Christmas Eve

Okay I was debating blogging this story just because it feels like I've been talking about it all week but I do need to write this story.

First, Thursday the 22nd at 4(ish) in the morning I hear this loud crash and with a start I jump out of bed and headed straight for grandmas room where I found her lying flat on her back in front of her bathroom with her pants down around her knees. Because of the way she was dressed, I promptly picked her up and got her on the toilet. This wasn't our first fall. We have been through two others since we moved here. Both of those she was able to get herself up off the floor. I am supposed to take her to the hospital after every fall but the other two were never serious and I was working with my father that day, not to mention all the work to get ready for the family party on Christmas eve, so honestly I just chalked it up to another fall and couldn't be bothered. I asked her to get up and walk for me, and stretch, and she was conscious the whole time, so I thought she would be okay. My sister-in-law came and spent the day with Grandma and she watched out for any signs, but grandma was okay even went for her daily walk which is down to the end of the street and back. Grandma also had a cold or at least was starting to get over it. So any bad feeling she was feeling seemed mostly to do with her sore throat.

The next day was work, work, work, cleaning and baking all the same stuff that housewives (or at least the ones without reality TV camera men following them around) were doing that day.
Grandmas cold was still not gone and she asked if she could sleep in. So I let her. She was out of my way and getting over her cold at the same time. Worked for me. I got her out of bed at 1p.m. fed her some soup and tea then she wanted to go back to bed. I didn't see her again until dinner. After that, bed. I came in later to give her a cup of tea and her evening pills and reminded her that all this sleeping was a good idea because the next day was Christmas eve. She was so giddy with the news of the day to come that she sounded like a old lady machine gun. (Hu,Hu,Hu,Hu--- Ask me some day to make the sound)
Christmas eve, I woke grandma up at 10 and got her into the bathroom where she promptly asked me if she could sleep in. I told her she could have one more hour so when I came back I found her where I left her, on the toilet. I called to her thinking she was asleep there, but she was breathing heavy. She said between pants,"I can't breathe, it hurts too much" so I asked her to sit up straight and breath in deep, which she couldn't. I asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital and she didn't hesitate a yes so I knew this was big. Calmly I say to her, "okay we will go now" ,I also said that I would dress her and we would leave. I started to put her bra on and she screamed and I knew immediately that her ribs were broken. Then I took her pajama pants off and found her lower shin, ankle and foot swollen. That had to be blood clots. That's when I put her in a wheel chair called her daughter and put grandma in the car.

We got to the urgent care and they took grandma into a room quite quickly. Started labs and x-rays quickly, especially since the doctor couldn't get a straight answer out of grandma as to where the pain was. Grandma just knew it hurt. They thought it could be a blood clot in her lungs and or heart so wanted to work quickly. An hour and a half later my Mother-in-law showed up so I went home and called people to let them know what was happening. we quickly discovered that she had 4 broken ribs and 3 blood clots in her leg.

Grandma spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in the hospital. I spent the last few hours before everyone came for dinner feverishly cleaning and crying, blaming myself for not taking her when she fell. Everyone came over for dinner then some of the family went to the hospital to spend some time with grandma. And we all kind of rolled our eyes at the fact that this Christmas felt very much like the last Christmas. To compare read this post http://cheesygrinsbythewhites.blogspot.com/2011/01/our-christmas.html
Fortunately Grandma has been healing quickly. She back to going on walks, likes to do the dishes and is wearing a bra again, which we are all particularly grateful for. Impressive in my book, not sure I would want to strap one around my healing rib cage just a week later.