It takes a really long time for a broken bone to heal

Yesterday (Friday, January 19) Mike and I traveled to Little Rock to see Doctor Nicolas at UAMS.  He didn't do much more than unwrap the surgery so he could have a look at it.  He removed about every other staple in the foot long scar Mike has down the front of his leg, rewrapped the knee in the same old splint that Mike came in with and told him he needs to come back next Friday again to have the rest of the staples removed.

Today, Gary came to replace the gutters along the back side of the house.  Mike has had to stay in bed, so Sonny and I are here to help as much as we can.  We made frankengutter using a lot of the old pieces and all of the new pieces Mike had gotten the day before he broke his leg and if I say so myself, it looks pretty good and I think it will withstand a pretty big snow sliding off the roof if we have any more of that this winter.

Meanwhile I am busy catching up with the bills and the phone calls and the things I've left undone.  Mike is getting a little better every day.  A home health evaluator called Friday morning while we were leaving for Little Rock and told me that the physical therapist who would be taking Mike's case had the flu.  I think the evaluator is going to come out to visit us on Monday, but maybe she is just going to call Monday to talk about when she can make an appointment.  Mike is able to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom and is much better at picking his heavy leg with the fiberglass splint on it using his other leg to lift.  Ten days down and another thirty or so days to go.

Mike's niece Crystal and his brother Danny have been wonderful about calling Mike regularly to help take his mind off his healing process.  I am a mess myself, my mind keeps wandering.  I sometimes think about how many birthdays there are to celebrate at the end of January.  My niece Katie will be three  on the 22nd.  My youngest brother Bryan's birthday is on the 25th, my grandson Craig celebrates his 24th birthday on the 27th of January and my nephew Gary has his birthday on the 28th.

All those birthdays help to make me think about other things than that my daughter Eva will have been gone for a year on the very last day of this month.  I think I have prepared myself for the sad thoughts about Eva's death, but when I least expect it my thoughts are all of her and how sad it all is.  Eva's father was adopted and never knew his birth parents.  His adoptive mother and father are both deceased and although they adopted an older son, Eva was never able to find her uncle again after her grandmother died.  She always remembered that her maiden name was Miers, but now that she is gone, it looks as if the name Miers went with her.  I gave her all the things I had from my first marriage for her to remember her father and her grandmother and I don't know where any of that is now.  I do understand now, why Eva was so insistent that her father be remembered....for without Eva to keep his memory, he would be gone.  Eva left behind two wonderful children, both of whom are parents.  She had a granddaughter and a grandson when she died and a few weeks ago another granddaughter was born--a most beautiful baby girl that I know Eva would have loved and held and cuddled the same way she did her first granddaughter 4 years ago and the same way she held and loved her grandson three years ago.  The thought brings a smile to my face.  I am the great grandmother and I love Eva's children and their spouses and her grandchildren.  Now I understand why Eva did her best to keep her father's memory alive  and I will keep Eva's memory alive for all of my own life the same way!

Tonight after Gary finished working, Sonny was too tired to cook supper and he told me how to make his meatloaf.  I put a couple tablespoons of chicken bullion powder and a little water, two eggs, two thirds of a cup of oatmeal and about a pound and a half of hamburger in a bowl, mixed it thoroughly with my hands then  filled the 12 cups of a rubber muffin pan with the meat (the middle ones had the least meat because Sonny says they don't cook as quickly as the outside cups), put the muffin pan into the oven at 375 degrees for ten minutes. I made a glaze--of a tablespoon of brown sugar, a couple teaspoons of ginger and a quarter cup of ketchup and when the ten minutes was up I glazed 8 of the little meat loaves.  I left the glaze off of mine since I don't eat sugar.  Back into the oven for another 18 minutes, I set a timer and started some macaroni and cheese to make a meal.  (Then I started writing this blog...and it's time for me to go finish supper now!)

Say No to Ice Skating and Break Dancing!!

