And so it goes ...

The test of the immortal parent continued in March. My not-quite-yet 65 year old mother tripped and fell as she was walking into the house. It was almost exactly 1 month after she got her Medicare card in the mail in preparation for her birthday in June (no, she could not use it yet).

My parents have an enclosed front porch and there is a step up to get in the first door. My mom apparently did not raise her foot quite high enough, got caught on the step and down she went. As she fell, she hit her head on a decorative sled that was leaning against the wall ... if it hadn't been there, she would have hit her head on the brick wall.

And there she sat. Bruised forehead. Bruised ego. Really sore shoulder.

She didn't get up right away and tried to yell for my dad ... which is a joke because we make fun of the fact that my dad doesn't hear anything unless you're looking right at him and say his name first. But she was so shook up that she couldn’t get much strength behind it. When dad finally realized that something was going on, he came to the front porch and offered to help her up. She declined because, by this point, she’d gotten over the shock of falling and was ready to do it on her own.

When she got up, she realized something was really wrong with her shoulder. She called one of the physicians she works for to ask which orthopedic surgeon she was going to want to be referred to out of the emergency room. He told her to have the ER doctor call him and they’d work it out.

After x-rays and a hands-on exam, mom was told she had dislocated her shoulder and that it looked like there was a probable fracture of the upper arm. She did as Dr. B requested and asked the ER doctor to call him. Mom's arm was placed back into her shoulder and she was given a discharge referral to Dr. K.

The next morning, mom called Dr. K’s office and explained what happened. They told her to come in for 10:30 and they’d get her in as soon as they could. She was seen at 10:45. Apparently Dr. B had Dr. K paged first thing that morning to make sure that mom could be seen quickly. Dr. K looked at her shoulder and the x-rays. She had fractured the top of her humerus where it sat in the rotator cuff. Dr. K didn’t think she needed surgery and gave her some exercises to do for the next two weeks.

Long story short (too late?), six weeks and a trip to Dixie later, mom’s arm is doing well and Dr. K doesn’t think he needs to see her anymore. My mom sent out an email to friends and family letting them her medical status. My sister’s response???

YAY!!!!

Now you can come back down and help redecorate the kid's bathroom!!   :)

I didn’t respond to tell her that I was in line before her. I figured it wouldn’t matter anyway.