Tightly wound
That's how I describe how I feel right now.
But let's go back about 24 hours ...
At 9:43 p.m. Friday, there was a fire call to the Bohemian Hall, southwest of Fort Dodge. Bill Shea and Hans Madsen went to cover it (Bill was at work, Hans was at home already). The building burned nearly to the ground. (There was enough left to have hot spots today and they had to call out Callender FD again.)
So, because of the fire, I left work around midnight. I came home, played around on the computer for awhile and then went to bed.
About 10 minutes later, there was a phone call. Mom had activated her Lifeline, they called Donna and she called me.
I got dressed and went over. Mom was on the floor in the bathroom. She had fallen and her foot hurt.
I called 911.
They came, got her out to an ambulance and took her to TRMC, where she eventually got X-rays and a diagnosis of a broken leg.
She has a tib-fib fracture (that's what they call it on the medical shows - and by medical shows, I mean like "ER"). One bone is broken in three places; the other has bone fragments. I haven't seen the X-rays, so I'm just going by what the doctors said.
So eventually they put her in a room (around 4 a.m.) and I went home.
I got up at 7 because her podiatrist was coming at 8 to talk to her about what was going to happen.
The ankle is really swollen, and they want the swelling to go down. They are going to check how her blood flow is in the foot. It's possible she could have surgery on Friday.
But she lives alone and can't put her weight on her foot. So they had to find a place that can take care of her until her leg heals.
So the case manager called to see if Mom could get into a local skilled care facility. Yes, they could take her. We tried to rush things a little because they told us that we had to take her, and we had someone with an SUV who was available but not around 1 p.m. So we wanted to take her before then. As it turns out, the hospital transported another patient to the same facility, so when we arrived at basically the same time, it kind of threw things out of whack.
They got things settled down a bit, and decided that Mom could go into a bigger room in a different section of the facility, at least while the leg healing is going on. If she stays longer (or permanently), she'll have to have a different room. But the room she was in at first was the smallest room there and has no TV (they are remodeling and moving things around).
I hung around for awhile, then went to Walmart to get her some housecoats (and one nightgown) to wear there because she normally wears pants, which would be hard to get over the temporary splint on her leg (that thing is huge).
I brought them back, along with her pillows, her Rollator and some other stuff.
Then I went to work.
Where there had been a power outage earlier and we had to start our computers again and some people had trouble connecting to various things, so we decided to share the misery and called our IT guy in. But the phones were still out, until after numerous phone calls, we got someone to come in and fix them. (Basically resetting them from the "phone room," whatever that is.)
I went home to eat and although I wanted to take a short nap, I decided not to. I went back to work, sent the last two pages and updated the website.
Now, after having about 3 hours of sleep since approximately 7 a.m. Friday, I'm going to bed, where I hope that the crazy stuff that has happened doesn't invade my dreams.
There is, of course, more to this story (people visiting Mom in the hospital, she got a blessing, I paid her rent, etc.) but I tried to keep this as short as possible. And if you thought it was long reading it, imagine living it.
If you are the praying sort, Mom could use some prayers for healing and managing her pain. Good night.
But let's go back about 24 hours ...
At 9:43 p.m. Friday, there was a fire call to the Bohemian Hall, southwest of Fort Dodge. Bill Shea and Hans Madsen went to cover it (Bill was at work, Hans was at home already). The building burned nearly to the ground. (There was enough left to have hot spots today and they had to call out Callender FD again.)
So, because of the fire, I left work around midnight. I came home, played around on the computer for awhile and then went to bed.
About 10 minutes later, there was a phone call. Mom had activated her Lifeline, they called Donna and she called me.
I got dressed and went over. Mom was on the floor in the bathroom. She had fallen and her foot hurt.
I called 911.
They came, got her out to an ambulance and took her to TRMC, where she eventually got X-rays and a diagnosis of a broken leg.
She has a tib-fib fracture (that's what they call it on the medical shows - and by medical shows, I mean like "ER"). One bone is broken in three places; the other has bone fragments. I haven't seen the X-rays, so I'm just going by what the doctors said.
So eventually they put her in a room (around 4 a.m.) and I went home.
I got up at 7 because her podiatrist was coming at 8 to talk to her about what was going to happen.
The ankle is really swollen, and they want the swelling to go down. They are going to check how her blood flow is in the foot. It's possible she could have surgery on Friday.
But she lives alone and can't put her weight on her foot. So they had to find a place that can take care of her until her leg heals.
So the case manager called to see if Mom could get into a local skilled care facility. Yes, they could take her. We tried to rush things a little because they told us that we had to take her, and we had someone with an SUV who was available but not around 1 p.m. So we wanted to take her before then. As it turns out, the hospital transported another patient to the same facility, so when we arrived at basically the same time, it kind of threw things out of whack.
They got things settled down a bit, and decided that Mom could go into a bigger room in a different section of the facility, at least while the leg healing is going on. If she stays longer (or permanently), she'll have to have a different room. But the room she was in at first was the smallest room there and has no TV (they are remodeling and moving things around).
I hung around for awhile, then went to Walmart to get her some housecoats (and one nightgown) to wear there because she normally wears pants, which would be hard to get over the temporary splint on her leg (that thing is huge).
I brought them back, along with her pillows, her Rollator and some other stuff.
Then I went to work.
Where there had been a power outage earlier and we had to start our computers again and some people had trouble connecting to various things, so we decided to share the misery and called our IT guy in. But the phones were still out, until after numerous phone calls, we got someone to come in and fix them. (Basically resetting them from the "phone room," whatever that is.)
I went home to eat and although I wanted to take a short nap, I decided not to. I went back to work, sent the last two pages and updated the website.
Now, after having about 3 hours of sleep since approximately 7 a.m. Friday, I'm going to bed, where I hope that the crazy stuff that has happened doesn't invade my dreams.
There is, of course, more to this story (people visiting Mom in the hospital, she got a blessing, I paid her rent, etc.) but I tried to keep this as short as possible. And if you thought it was long reading it, imagine living it.
If you are the praying sort, Mom could use some prayers for healing and managing her pain. Good night.
Comments