Mom Slipped and Fell

Mom had another accident on Monday. She fell in the bathroom at her foot doctor's office. When she came out she had a large gash in her leg. The cut was about 6 or 7 inches long and the skin had spread over an inch. It was pretty scary looking. She didn't even know she had injured herself.

Fortunately we were at the foot doctor's office and they helped get it bandaged up so we could safely transport her to a walk-in clinic. I called her regular doctor's office but they were already booked up for the day - it was 2:30 in the afternoon.

The foot doctor was sure that she would need stitches and steri strips. When we got to the walk-in clinic they said they didn't want to do stitches because her skin is so fragile it would just tear and that would be worse. So they put something called a biocclusive dressing on it to hold it together. It's the kind of bandage that is clear like plastic but the skin can breathe through it. They said it should hold the wound together until it starts healing on its own, and in a few days it would probably come off by itself. But they recommended she be seen in 2 or 3 days to check for potential infection.

I made her an appointment with someone at her doctor's office on Wednesday. On Tuesday morning she called Diega and said her leg had bled and the bandage was getting loose and ready to come off. She wanted Diega to change the bandage for her. Instead I called her doctor's office. They said it sounded like she just needed the dressing changed and Diega could bring her in for a nurse to do that. I made the appointment.

When Diega took Mom in to see the nurse they found that her leg had already started an infection. Her skin was red around the wound indicating infection under the skin. A nurse practitioner prescribed antibiotics. They changed her dressing to something more conventional - a nonadhesive pad with gauze around. Diega would have to change the dressing the next morning (Wednesday) and then on Wednesday afternoon I went to Olympia and took Mom to see the doctor. Diega came too and was able to give more information about how the wound looked the day before than I could since I didn't see it on Tuesday.

The doctor had the same nurse who had seen it the day before take another look. The nurse and Diega agreed that it looked worse. The red area had widened and it now felt hot to the touch. The doctor decided not to change the antibiotics because Mom had less than a day's worth of dose in her and we needed to see if this antibiotic would do the trick.

Diega changed the dressing this morning and my brother-in-law took Mom back to the nurse. Both Diega and the nurse agreed Mom's leg is looking much better. It is no longer hot to the touch and the red area has receded. Yay, the antibiotics are working.

I talked to Mom's neighbor Susan and she graciously agreed to change my mother's dressing each day while her leg gets better. I cannot express how grateful I and my family are that Susan is willing to help in this way. You just don't find such good neighbors every day. Thank you Susan!!

Did I take pictures? You bet. I took a couple photos on Wednesday at the doctor's office while the bandage was off. I wanted something for comparison in case her leg appeared to get worse. I didn't embed the photos here because I know some are squeamish. If you would like to see them the photos are here and here. The first picture is of the actual wound where it was cut. The second photo is of the back side of her leg where the redness was wrapping around.

Let's hope Mom's leg continues to heal and that she can keep from falling any more!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Last Thursday night I had a bit of a mishap on my way home. It was about 8:45 at night and I had just gotten off the bus at the local park and ride. The Northgate Park and Ride has a walking path down the center that is lined with trees and has tree roots pushing up the sidewalk in quite a few places.

I was in a hurry to get to my car and get home and carrying my heavy purse and tote bag. Sure enough, my left foot tripped on the pavement where a tree root had pushed it up. I was afraid I was going to fall but then felt I could catch myself first by getting my right foot under me quickly.

Unfortunately the path for my right foot was blocked by another tree root. Down I went. I fell forward with my arms mostly outstretched. I landed on my knees and base of my hands, jamming my left shoulder and left wrist. My body hit the ground pretty hard.

When you fall suddenly like that it takes a couple minutes before you know if anything is broken or if you will be able to get up. I was eager to get up as quickly as I could to head for the safety of my car. It was dark out and I didn't know what nefarious types might be wandering about. But I had to take a couple minutes for the shock to wear off and pain to subside.

