With fins, crutches, and wheels

At the beginning of July, my daughter tripped while playing basketball. It seemed like a simple sprain, but it turned out to be a hairline fracture of the fifth metatarsal. Brace and rest. Two weeks later, we were supposed to leave for the seaside. I don’t particularly like the beach, but my partner does, so I was going to work remotely for about ten days and then take a week off myself, just to all be together. During the first few days, my daughter walked with the brace, putting weight on her foot. The pediatric hospital in Naples and a private orthopedist we consulted before leaving told us she could do that. We felt reassured. On July 25th, we had a checkup at a public hospital in Paola, Calabria (even further south in Italy), and the diagnosis felt like a sentence: she couldn’t put any weight on it, absolute rest for another fifteen days, and goodbye beach. I hadn’t even started my vacation yet. When we consulted the doctors in Naples again, they reiterated their opinion that she…