More Hypothetical Badness

Ma,

Last night Aunt Elaine was walking from the living room to her bedroom when she fell. I didn't see it happen, but we all heard her screaming. Screaming and screaming. She doesn't know what made her fall (thank god none of us left anything on the floor), but she hadn't screwed up her pills. Alex brought a bag of frozen vegtables for her knee and Aunt Elaine stayed on the floor icing for a while.

We got her up somehow, into bed, and Dani and I shoved a pillow under her knee. But if the blanket touched her leg even a tiny bit she'd scream. Dani and I took turns keeping track of the ice, doing twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off. After three hours the swelling hadn't gone down at all, so we called 911.

Again. It was like midnight when they got here, and Alex was already asleep. I told the guy about the last hospital visit, that it was just like a month ago, and how Aunt Elaine has a walker and everything. Dani left Alex a note saying we'd try to be back before she woke up, but if not to go to school. I grabbed the container of pills for yesterday and today, just in case. And then the ambulance guys broke their insurance rules and let us ride in the ambulance to the hospital.

We camped out in the emergency room while x-rays were done. They don't think the knee is broken but it's so swollen they just can't be sure. It's possible there's a tiny chip or fracture. Aunt Elaine needs an MRI to see through the swollen-ness. They gave us a prescription for pain killers and were going to send Aunt Elaine home with crutches and a bandage around her leg. But she can't use crutches! Danielle told them about the walker and they found a physical therapist to come help with that - they just wanted to see Aunt Elaine walk up and down the hallway alright and then we could leave.

But no. She got dizzy and said she was going to pass out, so the PT talked to the doctor and said she was being admitted for 24 hours for observation. Shit, shit, shit.

We waited in the hallway for hours for a room. Aunt Elaine was on a gourney and Dani and I shared a chair and fell asleep from like 4-6 a.m. So. Uncomfortable. After they got a room all set a social worker came by. Dani saw her coming and snuck into the bathroom. The social worker asked Aunt Elaine if she was okay. She said yes. She turned to me and asked how I was. Tired. She asked if someone could take me home. I was about to say I'd go home myself and then remembered who I was talking to. I told her I'd call my next door neighbor to pick me up. It must have sounded convincing or the social worker had more important stuff going on because she left.

Danielle and I got home around 10 a.m. I set an alarm to wake me up in time to get Alex from school. Not that she can't get here herself, but she'd like being met after waking up to find herself home alone. Hauled Alex home, and made breakfast for dinner. We're leaving in a minute to go back to the hospital and I'll bring Aunt Elaine tomorrow's container of pills, just in case. The last thing we need is for her to screw up her pills and start having seizures on top of everything else.

Tomorrow we'll go to school and then probably pick up Aunt Elaine. I didn't bother calling Craig this time. Ma, what the hell? All this time she's been fine. Now twice in like one month?

Love you,
Sam