In that couple minutes before I knew the extent of my injuries my first thought was "if I'm broken or unable to get up, how will I get home?" followed quickly by "if I am seriously injured how will I take care of my mother??" Fortunately, these thoughts were short-lived because I was able to get up (albeit slowly) a couple minutes later.

I was pretty shaken up but not seriously injured. I had new empathy for what my mother probably went through in her last fall. It's scary. You feel suddenly helpless and vulnerable.

I got myself to my car and called Walter to let him know what had happened and that I would be home soon. Over the next couple days I came to realize the full extent of my injuries - soft tissue ones for the most part. My shoulder still bothers me if I raise it above my head. I slightly bruised my lower ribs on the left side and my tummy is quite black and blue. And then there's the sore muscles: arms, neck, sides, back and abdominals. I'm healing up really quickly and none of my injuries are obvious from the outside. In a few days I will be good as new. I'm feeling grateful to be in one piece.

I love sharing things with my mother but falling is not something I care to repeat. When I told my sister Diega about it she told me she fell a few days ago - also with minor injuries. When noticing my sore body this morning I asked Walter to remind me not to fall any more. He said "consider yourself reminded - for the rest of your life."

As for my mother's last fall she's still in a fair amount of pain when she walks. We head back to the doctor's office tomorrow provided snow doesn't stop me from getting to Olympia.

Rude Awakening

At 2:22 this morning we were awakened to the blaring caterwaul of our apartment's fire alarm. The system is well designed to emit such an obnoxious high decibel noise that it would be impossible to ignore it and remain snug in one's bed. We dressed as quickly as we could considering our just-awakened-in-the-middle-of-the-night brain fog.

Out into the cold we went to stand in front of the building with 100 others in the frigid night air. Although we were well bundled up it was not too comfortable out there where the temperature was about 30 degrees fahrenheit.

In a few minutes several fire trucks arrived, sirens sounding and lights flashing. The firemen are impressive in their large protective gear, one carrying the hatchet in case they need to free a fire hose from its glass casing. Their march is swift and purposeful. Apartment managers scramble to find keys needed by the firemen and we wait while they checked every apartment.

Finally after 40 minutes of "chilling" our heels we were given the okay to return to our beds. I was happy to discover that even in 40 minutes time my side of the bed was still warm as I had left the covers on top to hold in some heat.

It's difficult not to be annoyed by such an interruption in sleep. The last time our fire alarm went off was on our anniversary in 2006. That was also a middle of the night adventure. We have endured quite a few fire alarms in the two decades we have lived at this apartment complex. Most of those were mid-sleep.

Why do you suppose there is such a high proportion of alarm firings in the middle of the night? It seems there are pranksters who think it's fun to yank a fire alarm pull and wake everyone from their beds. I personally did not think it was so much fun.

Jim and Kristina Having a Boy!

At Christmastime I love getting family photos from my friends who send them. I meant to share some of those photos here including one of Jim and Kristina and their little girl Elena. But sometimes I get behind on things I intend to post and that's what happened this year.

I haven't had a chance to scan in the photos yet, but hope to still do that. In the meantime I wanted to share a bit of news that came with Jim and Kristina's photo. Jim and Kristina are particularly creative folks and they do one of those great newsy Christmas letters each year. I read through the letter enjoying all the bits of family news. Then in the last paragraph they spilled the biggest news of all ... Elena will be a big sister in June! I can't believe they left that surprise for the last paragraph.

Of course we are very happy for Jim and Kristina and look forward to meeting the new little one when he arrives. He? Why yes. Just yesterday I found a post on Elena's blog which shared the news about the baby's gender. Elena will have a new baby brother in just a few months.

Congratulations to Jim, Kristina and Elena. It's great to share such happy news.


Note:
I will be taking a break from blogging for the next week. My efforts instead will be concentrated on preparing for apartment inspections coming up. After I return I will try to get the photos posted including the one of Jim, Kristina and Elena.

Diagnosis: Dry Eye Syndrome with Recurrent Corneal Erosion

Okay who thinks this post is about Walter's eyes - show of hands? I'm afraid not this time.

