The Roller Coaster Day

Tuesday, September 22, started off with plans to take my mother to The Center for a few hours while I went to our ladies Bible Study group. This quickly changed when my mom was in too much pain to go. Plan B goes into action. My friend was called and agreed to lead the study group, so I dropped off the materials at church and promptly went to get my mom's left side x-rayed~the source of the pain. A few days before, mom had fallen and the doctor examined her and felt that even though there was no bruising there, she should have it x-rayed for a possible bruised or cracked rib. The doctor said mom also had an infection, so wait 'til she felt better for the x-ray and put her on an antibiotic and I asked for a pain med. The x-ray pictures showed 5 cracked ribs-yikes-the pain must have been horrible. So off to the ER to see if there was any other damage. One night in the hospital for observation was put into motion. Mom did have a tiny puncture to a lung, but no breathing issues, so that would be okay. Apparently cracked ribs heal over time and management for the pain is all that can be done. As I am sitting in her hospital room and I am just beginning to answer question after question for the nurse to enter into the computer, my cell phone rings. I answer and my daughter says, "Mama, I just got engaged!!" I held up 1 finger for the nurse to give me a second and shared my daughter's joy. You might think the first person I shared the news with was my mom,the grandmother of the bride-to-be, but with mom's hearing loss and dementia, nothing would compute. The scene would have been me shouting into my mom's ear about the engagement, only to have my mom say something like, "What? Who's in a rage? What cage? We should call the police!!" So the nice nurse was the first person I told about our happy news! The first day of fall was indeed a day of falling and rising again~emotionwise.