Luvly Laura Took a Spill

Yesterday (Monday, 11/02) I was about an hour late getting home.  My transmission had dropped into "limp" (again!), and I drove VERY sedately for 60 miles to get it to the garage.  I got home about 6:00, in near full-dark.

I didn't realize at first that the house was dark, because I had flipped on the light in the laundry room as I came in.  But when I called out to Luvly Laura, I got a very faint answer.  I hurriedly removed my shoes (covered with coal dust, and all sorts of bad things) and headed for the kitchen.  Then I heard her again, and everything registered...

The house was wholly dark, her voice was coming from the front room, and she sounded very strange.  I went looking... and found her lying on her back at the foot of the stairs.  I was about to attempt to help her up, when I moved her right arm and she screamed.  That brought me out of the state of stupid I was in.  It took me about ten seconds to find out that she'd been there since 8:00 in the morning, and that she was at great risk if I moved her.

I called 911, covered her with a blanket, and waited.  They were there in about five minutes.  They spent about a half-hour getting her ready to transport, and then they headed for the hospital.  We got there about 6:45, and the ER folks were EXCELLENT.  It was radiology where things bogged down.  But by about 10:30, we had the news...

Broken scapula (shoulder blade), four broken/separated ribs, broken vertebra, cracked vertebral processes (the little bone extensions along your spine that make your back bumpy in the middle), VERY bad bruising, and...

That was IT!  No skull fracture, no spinal cord damage, no closed head injury.  Bones are gonna hurt, but NO SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE!

She had tripped at the top, and she remembers doing a full flip in the air and landing on her upper right back, and then rolling forward down the rest of the stairs.  Just a little difference in the flip or subsequent roll, and a broken neck would have been a VERY likely outcome.  I could have come home and found her dead.

Why?  What?  How?  Laura has MS, and it has relapsed badly the past six months.  We've both been in denial, but she has spent a little time in mental fugue states lately, and her balance and locomotion have been deteriorating steadily.  This was almost inevitable.  Now comes the hard part... outfitting our home for this disability, and... taking away her keys.  I don't know how I'm gonna do THAT, but I have to.

More later, after she's seen by a regular parade of doctors.

Second Update