Ripley's Believe It or Not

As you may recall, on Friday, 17 August, my father, who had turned 81 that Tuesday, and my mother were in a car accident. My mother was treated and released, but my father spent the first week at the University Medical Center in Tucson. He was transferred to the VA on Friday, 24 August. His only "direct" injuries were three rib fractures which have long ago healed. But, due to morphine induced delirium he is frequently confused, cannot write legibly, requires speech therapy and physical therapy, etc. He has various pain, pre-dating the accident, that has been exacerbated by the lengthy hospital stay. On Monday of this week the PT thought something seemed wrong because he was complaining of much more severe pain. They did x-rays. Nothing. He's been in agony all week. They did more x-rays. Well, to quote my sister who called to bring me up to date, the doctor practically genuflected when he came to tell my mother that they had discovered that he has a broken hip. I am not making this up. I'm fuzzy on the details, but it turns out that apparently one of the nurses said she was told he had fallen about a week ago, but thus far nobody has found it noted on his chart. He has to come off the blood thinner he takes before surgery, but he will have surgery sometime soon to have a pin put in the hip. My mother said that it will either be general anesthesia or a spinal. That's the part that makes me the most nervous. Take someone who's 81 and already a mess and give him general anesthesia. Wonderful.

It gets better. As I said, my sister called to tell me about this. Then she told me that she had left work yesterday and treated herself to a facial at a place she has gone for years. At first application of the cream - or whatever - her face burned. Long story short - her face looks like she's been scalded or some such. She got in to her dermatologist today and although there is no such contraindication for the medicine she uses, that's likely what caused the reaction. But, wait, yesterday when she got home my nephew asked her why the carpet was wet. Turns out they have a slab leak. A pipe in the slab - no longer a "to code" design - has leaked so the house is now in chaos while they replace, as I understand it, part of the slab and the pipes.

And, did I tell you that one of my good friends here - do you remember the Hup Holland photo? - was hit last Friday and her car was totalled? She's fine. Fortunately the guy who hit her, an attorney, jumped out and immediately acknowledged his fault.

I called my mother and she made me promise that nothing will happen here. We live and hope.