Hurray! She's Home!!

Yep.....Mom's been in the hospital for the past four days. And the story goes: Dad and my BIL Lloyd are building a new shed for my parents. Mom and Dad went to pick up some plywood, and they decided they should carry it from the driveway to the side yard. (They are both 70 years old - they've already been chastised by everyone in the family). They actually did okay carrying the plywood. It was putting it down that caused the problem. When they let it down onto the ground, it "bounced" and hit my Mom right on her shin. She honestly thought her leg was broken. Dad took her to the ER, where the X-ray showed no break, just a very nasty bruise. And very nasty it was. Black and blue from knee to ankle, swollen, and with a big scrape on the front of her shin. The scrape became infected. And thus the hospital stay. I won't gross you out with the gory details.....suffice to say she needed to be put under anesthesia to have the leg 'debrided" and then she needed Vicodin every time they changed the bandage. The "overnight" stay turned into three nights because they had to culture the infection to determine what kind of antibiotic to give. In the meantime, Mom was attached to an IV, sitting in a hospital room with nothing to do. She didn't feel sick......her leg didn't hurt too much.......she just sat and waited for doctors to come in and do their thing. My Dad, God Bless Him, was with her all day every day, keeping her company. Her family visited......but what a loooooooooong few days it was for my Mom. She accepted it with equanimity, as she does everything that happens to her. "You play the cards you're dealt". And once again she has my admiration. I'm so happy that she got to go home today. She practically did a jig in her hospital bed when the doctor confirmed that indeed she was going home. My Dad was packing before the doctor left the room. She'll get to enjoy Mother's Day in her own house. Speaking of Mother's Day, Doug and Kara have figured out how to visit everyone and still have time to relax. They'll be spreading it out over the two weekend days. Doug will take Emily to visit his two grandmothers while Kara stays home and relaxes, and Kara will take Emily to visit her mother and her grandmother while Doug stays home and relaxes. I'm proud of them for working out such a great compromise.