An update on Nana

This is my mom, whom we refer to as "Nana." I'm pretty sure this picture was taken a year ago Christmas at my house. A few posts ago, I mentioned that she had taken a hard fall in the driveway of the house where she and Roy live. She had been to Urgent Care twice and had negative x-rays of her hips (meaning, no hip fracture), but her pain continued to increase. When Sabrina was home for the holidays, we drove over together and since Sabrina is a nurse, she talked to Nana all about her injury, read all of the papers Nana was given at Urgent Care, and was a real encouragement to her Christmas evening.

However, the Thursday after Christmas, Nana's pain had worsened to the point where Roy and I finally drove her to the Emergency Room. They did a CT scan there, had it reviewed by an orthopaedic surgeon (one of the very physicians I used to work for!) who discovered Nana had very certainly fractured her sacrum (in other words, her tail bone) ~ but her CT scan also revealed she has arthritis in her spine! My mom has enjoyed almost perfect health her entire lifetime. She told me a few weeks ago, she didn't even know what people meant when they mentioned having a "headache" because she'd never had one!

We had a follow-up appointment yesterday with the orthopedic physician and because Nana's pain was not controlled with the meds she was prescribed through the ER, she was prescribed stronger pain medication. I spent a few hours today with mom and Roy and this new medication FINALLY seems to be helping to get her pain under control. I'm so relieved about that. It's pretty difficult to see your own mother in that much pain. She has been told by her doctors that this injury will take three to six months to heal! That's a LONG time.

For the next little while at least, I'll be checking on mom and Roy every day and going with them to their appointments. Sometimes doctors are difficult to understand and oftentimes they don't explain themselves very well. So it is expedient that they have someone with them to "interpret" and advocate for them. And for now, even though I have absolutely ZERO medical training and expertise, that person is me ~ it's certainly what God expects of me in this situation and I am waiting to see just what He will teach me through it.

Pray for Nana, okay?