Papa Fell Down & Broke His Crown...

Things were going so much better...and then...

Wednesday, March 28th, Claude and I blocked out the morning to go to the temple. We had lots to do in the afternoon and evening but we felt we could get a visit to the temple in the morning. We had set aside the previous Tuesday evening to go and we had ice and snow and determined we didn't need to be on the roads with ice out there. So we were really looking forward to this opportunity to get to the temple.

We made it all the way to the Waddy/Peytona Exit on I-64 when my phone rang. It was the nursing home. Seems Papa took a tumble in the bathroom and an ambulance was taking him to the Georgetown Hospital ER. Claude took the exit and we headed back to Georgetown. 

Now, irony of ironies, we are driving along and I'm trying to remain calm and think through all possibilities and how to handle them so I can hit the ground running when we get to the hospital. I looked out my passenger side window at the truck and trailer Claude was passing. What was this I was seeing? As we got alongside the trailer I realized they were transporting a burial vault to a cemetery. I just looked at it in amazement as Claude cruised on by. Then I turned to Claude, who had also noted what it was, and he simply said, "I wasn't going to say anything to you..." Goodness. If one believed in bad omens, that was about the worst. But we both chose to laugh at the irony in this when rushing to take care of an aging Papa.

Got to the emergency room and Claude dropped me off to run in while he parked the Jeep. This is what I found. Bless his heart. He was in agony. Any he couldn't find a position in which to be comfortable. They had a towel rolled up behind his head to support his head. But he was just aching like I haven't seen very often. He usually tries to be stoic and say, "Oh well." But not this time. He was telling us repeatedly he was in pain. 

He was given two shots of morphine over the hours he was in the ER. He was taken for X-rays twice and a Cat Scan. No broken bones were found in any of this. Blood was drawn and it didn't work even though it flowed freely when the nurse took it. I guess it set up on the way to the lab or something. The nurse tried to draw blood again and couldn't find a vein. She was good at it too but Papa just had crummy veins at this point in his life. After a bit another nurse came in with the butterfly needle which is smaller and it worked. At least four vials of blood later they had his blood to go do the lab. 

Eventually they came and took the hard plastic board the ambulance put him on to take him to the ER. They were trying to be very careful in case he broke something in his neck or spine. No wonder Papa was in agony. He has deteriorating disks and bad arthritis in his spine. This really aggravated all of that. Even being off the board didn't give Papa the relief he needed.

Dr. Morgan decided after looking at his cleaned up wounds that he could glue the wounds on Papa's forehead and nose and not have to do stitches. This was a relief to me. Dr. Morgan asked if Papa was concerned about scars and Claude said, "They add character." Bottom line. Papa really isn't worried about scars at almost 90 years of age. 

Dr. Weckman had Papa admitted to Georgetown Hospital for one night. He wanted to be sure there was no internal bleeding in his head before returning him to the nursing home. 

Claude and I left after he was admitted. We hurried to Sadieville where I got my car and drove back to be with Papa until time to teach my Institute class. It was a good thing I was there. I had told the admitting nurse Papa has no teeth and needed his food blended. They brought him a dinner with a piece of ham, some elbow macaroni and steamed broccoli. I mashed up the broccoli and the macaroni with the fork and fed them to Papa. He also ate the banana they gave him. So at least he had all but the ham in his meal. I did get to visit with Dr. Weckman who was leaving the hospital as I was coming back. Grateful he came to visit with Papa and be sure how he was doing.

Thursday morning I just missed Dr. Weckman. But, Papa did okay through the night and they were ready to release him. They asked if I was taking him or should the ambulance. I told them to use the ambulance. He was in such a bad state of pain and needed help moving. Truly two big men could do that better than me. I met them at the nursing home and spent the remainder of the day with him. 

Friday I went in for half of the day. Papa was able to get up and walk to the dining room to eat. I would spend Saturday and Sunday morning with him. He was to have come to our home Sunday afternoon and eat with us and watch a session of general conference. I did not bring him. Just not sure about the pain he is in and my ability to handle him alone yet. 

I feel this will take Papa down a peg or two. The nursing home is doing some therapy on him to try and build him back up. He is walking down to the dining room for meals. But he is still really hurting. I expect that to last a while after such a bad tumble. But I think we have to watch to be sure there is something they may have missed that is causing the pain.