My husband Mike fell on the ice a week ago Saturday, January 5.   It snowed on Christmas Day and on the day after, more snow fell so that in all we got about ten inches.  For several days after that, the snow melted some in the daytime, but at night the temperature would fall below freezing and the next day there would still be snow.  After nearly a week the snow finally melted enough to start sliding off the roof, huge chunks of it that made it look like it had recently snowed the way it piled up beside the house.  On the day that Mike got hurt Gary, the man who comes to work here when something calls for an extra set of hands or some special knowledge, came to help us repair the damage to the gutters that the heavy snow had caused pulling them down and breaking some of them.  Gary was the one who came inside to tell me that Mike had fallen and that he might have broken his leg.  Things have gone double time around here for me ever since.

Mike was sitting up right on the front cement walkway with his leg across the pile of frozen snow.  I brought him his knee brace and crutches that he asked for trying his best to get up, but none of it worked so I came inside and dialed 911.  I tried calling his doctor in Malvern and his surgeon in Little Rock and even the emergency room at the hospital, but none of them had any suggestions for me.  The emergency crew who came to help Mike from off the front sidewalk first slid a plastic stretcher underneath him, then slid the stretcher onto a gurney, all of it heavy duty work because the ground outside was uneven and slanted and there was little room to do much of anything in the tiny space of the cement walkway between the garage and the hedges.  Once inside, the ambulance driver told me she was going to take him to St. Joseph/Baptist Hospital in Hot Springs.  I had never been there before, but I followed the ambulance all the way there.  The trauma crew checked Mike in, put him onto a bed and he waited for the Doctor to come and order xrays and something for his pain.  It was a couple of hours before the doctor came and when he did, he turned out to be a very young resident who had no experience at all in orthopedics.  He ordered and looked at the X-rays of Mike's knee and upper calf then in another couple of hours came back to the room to ask Mike if he felt better and could walk.  He said he didn't see any kind of break on the pictures of Mike's knee and said Mike should go home and keep the knee propped up and take pain killers and that the knee would most likely be better the next day.  It was tough getting Mike back home again.  The hospital gave him some kind of delauden to kill the pain for the twenty mile trip and it took a lot of time for him to go inside, slowly sliding out of the car then hobbling on a walker and crutches into the garage, across the six feet, up the high step into the house.  Sonny was here to help and he and I brought Mike's wheeled office chair from the computer room and pushed him across the expanse of the livingroom but Mike had to negotiate the three steps up into the bedroom hall all by himself, one tiny movement at a time.  From there it was still not easy going down the hall and across the bedroom and it was not any small task getting up onto the bed without moving the knee but Mike told Sonny and I what to do and we managed.

It was a long wait until Monday,  The trauma Doctor had said to call and speak to an orthopedist, so on  early as possible Mike called to see when he would be able to get in and see Doctor Nicholas at UAMS, the surgeon who had treated him two years ago when he'd had the Giant Cell Tumor at the top of his fibula. At first Mike had an appointment for Friday, 5 days away, but throughout the day he talked to the nurses at UAMS until finally he asked me if I would be able to take him in right then so the doctor could see him that afternoon before three.  It was a long trip to Little Rock, the biggest part of it being the walk across the house, down the three steps into the living area and the one big step down into the garage.  After that, pushing and pulling himself up into the back seat of the car must have seemed like a piece of cake and when we got to UAMS there was a wheel chair and a technician waiting to take him into the hospital itself.  

