Well...

Well, today is Friday...so let me fill you in on the week we had.

Like I said last time, I was gonna take PG to the doc on Monday cuz I thought her hip may be broken, and BINGO, it was. So now her difficulty walking makes sense; however, I feel like a spaz that it took me so long to figure it out (however, none of the multiple doctors or nurses or physical therapists figured it out at all) so I'm not a total retard. So, we took her to see her orthopedic surgeon on Tuesday...sideline for a moment...while taking PG to the doctor, we wheeled her to the car in her wheelchair (I put her in the car all the time and didn't think it would be a big deal for SSIL to help her into the car)...so I go to take the wheelchair back to her apartment and leave SSIL to get PG into the car. I return (about 5 min) to find SSIL holding up PG and she's hanging onto the door dangling there and the two of them are stuck in that position:) So I get in the car from the other side and pull her inside...SSIL is now exhausted and we haven't even gotten out of the parking lot...anyway...the surgeon put her on the end of the surgery schedule on Tuesday night. He gave us three choices:
1. Leave the hip the way it is, keep her pain-free, she is bed ridden, gets pneumonia, and dies...
2. He does a total hip replacement which is a big surgery and there's a lot of blood loss and she'll most likely need a blood transfusion...wait a minute...I inform the doc that she's JW....
3. So, that leaves us with option 3, stabilize the hip with screws. It's less invasive and she won't need blood. So #3 it is.

We take her over to the hospital and she gets admitted to a room. Hospital personnel are in and out, testing this and that...PG tells the EKG lady as she's leaving the room to "have a nice life." PG was actually quite funny the whole time, she was hallucinating (seeing motorcycles on the ceiling for example). Then finally about 5 hours later it's her turn for surgery. They take her to the OR and the anesthesiologist examines her and asks her some questions. She tells him, "They better hurry up and make me dead cuz I'm starting to hurt." (Which is the first time that she ever complained of hip pain.) The anesthesiologist asked her to open her mouth wide and PG said, "No, I don't want to do that." So, he said, "That's fine."

The surgery went well and PG spent the next 3 days in the hospital recovering. She saw people water skiing down the street in front of the hopsital. She saw a bear outside her window. The nurses gave her a newborn baby to take care of one night and PG said she kept it under the bed. She was stuck in the bed rails and her son (who was in a different state at the time) just sat there and watched her struggle and didn't help her get out. Her mind had a very busy hospital stay. But physically she is recovering nicely.

Today she was transferred to a rehabilitation center for physicial therapy. An occupational therapist was evaluating what PG could and couldn't do--like she couldn't unbutton the blouse she had on, but she could pull on a t-shirt over her head by herself--"activities of daily living"--stuff like that. And then she gets PG to bed and gives her the call button and asks PG, "If you need to use the bathroom, what would you do?" PG responds, "Do you want to know my secrets?" Man, that caught my attention:) I couldn't wait to hear what she was going to say! PG continues, "I use the pull-ups sometimes if I can get situated." (Translation: she keeps pull-ups in a plastic grocery bag and hangs from the head board of her bed. When she wets it, she pulls it off throws it under the bed and gets a new one from the plastic bag.) "Or, sometimes I crawl out of bed and find a newspaper..." (Translation: I'm shocked! I didn't know she did that. What I know from experience is that she goes in her waste basket.) Needless to say, I will send SSIL to her apartment while she's in rehab and have him clean the carpet!

So the therapist and I stressed to PG that she obsolutely must use the call button for any kind of help so that she doesn't get hurt. It's 10:30 pm and they haven't called me yet to say that they've found her on the floor so let's hope she's using the button.

We also went on a shopping spree at Wallymart today and bought PG some pull-on shirts and some stretchy pants and sports bras--the occupational therapist is going to teach her to dress herself with more convenient clothes. I gotta find some velcro tennis shoes tomorrow.

I'm now unwinding from the week with Season 4 of The Office DVD! Right off, it's working--I'm laughing out loud and it feels good--Michael hit Meridith with his car!!