Bit of Ivory

Yesterday, I had two job interviews. I was picking up lunch after the second when my mom called my cell.

My grandmother had fallen when she got out of bed, and had broken her ankle.

Great.

So I spent the afternoon in the emergency room. Grandma’s ankle would definitely require surgery. But she’s 83 years old, has had diabetes for 40 years (that’s why she managed to break the ankle in the first place– she was in low blood sugar), has heart trouble (had a triple bypass 15 years ago), and is just frail in general, and surgery would be dangerous. So they delayed surgery until this morning.

Luckily, she did fine with the surgery. 8 pins and a plate later, and she. . . won’t be able to stand on her foot for 2 months. Lovely. Because my 85-year-old grandfather surely can’t lift her in and out of bed. Plus she’s stubborn as all get-out (although today she insisted that she’s not stubborn, she’s persistent). We’ve found a good rehab facility for her (Aspen Ridge, I’m sure Nicole is wondering– the new one is our first choice, but the Wheeler one is second on the list, so maybe she’ll see your dad) where she’ll hopefully be able to stay for at least 21 days. And they said they won’t let her leave until she can get herself in and out of bed and into a wheelchair. Now we just need to find a solution for their super-skinny bathroom door.

What is up with the medical stuff lately? First my aunt has heart trouble, then my sister-in-law has a baby (at least that was good news, but, still, it’s a hospital), then my paternal grandmother gets vertigo, then my mom’s surgery, then my nephew gets pneumonia and my niece gets bronchitis, then my cousin falls out of the sky, and now my maternal grandma breaks her ankle getting out of bed. Fantastic. Now all we need is for my dad’s kidney to go into a sudden decline, or my sister to get into a car accident on the way home from work.