Grace's Fall

UPDATE - FRIDAY 10 AM - The ICU tells us Grace was scheduled for surgery at 9. We'll be heading over there soon to wait in the recovery room. Stay tuned for more updates.

Yesterday (writing on THURSDAY Aug 5), I took Grace (my mother-in-law who lives with us) to her third session of physical therapy, where they're trying to alleviate her back pain and make it so she can be more mobile than she has been.

I was sitting in the waiting area, working on my laptop computer, when I heard the door to the physical therapy office open behind me. The door is a glass door in a glass wall into that area, and is a manual-push-to-open door, with an automatic hydraulic/spring closure.

I was immersed in what I was doing, and I thought I heard Grace mention my name, but a moment later I heard this alarming crash, and I turned to see Grace sprawled face down on the floor. Oh, no!

I put down the computer and hurried over to her. She had her hand on the floor and was lifting her head, but I could see blood already starting to pool on the floor under her.

I held her head up so she could relax her neck, and told her not to move. Then I sat down and put my knee under her head as a pillow while people from around the lobby began to gather.

One man began to offer advice, do this, don't do that. He was well-meaning, but I looked at him and said, "Are you a doctor?" (more in a curious tone than a challenging tone) and he stopped offering advice. Several people from the physical therapy unit began to gather, including, I believe, the person who had been working with Grace in her PT.

Grace said, "There's something wrong with my leg." I thought at first that this was the reason she fell, but later she said she fell because she had trouble manipulating her cane and the reluctant door, and simply tripped, and in spite of three quick-as-she-could steps, couldn't catch her balance before she went down.

Eventually, they called an ambulance and took her to the ER of the River Oaks Hospital, which is only two blocks from the PT building.

River Oaks Hospital is actually quite a good one; the ER folks are friendly but businesslike. We got her checked in and X-rayed and CAT-scanned and all. Grace had had her right hip replaced there last November, so they still had most of her info on file. Of course, they had to take it all AGAIN, but that wasn't so bad.

It turns out when Grace went down, she landed on her right knee and on her face. YOWTCH!

When she landed on her right knee, it broke her femur a few inches above the knee, in a kind of splintering break, like when you bend a toothpick until it breaks, and a piece of it splinters off to the side. They say they will have to do surgery to fix it, and I can understand that, how they have to put in some screws or glue or other fasteners to get the bone back together.

When she landed on her face, it was mostly on her mouth and nose. She looks like she just lost a fistfight, poor lady! She bit her tongue and gashed her lip, her nose swelled up to about double size, and she got two black eyes. I got a couple of photos of it for the "just in case" file, but I probably shouldn't post them here.

She had a horrible time yesterday afternoon, being unable to breathe through her nose, and with the lacerations in her mouth continuing to bleed for over six hours! Finally, the bleeding stopped and the inner swelling in her nose went down so she could breathe through it, and she got at least a bit more comfortable.

She's now (as of Thursday morning) in the ICU at River Oaks. We were at first alarmed about her being in the ICU, wondering if there were something serious they were worried about but weren't telling us. So we asked the doc, and he said it's because she's on Plavix, which is a blood thinner. This was the reason her mouth lacerations kept bleeding so long. But because of that, they wanted to keep a much closer eye on her than they would have been able to in a regular ward.

As of this morning, they still have not set her leg. They are holding off on that because to set it will require surgery, and they don't want to commence surgery while the Plavix is still keeping her blood thin and not clotting as it should. But they don't want to wait too long, because being held immobile in a bed for a period of time brings on its own set of stasis maladies, plus it's always better to fix a broken bone soon, before it has a chance to try to heal itself in the wrong position.

So that's the story about Grace as of Thursday, August 5, 2010. Please pray for her, for her alleviation of pain, for her rapid healing, and for her doctora and other caregivers to have wisdom, insight, and compassion.