Fractured!

Came across this photo today as I was perusing a stack of old photos... it made me smile, so I thought I'd add it here. A familiar memory... dad with one of those flat, wide constuction pencils in his mouth!

Some days, the brain runs ahead of itself and goes into a dark place, and there's no talking it down. That was the case this morning as I was trying to get things packed and items crossed off my list before going to the hospital. All the while worrying worrying what had happened to dad. He was meant to be going to recovery on the 6th floor, but ended up on the 4th floor. I'm not familiar with the 4th floor. (Not familiar with the 6th floor, but the program sounded more promising than the unknown.) All I could do was worry that the 4th was where they sent people to die! See... brain getting waaay ahead of itself.

The best thing to do would be to get to the hospital asap so I could get the correct answers instead of making stuff up!! I should have been there first thing in the morning to reassure myself! Dad is on the 4th floor as he needs a bit more care at the moment. They moved him last night, and it sounds like he didn't get much sleep last night. Is it any wonder... the report now is he has three broken ribs and possibly his clavicle. (Not sure why that hasn't been confirmed. In fact, I've not yet seen the official report, so that may change as well... so don't quote me on that.)He's in a great deal of pain with the broken ribs, and the only thing he can take for the pain is Tylenol... as we've learnt from past experience that anything stronger interferes with the Sinemet and makes matters worse! That totals approximately six bones he's broken on my watch... I'm starting to get a complex.

My heart broke a little more as I watched him writhe around in pain. This is by far the worst day. Sunday and Monday saw him wincing with the pain when he moved. Today, he's just twisting on the bed. If I recall, with that kind of thing, it gets worse before it gets better. (I hope!) He was trying to tell me something, but was too tired to talk. I reassured him that all would be ok... it was just a lame day, and that it should get better. It could wait till tomorrow. For now, he just needed to get as much rest as possible.

So the plan is to get him caught up on his rest and get him moving around again, maybe tomorrow. The poor man... how much more does he need to go through?? There is nothing wrong with him medically (besides the Parkinson's, broken bones, old back injury), he has a good appetite (I can contest to this... the one thing I did figure out he was asking me when I was there was when was it supper time!), so they're hopeful to get him up and moving around soon. Will see about the Oct 5th flight deadline... if we have to postpone it a few days, well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

So am requesting no visitors for the time being... dad needs time to rest and recover. Again, I will keep you updated on his condition as we go along...


Seeing dad in hospital with multiple fractures, reminded me of the fax from mom I had recently found when going through all my stuff. In a twist... this time I was in Sydney when I got the news that dad had an accident. I remember Loren calling me at my aunt's house, "Don't worry, dad is ok, but he's had an accident." My thoughts immediately went to his Honda Gold Wing that he owned at the time... but no, this time he fell on a construction site. Following are the words I have taken off a very faded fax from mom at the time of the accident...


April 25/96

Anzac Day in Canada!

Donna;

I guess Loren gave you all the details – the accident which happened Monday morning somewhere between 8.30 & 9.00 – Darcy and Dad were marking out a line with chalk – Darcy on one end and Dad on the other, they were marking for an outside wall and were on the second floor. Dad was moving backwards and Dad was going the other way. Dad must have misjudged the distance as he went down the opening for the stair well – about 11 foot drop – and seemed to have hit something on the way down.

Heather called the ambulance and they put him on the board and neck brace and sent him to Langley Hospital. He spent the day there and had many X-rays and by 5.00pm they decided to send him to Vancouver General – the spinal section – because of his neck injuries. He has a fractured left wrist which they operated on today – pins and maybe a plate to ensure it works right. A fractured right collar bone, fractured sternum (chest) and the [illegible] in neck (back!) and two vertebra just below the bones in the neck which doctor feels will heal by themselves. A lot of swelling because of blood between skin and skull hence swelling of face, neck and purple eyes (why they call them black, I don’t know) and purple behind his ears. His eyes were swollen shut on Tuesday, but better now and the whites of his eyes are red.

Dale has gone in this afternoon and I’ll go after Jacqueline goes home. And now to add, don’t worry, he’s doing fine for the shape he’s in. I took roses to him from us all. Love mom xx