I Need Help!!!

I went to my BSF meeting on Saturday morning.  While just getting started into the discussion part of our training, my mom called me.  This was around 6:45 am.  I thought something might be wrong based on the time and that she was calling when she knew I was in the meeting.  The only problem was, I was not in a position to answer or even excuse myself from the room to answer.  3 out of 4 monthly meetings I probably would have been, but not this week.  So I had to sit there for 45 minutes wondering what she needed until this portion of the meeting wrapped up and I could check my voice mail.  Once I did, I got a message from her that was hard to understand.  I thought she said she needed help.  So I called her phone and Ashley answered.  She said mom had called because she had a little accident on our stairs.  She had also sent Ashley a few texts because she was working.  She didn't get those right away either.  I wished she had sent me a text rather than called because I would have been able to see I needed to leave the meeting.  Oh well.  Her phone is junk and is a pain to even text with on a good day so in the position she was in, she couldn't do any more texting.
This is what happened:  she got up about 6:15 for the day and prepared to go downstairs.  She was wearing fuzzy socks to help keep her feet warm.  At home she usually has shoes on or slippers with good soles for extra warmth.  Our house is 15 to 20 degrees warmer than theirs so she didn't have anything over the socks while upstairs on the carpet.  When she got to the top stair to head down, her feet basically went out from under her like hitting a sheet of black ice.  She hit her upper back on the edge of the step really hard and she heard something crack or snap.  She thinks she passed out a bit before coming to and somehow getting to the bottom of the steps.  Unfortunately Nate, Shelby and Morgan were all still sleeping.  If I'd been home I would have heard her fall since our bedroom door is at the top of the stairs.  And I hear everything in my sleep.  Nate doesn't hear anything as well as has a sound machine in his ear.  Shelby also sleeps with a sound machine and Morgan, although in my bed (as usual) doesn't hear well on top of Nate's sound machine noise.  So, she laid at the bottom of the stairs for a good hour before Morgan finally hear her calling for help.  She woke Nate up and they found Nonny in a pile at the bottom of the stairs.  She would not let them call 911 until Ashley was able to get there from work.  When I called at 7:30 the EMT's where there loading her up.  I left my meeting and met them at the ER.

 heading out

I am still trying to picture 5 EMT's inside my front entry but they did it!

 It was probably 7:45 when I walked into that ER room.  We got her checked in and she was finally taken back for a scan to see what was up.  She returned and eventually agreed to an IV since it didn't appear she would be leaving any time soon.  She tried to rest, made it through some more poking for blood withdrawals, and tried to rest some more.  Finally, a resident of the neuro department came into our little ER cell to say it appeared she had a compressed fracture of her T-7 vertebrae.  This was not the news she was waiting to hear and was pretty discouraged.  The resident had been in contact with his boss the head neurosurgeon.  He was able to send a picture of her scan to him via phone (crazy) and he gave his 2 cents (I mean thousands of dollars) worth.  They explained you basically have two options:  surgery or heal on your own.  After 6 months to a year, anyone who has this injury won't show any signs of it.  Up to that point, you have to consider what quality of life you want.  Since she is self-employed and uses her body every day, surgery seemed the only way to go.  While waiting in the ER room, I asked Jamie if he would host our upcoming family Christmas since there would be no way mom could get her house ready and do everything that is involved with hosting a holiday.  We also decided she might as well stay put here in Normal to recover a bit before going home since she couldn't work any way.  That way I could help her out and my dad didn't have to worry about what she was doing while he was at work.  Finally around 4:15 she was relocated to a sweet room in the brand new wing of the hospital.  The head surgeon came by and went over the plan for surgery on Sunday morning.

a small collection of arm bands to keep track of her!

Nate brought the girls over to visit and then we settled in for the night.  They had a nice and comfy couch there in the room for me.  Ashley returned after another night of work just as she was heading back for surgery at 8am. The whole process took less than an hour or so.  They use a big needle, just like the one used in the bone marrow transplant she did for Uncle Nick.  While watching on an X-Ray, the surgeon blows the vertebrae up with a balloon and fills it with cement.  This vertebrae works with your breathing so she actually helped each time she took a breath.  When she inhaled the vertebrae opened up and the doctor inserted the cement.  When she exhaled it deflated so the doc would wait until she inhaled again.  He said he had never seen that before!  According to the surgeon, this surgery is one of their favorites to do.  It is very common in car accidents.  She returned to her room and rested some more, ate some awful hospital food and I was able to take her home around 3:00 that afternoon to Morgan's delight.  She was ready for Nonny to come back!
She stayed for the next week.  She had orders to not use the stairs on her own.  She stayed in the spare bedroom like a good girl every morning until I got up to help her get situated down stairs.  She was not allowed to walk without shoes or the slippers over those fuzzy socks.  And she choked down pain meds as needed.  She is not a needle or pill lover!  We left her here alone with Ashley checking in on her between work hours and sleep and went to Greenville for Nate's family Christmas celebrations.  She ended up driving herself home on Tuesday morning, 1 week and 4 days after her injury.  Since being home, she has returned to work and just has to do what she can regarding her pain.  My aunt Patsy who is a massage therapist worked on her and said she had raised ribs and whiplash on the right side of her neck.  So she has started seeing a chiropractor 3 times a week who told her she was probably hurt a lot more than anyone ever realized!  I think she still has a long road ahead, but can't imagine where she'd be without having done the surgery.