December 23rd, 2011: It started like any other typical Friday night with the family gathered to eat dinner together. Then, my Mom decided to go to the garage to get some Christmas towels to decorate a basket with so that our dinner would be pretty. A few minutes later, however, the decision to get some Christmas towels would change the fate of the Barlow family Christmas festivities. Mom had fallen and she couldn't get up. Seriously. As soon as the boys saw her on the garage floor and noticed that there was something wrong with the direction that her right leg was pointing they knew that a firetruck and ambulance would be coming to Foxswallow Circle. A few minutes later the firetruck arrived followed closely by the ambulance. Luckily, the Grandbabies were fascinated by the light show going on out front so they were not too affected by all the action. Soon, Mom was scooped up by the paramedics and loaded into the ambulance to make the 4 minute trip to the hospital (Seriously! We timed it-4 minutes to the hospital if you hit the lights just right!). Dad was with her and we decided to eat whilst waiting for news. We also decided that the Christmas towels would be staying in the garage.
Dad kept us updated as to the goings on in the ER and let us know when it was time to come. We all knew that it was serious and said many little prayers to ourselves that it would not be a broken hip. Well, our prayers were answered-she did not break her hip...
She decided to pretend that she is a football player and snap her femur in half. Yikes. Laura and I got to the ER with some food and clothes for Dad and were greeted by a Tammy Faye Baker look-alike behind the desk who would only let one of us back to see Mom, so I sent Laura in first. She and Dad came out to get me when a wonderful Dr. came in to give Mom the nerve block so that her pain would be alleviated somewhat. I am pretty sure she would have kissed him had the opportunity arisen. Lets be honest-we all would have kissed Dr. Happy if the opportunity had arisen. When we all got to see her she was in good spirits-instructing me and Laura with where to find the Christmas presents-so we went home and wrapped like crazy until all of the presents were wrapped-about 3am. It felt more like 4am though. Seriously. December 24th, 2011: Awaiting surgery. Apparently hospitals are not known for their promptness, so we stayed with Mom off and on throughout the day until her scheduled 1:00 surgery took place at 6:00. Yep, it was just a broken femur-no need to hurry. So, while Mom was in surgery we went home and ate and unwrapped presents and tried to rescue some shred of holiday spirit. Luckily Sammie and Spencer kept us entertained. None of us could bring ourselves to use any of the Christmas towels, though. Weird. We ended up having a pretty decent time whilst knowing that Mom was out of pain for a little bit and her bone was being put back together. Around 10pm the surgeon called with a great report and we were able to go to the hospital to see our newly reconstructed Superhero. We all slept a little better that night knowing that the scary part was over. Sort of.
December 25th, 2011: Superhero was up and walking around as soon as the nurses and physical therapists could talk her into it. We decided to visit for a while and have a nice dinner with everyone at home so that she could sleep. Well, sleep as well as you can when you are in a hospital. The next few days were a whirlwind of hospital visits, getting the house ready and recovering from our adventure. On Tuesday afternoon, our Superhero came home! Seriously! Oh yeah, and for an extra special Christmas present she got this:
Some new bionic hardware in her leg! She is a very lucky Superhero! They don't give those things to just anyone. Seriously.
So, for the next few months we will all be concentrating on getting this leg better and making sure that our very own Superhero can walk better than ever before. Luckily, as we have learned from this experience, we are the type of family that circles the wagons when someone is in need. Seriously. The way that this has pulled us closer together has been amazing to me. We have been completely blessed by those around us who have come to our rescue when we needed them the most. Luckily, our Superhero is loved by many.
So, for now we will all pull together so that our Superhero can concentrate on recovery and the dreaded physical therapy. As for me, I am learning to be happy with the small daily victories that inch us ever so slowly closer to our finish line of completely recovered. I am even slowly but surely getting over my hatred of Christmas towels. Seriously! One day at a time...
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