First we went to radiology for xrays then we went to the 7th floor clinic to see Doctor Nicholas, with half an hour to spare before the 3 o'clock deadline.  Dr. Nicholas showed us on the xrays that Mike did indeed have a break in his fibula and a tear in some tissue that needed repair.  He said that he could not do the surgery until Wednesday but that he would check Mike into the hospital to stay off his leg and not bend his knee or do any more damage before the surgery that would be first thing in the morning on Wednesday.  He introduced the resident surgeon, Dr. Dooley.  Since Mike was only in the hospital so he could stay off his leg, the time before surgery was easy with nothing to be done but to watch tv and play on the computer tablet.  I spent the night Monday because it was dark before we were finished checking Mike into his hospital room and it's a long way to drive home.  On Tuesday, though, I decided to drive back to Bismarck and do the things I had not been able to do before I left and get ready for what I knew might be a long time gone if Mike's surgery the next day didn't go as planned.  I went home via Hot Springs so I could fill up with gas at a familiar place and so I could get a couple of prescriptions filled for Sonny (who'd been to the doctor the Thursday before in Amity) and stock up on milk and eggs so Sonny would have provisions if I was gone for a long time.  That night I showered in my very own shower and slept in my very own bed.  I'd talked to Mike on the phone and he'd warned me that the weather was going to be bad on Wednesday, so I left as soon as it got daylight hoping to be back in Little Rock in time for Mike's nine thirty surgery.  I did get there a little after nine, but when I got to his room Mike was gone.  I hurried down to the 2nd floor but Mike had already gone into the surgery rooms.  I missed him completely, but I checked in at the desk and waited until about noon when Doctor Nicholas came to talk to me and tell me that the surgery had gone fine.  (They talked about replacing Mike's knee, but they repaired the bone break and tissue damage instead using metal rods in the top of the bone and cement and sutures to put it all back in place to heal.)  Mike got out of recovery and back into his room a little after four.  And then it was a night of him being groggy or asleep and me watching tv or using my laptop.  Thursday was a day of Mike in pain.  There was not so much groaning as one might have expected though and several of Mike's family and friends called to talk to him.  The hospital is very efficient and comfortable and everyone who works there is very nice.  When the doctors made their rounds on Thursday they told Mike that he could go home as soon as he was ready.  On Friday they made arrangements for him to check out and about noon we headed for home.  Again it was a chore to take Mike from the car thru the garage, across the living area, up the stairs and down the hall into his bed. 

Now, all is well.  Mike is resting peacefully or awake watching tv or using his tablet, taking as little pain medication as he can and exercising, flexing his calf muscles and wiggling his toes and occassionally standing up beside his bed using his crutches and strengthening his good leg so it will hold all his weight.  I am still on double time having to take over some of his chores along with my own.  Thank goodness for Sonny who has taken on the rest of Mike's chores.  He has been wonderful cooking the three squares a day Mike needs to get back on his feet.  I think we will be going back to see Doctor Nicholas in Little Rock next Friday.  Meanwhile, on Monday a home health physical therapist should be coming to visit to make recommendations about what Mike might need.  There's nothing else to say about it all except ....get well soon, Mike.

A New Years Post...
I wrote this post as 2012 was drawing to a close.  It was hard for me, looking back, not to dwell on the sadness and pain and grief that came during the year, so this final entry took a long time for me to finish.

In 2012, I faced a parent's greatest nightmare, the worst fear of them all.  On the final day of January, the only daughter I birthed, Eva, died at the age of 44.  My grief has not ended. I miss Eva in my life. 

In October of 2012, my friend, my husband's mother, Norma Becknell died. My mother in law and I saw one another regularly for 30 years, from 1982 when her youngest son brought me home to meet his parents until the day of her death. We enjoyed coffee, garage sales, her husband Gadget (who died in 1996), their "full of personality" dogs, their wonderful friends and family, both new and old.  I liked Norma's artwork and portraits.  We had fun making beds and cleaning and cooking together.  The smallest things brought laughter and joys.  Together!.  After years of smoking together, we quit together.  Always through the years, we chatted together, we shopped together, and together we had a great time. Norma will always be a blessing to me.  I miss her in my life.

