And here we go again. It seem as if every two to three months mom is going back into the emergency room (ER), being admitted to the hospital or just plain having a spill or taking a tumble causing, bruising, sprained this or that or some other. Since she slipped on the evil green grape, she had twisted her right knee, same leg as the broken femur. She then sprained her right foot placing her into a walking book. Not a week later she then sprained the left foot, adding another walking boot this was only two and a half months after the femur break.
Mom’s New Shoes
We are now almost fifteen – sixteen weeks since the original accident and mom’s femur surgery which put a metal plate, about eight inches long along with seven pins and a larger 3”-4” screw just above here right knee. The knee would not stop hurting after her surgery and in a follow-up appointment with her orthopedic surgeon it was determined that the screw was most likely rubbing on a muscle or nerve when she would bend or move it. Due to mom and her extensive arsenal of medications, with the main one being Coumadin (for her heart) we had to get a letter of approval from her cardiologist saying she was okay to go through with the surgery, well that her heart could take it. This of course required a checkup, blood work, x-ray’s and a pace maker check. We also had to get a letter from her Coumadin Clinic showing what schedule they wanted her to go with when coming off and then going back on her Coumadin. Just these two request took and I’m not kidding, four weeks. We are coming up on the end of month five since the original slip on April 1, again not kidding, April Fool’s Day. Imagine getting a call from a stranger at 2:30am that went like this, “Hello, we have your mom here in the ER, she slipped on a grape and we think she broke her femur.” How much would you believe the caller?
Tomorrow at 4:30am I get to pick mom up and take her to Sutter, Roseville where at around 7:30am the orthopedic surgeon who did the repair of her femur is going to go in and remove the troublesome screw from mom’s leg and we all hope this will take care of her knee pain. She will have to wait a week (no exercise) and then they will start what we hope to be in-home physical and occupational therapy. The only other issue we then have to deal with is the sprained right foot, oh, you thought I forgot about that one? Yea not. The right foot was sprained the second week of July, so six weeks ago now and has been booted every sense. Okay so it’s the wrong kind of boot, but hey you have to laugh at some point in this story. The pain in her foot is to the point that she about tears up when using stairs or even walking distances (uses a walker), other than this she is homebound and uses a wheelchair 90-95% of the time. Here’s wishing this surgery eliminates a large part of the pain she’s experiencing.
How much can one person take? At this point in the past six years mom has been through, stroke, heart attack (same week), several more strokes and possible heart attacks over the next few years, COPD, major water retention, had a lung drained and scraped due to fluid buildup, heart surgery to replace two valves, insert of a pace maker, in hospital several times to jump her heart into rhythm, with more micro strokes, then those listed above femur break, sprained knee, sprained right foot and sprained left foot. So when you think something like, “Man, I can’t take much more of this.” Think of mom and remember a person can take a lot, it’s more of asking yourself, “How much can I take?” You’d be surprised. 
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