My Mom

My mom called me on May 15th, around 2 PM, right in the middle of an extremely busy workday. First thing out of her mouth was, "I fell and totally messed myself up". She laughed at the end of that sentence.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. She's telling me she fell and then she's laughing as if there is no importance to such an event. Caught totally off guard, I quickly asked her how it happened and if she was ok, did she need me to go get her, take her to the hospital, etc.

She proceeded to tell me she had ice on her knee and hand. She was fine she said!! She did sound ok but my mom is a trooper, she won't admit anything is wrong unless it's extreme.

After we hung up, I was pretty much a basket case, wondering if she was ok, if she had told me the entire severity of her injuries and also wondered what unknown injuries could be lurking after such a fall. I am a worry wart by nature so my mind was racing in a million directions.

Mind you, my mom lives alone and I am constantly telling her to be very careful when walking, if she needs a light bulb changed, to wait for me or my brother to come over and do it, etc. But my mom is a stubborn one and likes to think she can do everything herself.

Anyways, she told me that she had put up a new curtain in the kitchen. Mind you, she had to get up on a stool to do this. I had told her a week before that I would help her with that next time I came by. I told her I didn't want her getting up on any stool. Automatically, when she tells me about the stool I'm thinking she fell off it. But no, that is not what happened at all. She put the curtain up just fine and moved the stool over to the side of the kitchen instead of just putting it away. She went to the sink to get a plant she was going to move from the kitchen window and as she was walking out of the kitchen, she tripped over the stool she'd left to the side. Totally forgot it was even there. She was still holding the plant when she fell. The pot cracked in her hands from the fall. I believe the pot is what broke her index finger. The blunt of the fall appears to have been taken by her right knee.

I called my mom back about an hour after we spoke and she said she was still sitting, with ice on her knee and hand. She then told me that my brother was supposed to come by later that evening to have dinner with her. She was going to cook something for him. She asked me to call my brother and tell him she wouldn't be able to cook. As soon as I heard that, panic set in. My mom would do anything for us, even if she's not feeling well and for her to say she's not going to cook after she had invited my brother over, scared me to death!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I told her I'd tell my brother and hung up!!!

I automatically called my brother and informed him of the situation. He told me he'd stop by to check on her after he got off work. He called me when he got to my mom's house and told me her knee was extremely swollen, like the size of a softball and that one of the fingers on her hand was black. The finger was was extremely swollen. He told me my mom still insisted she didn't need medical attention.

I asked him to take her over to an URGENT CARE FACILITY that is close to her house. These are new in our area. They are run by the major hospitals but cater to smaller, non emergency situations. He told me he'd take her there and would call me once the doctor checked her out.

I got a call about an hour later and my brother proceeded to tell me that x-rays revealed that my mom had a broken index finger and that her knee was extremely banged up but thankfully no other fractures. He also told me that her blood pressure was extremely high and that the doctor wasn't willing to send her home with such high blood pressure. They gave her some blood pressure medication and advised that we'd have to wait and see if her blood pressure would go down before she could be released. The doctor indicated that her blood pressure was probably high due to the fall and the entire experience.

An hour and a half later, her blood pressure was still extremely high and the doctor still didn't want to release her with such high blood pressure. He suggested we take her to the emergency room where they could better monitor the blood pressure, etc. He advised that an ambulance could transport her from the urgent facility to the emergency room.

So off she went to the hospital. I met them there. She arrived in the emergency room about 10 PM. I spent the entire night with her while they monitored her blood pressure and finally got it low enough to where they could release her. I took her home at 7 AM the next morning and spent all day with her that day plus the entire weekend. I actually spent 5 entire days at her house, taking care of her. I was terrified that her knee would give out while she tried to walk to the bathroom, through the house, etc. I just couldn't leave her home alone.

I finally left her alone after 5 days and although her knee was still bothering her severely, her spirits were up and she was thankful that she hadn't broken anything else but her index finger.

I bought her a blood pressure monitoring machine and her blood pressure still seemed to be abnormally high even a week after her fall. I finally got her to go to the doctor to have that checked out and they changed her regular blood pressure medication.

I have to admit, sleep has been the best for me since her fall, constantly worrying about her.