, us? Same as always--no clear answer.