Frustration, broken bones, and airlines

The past few days have been crazy.  What was supposed to be a fun week of painting, shopping, and playing, turned into a few days of hospitals, xrays, and pain. 
My mom flew in on Saturday.  She got here just in time to go out for dinner and then head back to my house to evaluate what she would tackle with a can of paint. :) 

That never happened. 

We went out for dinner. 

the only picture of my mom before...everything

We got our complimentary ice cream.  We carried our bag of yummy leftovers.  We headed out to the car...  and my mom fell.  From that moment on everything went downhill.  We managed to get her out of the parking lot and sitting down on a bench by the main door of the restaurant.  I ran inside to explain what happened and to ask for ice.  Five to 10 minutes later some kid came out with a 20lb bag of ice.  "This is all I could find"  Yeah, um, thanks anyway. 

I dropped Roger and the kids off at home and brought my mom to the ER.  Over 2 hours later we still weren't seen and were getting bumped back on the priority list at a rather alarming rate.  When we told the receptionist that we were going to leave she slipped me a piece of paper with another ER facility on it.  She couldn't tell me about it earlier because "someone was standing behind her"  It's the same hospital.  Not sure where secrecy comes into play.  I was thankful that she said something though.

We tried to stop at that ER but it had a wait as well so we went home.  A few hours later, still in a lot of pain we decided we better go try again.  This time the 2nd ER had no wait and the staff were all very friendly. 

Let me just say right now that never again will I allow friendly to equal competent. 

don't let her smirk fool you.  It was about 1:00am, she had been up for nearly 24 hours and she was in serious pain... but still flashing the occasional smile.

I can't even tell you everything that happened there because it makes me so upset to think about it.  I will say that x-rays were taken and they declared that my mom broke a bone in her foot and had a torn ligament  in her foot as well.  Her wrist was bruised but not broken. (When she fell she landed on the right side of her body, hurting her wrist, knee, and ankle)

She was sent home on crutches and with an ace bandage on her ankle.  Her directions were to call for an appt with an Orthopedic Dr on Monday (this was Saturday night).

Yes, that is a bag of corn on her foot.  It worked better than an ice pack.

So Sunday she was in pain and popping pain pills. (Don't tell, they were pain pills from my cabinet.)

First thing Monday morning she called the Ortho # that the ER gave her. 

It was a fax machine.

And that started the marathon of phone calls trying to get her to be seen by an Orthopedic Dr.  The earliest she was able to be seen was 10 days away.  Not only was that unacceptable for the amount of pain she was in, but she would no longer be in Texas.  Finally, after many calls, a Dr was able to see her...first thing Tuesday morning.  So she spent all day Monday in pain.

Tuesday morning we headed to the Orthopedic Dr first thing.  Let me add that Roger also headed out bright and early...for jury duty.  Ugh.

3 hours later she was finally ready to go....with a cast on her foot and her arm.  Turns out that she did have a broken wrist.  The x-ray wasn't read properly on Saturday.  Also, as it turns out, her foot was broken in TWO places.  The crutches she was using? Yeah, not good for a broken wrist.  She came home in a wheelchair. 

showing off the (temporary) casts

Well, not exactly.  I had to pick up the wheelchair.  Only the first medical supply store I went to couldn't help me.  The "wheelchair lady" wasn't in and we would have had to do all of the paperwork via fax.  Thankfully there was another place down the road and we were able to leave with a wheelchair. 

What's the deal Mom?!  All of my kids are looking at the camera.  WHAT are you looking at? :)

Many more phone calls were made and my mom arranged to fly home Wednesday instead of Friday.  So that brings us to today.  Wednesday.  We arrived at the airport and I went in to ask for a wheelchair.  (The one we had was only a rental and needed to be returned today.)  Ten minutes later someone finally found one, circa 1937, and brought it to me.  We get her inside, where she is only supposed to check her bag and have her ticket printed.  She took care of everything else over the phone (including paying for her luggage (don't even get me started on that!) and arranging for a wheelchair at all of her connecting flights) At the counter she was charged again for her luggage and there were no wheelchair arrangements made.   I had to get a temporary pass so I could wheel her to the gate.  So, we wheel over to the security check and wait and wait and wait.  Her bags had to pass through the x-ray machine twice.  She made the machine beep and had to get a pat down - for the SECOND time this trip.  (Apparently on the way here she looked like a threat and received the same pat down treatment.)  So with her casts on she got a little pat down and the security person checked the wheelchair for hidden - somethings.  She was cleared to go and I was ready to wheel her to her gate.  Out of nowhere a staff person took over and said something about getting her to the plane and headed off.  I stopped him so I could actually say good-bye (!) and on that note she was gone.  I can only pray that the rest of her flight home goes better than this.  Oh Lord, PLEASE let it go better than this.

 I made her a pumpkin spice cake (her favorite!) and she was trying to enjoy a piece... but it was rather comedic to watch. She is either going to need to learn how to use her left hand or she's going to be very hungry for the next 8 weeks!