My Grandma

On Friday, my grandma fell and broke her left hip. How did she do this? She was back in the woods with my uncle cutting a fallen tree up for wood. She said she was pulling on one of the limbs of the tree, walking backwards and she tripped over something and fell. Mark tried to pick her up to carry her home, but it was too painful for her, so he sat her back down. A neighbor saw them and realized what was happening and ran over. He stayed with Grandma while Mark went to get his truck. They took her back to the house and called my aunt Betty at work. She came home and they made her go to the hospital.

Grandma never feels the need to go see doctors for anything. She has broken finger and toes, and she just puts them back in place and lets them heal. As a result of that, she has some crooked fingers and toes.

So going to the hospital was not her choice, but she did go. They weren't sure if it was broken or fractured or just dislocated, but after finding out it was broken we found out she had to have surgery.

I couldn't say for certain, but I'm not sure if the hospital has ever had so many people visiting a patient all at once. My Grandma has 8 kids, plus 1 nephew that she raised. Six of them are married, and 6 of them have kids. Some of those kids have kids, so needless to say - there are a lot of us. There were 13 people there when I was there on Friday, the number fluctuated as some people went home and more came. I left for a couple of hours and went back and there were even more people there then.

She wouldn't take anything for pain, and when I was there the first time on Friday the nurse asked her to give a number to her pain from 1-10 with 10 being the worst pain she has ever felt. She answered 0. Having never taken anything other than a baby aspirin for pain, she did not want any other kind. She said she was fine as long as she didn't move.

The doctors didn't have great statistics for surviving a surgery, and everyone was scared. I know it was hard for me to hold the tears while I was with her, and that feeling was mirrored in every face there. Her surgery was scheduled for the next morning - Saturday, July 3rd at 8am.

I went home for a hour or so to make room for the others visiting, and give her a small amount of privacy to eat, and when I went back there were even more people there. I walked around for a little while, giving them a little time to clear out. When I went into her room, I went to the side of her bed and held her hand.

The next morning, I was there before she left for surgery.  My aunts and uncles were all there as well, and we all walked along with her to the surgery wing.  It was my birthday.  We all waited in the waiting room together.  It seemed like forever, but it was only a couple of hours.  Everything went well and the dr. came out to tell us she was in recovery and doing fine.  I was so very relieved.  She's recovering well and will be home sooner than anyone wants her to be, I'm sure.  She doesn't like hospitals and doesn't want to be there.