A broken bone

Tippy and I were on the deck last Saturday starting to grill some ribs. I got the fire started for her and the grill cleaned a bit and she loaded on the ribs. I turned and took a couple of steps to head down to the boathouse to check out the rising lake level when I heard a bog THUD! I turned around to find Tippy sitting on the deck and in obvious pain. Right away she said her hip was broken as she remembered the feeling and the pain from her previous experience a couple of years ago. I had my cell phone withy me so I dialed up 911 and waited for help to arrive. Our local Southern Oaks Volunteer Fire Department were the first on the scene, one of their members, Pat Markam, lives in our development and two others responded pretty soon after Pat arrived. It took the ambulance from Corsicana almost 40 minutes to arrive but they quickly got Tippy loaded onto the gurney and into the ambulance for the ride back to the hospital. At the emergency room they took x-rays of her hip and her elbow, she also banged that in the fall, and sure enough the hip, at least the femur, was broken. The main Orthopedic surgeon in Corsicana, Dr. Malone, was not on call that evening and the second guy, a Dr. Sandu, couldn't do the surgery until late Monday or Tuesday. This was obviously not acceptable so we began to look for alternatives. We discovered that Dr. Mayfield, her previous orthopedic surgeon in Tyler was no longer with the hospital there so we headed to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas where a Dr. Gates was waiting to help Tippy. It was almost 9:30 PM before they began the transport to Baylor, the accident occurred at about 3:30. Tippy and I decided that the best thing for me to do was to stay home on Saturday night and drive up with the motorhome on Sunday. I was able to find, with the help of my son David, an RV Park about 15 miles from the hospital. The Dr. began the surgery early on Sunday morning, even before I was on the road. I had most of my stuff loaded the night before but I finished getting ready not travel and was on the road by 9:00. I got to the RV Park by 10:30, got settled, and headed for the hospital. I was in Tippy's room waiting when she returned from there recovery room. I had a call before I left from one of the pre-op nurses and she informed me that Tippy was going into surgery and that she was doing fine. On the way I had a call from another nurse saying the surgery went well and that Tippy was heading to the recovery room. While driving to the hospital Dr. Gates called me and told me the surgery went well and that he had installed a short rod and a screw to repair the break. He had used two small incisions to get the job done. The PT folks were in to see Tippy on Monday and had her walking, 65 steps, that day. By Tuesday she had walked 100 steps in her afternoon PT. She has pain when walking, as you might expect, but it doesn't seem to near as painful as the first break. She continued with her two times a day PT work on Wednesday and then the social worker came in while I was there to inform us that the Dr. had written orders for her to go to a nursing home on Thursday but the PT's thought she could just go home. After discussing the alternatives we decided to she should come home but the Dr. didn't want her climbing any stairs right yet which meant the motorhome was out for her transportation. We decided that I would take the motorhome home and come back on Thursday to pick her up with the CR-V. I left the metroplex around 2:00 and headed home. Tippy called before I was even out of the area and told me that the social worker had returned and informed her that the insurance company said they would cover her expenses only until midnight and then she would have to be out of the hospital or pay the cost herself. I told her not to worry and that I would call the insurance company when I got home. Well I had probably driven about 40 miles when Tippy called again and said the social worker had returned and informed her that the insurance company would cover her through tomorrow, apparently due to the fact that she was going home and not to a rehab/nursing facility. So my blood pressure started to go down and had a much more enjoyable drive home. I spoke with my friend/neighbor Leon and he agreed to check on Alex while I was gone. Tippy was scheduled for PT at 10:30 so that was my target arrival time and I was right on time. Only problem was the PT's decided to come at 9:30 instead and Tippy was sitting in her chair ready to go home. The nurse came in, apparently saw me arrive, and got her all checked out and called for transport to the pick-up area. We got Tippy into a wheel chair and all her stuff loaded onto a cart. The transport gal left with Tippy and the cart and I went to get the car to meet them at the pick-up area. We were able to get her into the car easily, all of the stuff loaded, and we were on our way. I hadn't had anything to eat all day and Tippy was a little hungry so we stopped at a Taco Bell on the way home and got some food. Tippy had a couple of Tacos, only ate one, and I had a supreme burrito. With some food in my stomach we drove the rest of the way home without incident. At home we were able to get Tippy out of the car and standing with the help of her walker, left over from first hip problem, and she walked to the door. I brought one of the dining room chairs, on wheels, for her to sit in and we wheeled her into the house and took her to bed for a while. While she was resting I drove to Walmart to get the medications prescribed for her pain and some walkie talkies to help with communications. Later in the afternoon she got up to check her computer and play a game and then we watched some TV before she was ready to return to bed. I grilled some pork chops and heated up some peas but she didn't feel like eating and went to bed. I guess I can say that she slept like a baby since we were up about every two hours getting her to the bathroom. By morning we were pretty good with getting her into and out of the bed and her walking to the bathroom and back was good exercise as well. I had built a small step last time to help her get into bed and fortunately we still had that as well. She was able to back up to the step, step up, about 4 inches, and then sit down on the edge of the bed. After she gets herself into the right position I raise her legs and swing them onto the bed. As I said, by morning we had the procedure down pretty well and the ins and outs were pretty smooth. We did some leg exercises this morning in addition to her walking and I hope that she will continue to get stronger as the days go by. On a brighter note the lake has come up enough, only 4.4 feet down right now, that I can float my boat. That being said I don't think I will be able to use it for a while as I am pretty busy with Tippy and until she can get in and out of bed by herself I feel uncomfortable leaving her by herself. We had a couple week trip planned down to South Padre Island here in Texas to meet some friends but obviously we had to cancel that adventure. Our next outing isn't until the middle of March but we will have to see her progress before deciding on that trip. More as it happens. Be safe.