My mother

[GreatLakesGramma]

Please pray for my mother. She & Dad flew home from Florida today, and I don't know when or where, my brother just called & didn't give many details, and neither she nor my sister in law who is with her & Dad at the hospital are answering their cell phones, but somewhere, somehow, she fell, probably on ice, and broke her arm and her hip. Brother said she is going to have surgery tomorrow.

Mom is 77 years old and not in good health.

[phkrause]

Will be praying GLG

pk

[Dottie]

I'll be praying, too. It is so hard to not know the details when someone you love is hurt.

[GreatLakesGramma]

My mom called me back, but then she had to hang up because the nurse came in. Then she called again but tried to pick up another call coming in without telling me, so I thought her cell phone dropped the call. When she didn't call back again, I called, while they were wheeling her to her room, and she told me a little bit, but then had to hang up again when they were ready to put her in her bed. Finally, my sister in law called and I got the whole story.

She fell IN my brother's house in Florida as she & Dad were packing up to come home. She had her arms full of things and went from the living room to the Florida room, which is 3 steps down, with a concrete floor covered with carpeting. She wasn't holding a handrail. She stepped on the first step down, but missed the next 2 with her other foot & went down, landing on the concrete floor. She wouldn't let them take her to the emergency room in Florida, so she flew home in pain.

When Mom & Dad got to Michigan, she wanted my sister in law to take them home, but s-i-l refused, and took her to the emergency room instead. She has a fracture to the end of the humerous in her arm. I forgot to ask which arm. And they are going to put 3 pins in her hip tomorrow. They don't know the time of the surgery yet.

S-i-l says Mom is doing fine, in a latex-free room, and has had no chemical sensitivity reactions to carpeting, paint, cleaning chemicals, etc. So hopefully she will not suffer any complications, and can go home soon.

This is not a good time for something like this, as Mom does bookkeeping and tax preparation in her home, and she is going to be fretting like crazy about it if she can't keep up with her clients' needs. She does have 2 employees, so I hope they can take up the slack.

[GreatLakesGramma]

I just got another call. Surgery will be 9:30 at the earliest.

[Gail]

Oh, Catherine, I hope that all goes well! Please keep us updated!

[phkrause]

Thanks for the update's, and praying all goes well.

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

I just got a call from my sister in law. Mom is out of surgery, going into recovery. Everything went well.

[phkrause]

Thanks for the update, sounds like really good news.

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

I talked to Mom on the phone this afternoon. She'd been sleeping, and I woke her up, but she didn't mind. She doesn't have much pain at all, so isn't taking anything for pain. That's really good, since she is very chemically sensitive, and over-reacts to drugs, sometimes pretty seriously.

She's going to be there for 3 days or so. Before she gets out, they are going to take her to rehab and teach her exercises to do. She'll be able to do her bookkeeping. It is her left arm that is fractured, so it won't be a problem.

[phkrause]

Same here GLG. Where in Florida is your Mom?

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

Mom isn't in Florida. My brother has a winter place down there, which is close to our dad's youngest brother's winter place. They're in Zephyrhills. Mom & Dad were visiting down there for 2 weeks, and just returned here yesterday. My brother also lives up here, except during the winter. His wife is several years younger than he is, and still works full time up here, so she doesn't spend the winter down there. She's the one who picked Mom & Dad up at the airport & took Mom to the emergency room.

My brother isn't actually retired. He was a dairy farmer for 30 years, beginning even while he was still in school. When he finally got tired of "getting kicked" he sold his cows, and started just raising hay to sell to other dairy farmers. So he can be gone all winter now, which he actually has to do for health reasons. If he stays up here, he gets pneumonia every winter.

[phkrause]

I know some people who live in Zephyrhills, I believe they still live there.

pk

[GreatLakesGramma]

Mom is going to go home tomorrow. They have been arranging for the equipment she needs, teaching her how to do things, what not to do, and exercises, making appointments for home PT. The biggest issue now is that she has a very high pain tolerance, so she doesn't notice her body's signal that she is over-doing something.