A couple months ago I wrote about my fear of putting eye drops in my eyes. I was trying to get over that because I was having a problem with pain and dryness in my eye and knew that at some point I must go to the eye doctor - something I always dread.

I've been doing pretty well the last 6 weeks putting in artificial tear drops twice a day. I no longer need to lie down, I can do it sitting up or standing. But I still have to put the drops in the corner of my eye with the eye closed and then open the eye and blink to distribute the drop. My anxiety level has decreased though.

My eyes have continued to feel dry and itchy. The last straw was yesterday morning. Yesterday I woke up, opened my eyes and experienced severe pain in the right one. Yowsa! Upon hearing my yell Walter asked “what did you step on?” I replied “Nothing, I just opened my eye!”

This has happened 3 or 4 times in the recent past. It’s quite painful at first and gets slightly better after putting about 10 drops of artificial tears in the eye. But it remains uncomfortable for the rest of the day. Walter suggested that maybe my eyes were so dry my eyelid was sticking to the cornea.

This morning I went to the eye doctor and sure enough, Walter was right! I have dry eye syndrome and sometimes when I open my eye in the morning the lid is stuck and it scratches the cornea when I open it - hence the recurrent corneal erosion.

The solution? Lots of artificial tear eye drops (3 or 4 times a day), more breaks from the computer screen, and putting an ointment in my eye before I go to bed. An ointment??! Yes. The doctor said if I really can't do it to let him know and he will prescribe more of a gel type eye drop, but the ointment would be most successful.

He's a very patient doctor and showed me some great tips for getting the drops and ointment in there. I'm going to give it a try. Not waking up in severe pain will be worth it. Wish me luck.

Mom Took a Tumble

My Mom had been doing pretty well until last Wednesday. Her energy was increasing and she was feeling a bit more energetic with each passing week. The only remaining issue I was worried about was her underweight problem. She doesn't eat enough and is having a hard time gaining weight back after losing so much to pain medication that made her nauseous. At her last appointment she weighed in at 88 pounds. Since her back surgery she has not needed the awful pain medication and I had hopes she would start regaining some weight. But progress on this front is very slow. In other respects she has been pretty healthy. As I said, until Wednesday...

Mom uses a walker to navigate around her home and she does quite well with it. When we take her out to the store or doctor appointments she has been using a cane with some extra support of either my hand on the other side or leaning on the edges of countertops or grocery store carts. She can go a short distance on her own with her cane but not too far. For that reason she is not supposed to leave her house to go down the driveway and get her own mail at the street. She waits for Tyler next door to bring her mail.

Of course sometimes she gets impatient, and she has been feeling more energetic. A couple weeks ago she told me she was going to try and get her own mail. I asked her not to do that because it's too far for her to be walking on her own with just the cane. She told me "I think I can make it!" That was not confidence inspiring to me and I reiterated that I wanted her to wait for the neighbors to bring the mail.

Last Tuesday Mom was done being patient and she went out to get her own mail. She knew I would not approve so she did not tell me she did that. On Tuesday she was successful getting out to the mailbox and back and into the house on her own. On Wednesday she was not successful. After she got her mail on Wednesday she returned to the house only to fall on the top of the two small steps before reaching her front door.

When I called her late Wednesday afternoon (as I do every afternoon) I asked how her day was. She told me everything was just fine. I happened to ask if she got her mail okay (meaning did the neighbors get it to you). She said "Yes, I got it." Then she paused. And she said "I went out and got it myself." What?!! I became alarmed. I asked "Mom, was that a good idea??" She said "Well no, because I fell." WHAT?!!

She told me that she fell hard on her left side and she was afraid that she had broken her hip. Mom has no fat padding her bones and I think her left hip hit the corner of the cement step pretty hard. She told me she was sure now that she had not broken the hip because she could walk around on it okay. She also skinned up her knee and elbow pretty good. I made her an appointment to get checked out at the doctor's office on Monday (yesterday).