Last Thanksgiving I wrote the following--I am thankful for my children.  I will always wish that my daughter and my son had a better, fuller life, that they’d been able to travel more widely and meet more people and that they’d been exposed to more ways of doing things and seen more of life….but my best wishes for my daughter and my son are just one more way that I know I am thankful for them both.  I am thankful that my daughter, although she is an adult with a family and friends and problems and joys of her own, she stops sometimes and tells her mother that she loves her.  She doesn’t forget me.  I am thankful that my son although he is an adult, helps out with things that need to be done, cooks deliciously, steps in to lend a hand when things are too heavy or too much hard work, occupies himself without looking to me or my husband to keep him from being bored living in the country with no place to go…and he, too stops sometimes to tell his mother that he loves her.  

I would have to make changes to the note above.  My daughter died January 31, 2012.  I am thankful that I knew Eva from the moment of her birth until the time of her death, all  44 years of her life.  For her, I still grieve.  For her I always wished a wonderful life full of travel and people and ways of doing things and seeing things that would make her life one of blessings and joys.  May my daughter Eva now rest in peace.   As an adult with a family and friends and problems and joys of her own Eva always stopped to include me in her life and she always stopped to tell her mother that she loved her and that she hadn't forgotten me.  I am thankful for all the times we were together and will never forget a single one.  Sometimes my son and I talk and he tells me that he misses having Eva in his life.  It has been tearful for me to see and talk to my grandchildren, but I am thankful to know them both, parents today, I'm delighted to see Eva mirrored and see how she has given some of the best parts of herself to her children and in her grandchildren!

More about the old year

In the winter months of 2012, it never snowed.  It was very cold in the spring so I was late to put my winter garden plants into the ground.  We got baby chicks, but it was so cold for them that I worried how they would fare.  Spring came then after everything was covered in tiny green buds the weather froze one last time.  Our property taxes fell due and I hadn't saved enough money to pay them.  The price of gas was so high we stopped most of our traveling.  We stopped eating out.  I occupied much of my time looking for coupons and discounts and rearranging our spending habits, saving for the next taxes and insurance that would fall due.  Our stock market investment share value fell from a few dollars to a few cents and my IRA lost its worth.  In the summer months it was very hot and very dry.  There was no rain for long stretches and my garden simply burned up.  My electricity bill stayed healthy though, and my water bill.  I caught the flu Thanksgiving and was abed for a week before I went to the doctor to find out that the flu had evolved into pneumonia and that Mike, too had the flu.  The year ended with stormy weather and loss of electricity for long periods of time.  The world didn't end as predicted on December 21.

There were, however, in 2012 many pluses!  The chicks were fine and healthy.  In spite of my worries they grew up and started laying eggs before the summer was over! I enjoyed being a grandmother when Chloe and Trinity came and visited us for a couple of weeks in the summer.  My niece Crystal came and spent the night with us and brought her husband Mike and Alley, her teenage daughter.  In August I went to the Nagel Family Reunion held at the resort next door to my brother Doyle's farm in Gainsville, Texas.  Nagel is the last name of my maternal grandparents, my mother's parents.  I enjoyed seeing my Aunt and my Uncle who are still living and cousins and and their children and grandchildren.  I saw some of my forever friends, some cousins I had not seen in a long time,  and some cousins for the first time. My daughter Dawn came to visit for Thanksgiving and brought her son who is just learning to drive and her daughter who is in preschool.  The springtime was welcomed and was beautiful.  The summer included swimming and exploring.  The fall was a wall of vibrant color and brought holidays and love.  December brought Christmas and reminded me once more that my daughter was a wonderful person.  She was one of those people who, no matter how far away in time or distance was someone she called friend, she always remembered to let them know she loved them.  My mailbox was full to the brim with cards and letters from my own family and friends and also good wishes and hugs from those who loved and missed my daughter, sharing their own Christmas with me.  The world didn't end as predicted on December 21.

The New Year came in quietly.  Mike was asleep and Mike2 and I had only beer to make a toast with.  The neighbors shot few fireworks, so when  Mike2 found some old bottle rockets, we shot two of them into the sky and we each said "Happy New Year".  Welcome 2013! I will always remember 2012, but as the year draws to a close, I know that my memories will be full of both laughter and sadness...bittersweet.