By Monday she said her hip was hurting more and her left leg was quite painful to step on. It's really hard to judge how injured someone is by what they say on the telephone. When I saw her move I realized this was not just a little bump. She was having a difficult time moving around.

The doctor's office took x-rays and today we received the result that her hip is not broken. Of course x-rays sometimes do not show everything. If none of her bones are broken she should start feeling better soon. We will give her a few days to start getting better, but if it's not better by next week I will have to take her back to the doctor for further tests. We can't have this getting worse because Mom can't take any pain medication stronger than Tylenol without some dire consequence.

We're sure hoping this is a temporary setback and Mom can once again make a turnaround in the direction of health. In the meantime, she has promised to wait for the mail to be delivered by the neighbors from now on. I sure hope she does!

Mom at the Foot Doctor's

A week or so ago Mom had her regular appointment with the foot doctor. When she arrives in the treatment room she removes her socks and shoes then gets into the recliner where they will work on her feet.

After she got in the chair I noticed how she had hung her purse on her cane and her shoes and socks were waiting nearby. Everything looked so tidy. It occurred to me that would make a good photo so I got out my camera. While I had my camera out I also took a picture of Mom in the chair waiting to have her feet examined and worked on. I thought I would share these pics with you.

New Year's Day - Hoppin' John and Fun at Nikka's House

Walter and I had a fun time visiting with our friends Wayne, Michelle and Nikka on New Year's Day. Walter was feeling slightly better than the night before so he was able to come along for the fun. (Yay!)

I have long appreciated the southern tradition of eating a dish called Hoppin' John (blackeyed peas and rice) on New Year's Day for good luck. I made the dish on New Years quite a few times, but not consistently every year. We did not have Hoppin' John on New Years 2007 and in retrospect I wish we had. :) So this year I was determined to remedy that.

I made a nice big pot of Hoppin' John and some honey cornbread and took it to Wayne and Michelle's house in Maple Valley. They had never tasted Hoppin' John before but it seemed to be a hit. We had a great time eating and visiting.

Wayne and Michelle's daughter Nikka (hard to believe she is almost 6!) has recently discovered the hula hoop. I asked her to show off her hula hoop skills for my camera, and she did not disappoint. As you will see on this video the first time she swung the hoop it went around 2 or 3 times then fell. That was the warm-up. Then she swung it again - in the opposite direction this time. The hoop went round and round ... and round ... and round.... Nikka was keeping that hoop up like a champ! I counted over 20 revolutions. Way to gooooo Nikka!



I also got a video of their dog Chip's latest trick - he can crawl!



Thanks for the hospitality Wayne and Michelle. Walter and I had a great time.

New Year's Eve - Meeting Niko

I'm afraid I've been slow to get things posted here on the blog. I have several posts "in my head" but I know you can't read them there. Life is busy so I'll just have to put things up as I can find time. Sorry to make you wait.

We had a very nice New Year's Eve. At least I did. Walter was pretty sick with a cold and had to stay home. My sister Pitas invited us to come to their New Year's Eve party. I knew their whole family would be there and I couldn't turn down an opportunity to go visit at least for a while. It was my first chance to meet Niko, my great-nephew (Boyboy's son).

Niko is an adorable and very well behaved 6 month old. It was great to see him, his parents, Pam, and everybody else.

Niko loves to pull himself up from a lying down position. His dad holds out two fingers, Niko grabs on, and up he goes. Of course I got it on video:



I also took quite a few pictures of the family and of Obet's Christmas lights. You can click on the photo of Niko and me above to get to the album and use the Next and Prev buttons to navigate.

No Filipino party is complete without great food. I ate just a little, wanting to go home and have dinner with Walter. Pitas and Obet were very generous and packed up "a plate" for Walter since he couldn't come with me. The plate was more than one and ended up being plenty of food for both of us to have a nice dinner when I returned home.

Thank you Pitas and Obet and family for your wonderful hospitality. It was great to see you all!

And I hope all of you had a fun New Year's Eve as well.