zeptember

I’ve been calling my dad every other day to check in. He got out of the hospital last Monday, and has had physical therapy and continued pain meds (oxycotin) for the excruciating pain. He says he doesn’t like to take the meds though because it takes him too far into la la land. He says he understands now why kids abuse the stuff but it’s too scary for him. I agreed and told him that I thought I was suffocating to death on just one low-dose (325mg) pill. I can’t even take half of those pills. That stuff makes me very aggressive and moody. I just wish my dad would request another medication if he’s not happy with the oxycotin. It breaks my heart to hear he’s in unbearable pain.

Still, his voice sounds like his old self, with only traces of the pain seeping through. He’s as strong as he ever was.

Dad gave me details of the fall and gorey details of the hip replacement. He said that in the military, one is trained to go through a series of steps when injured in the line of duty. If I remember what he told me correctly…
First you take stock of all your faculties and body parts - are you intact? Can you move? Then you figure out what the situation around you is like - is it safe to get up or are the conditions hostile? Are you near civilisation or remote? Can you survive in the current conditions? What are your supplies?
And then you try to figure out how long you can survive given the current situation. Once you go through all that, you can settle your mind, and then proceed.
Dad says he’s programmed to go through all that, so he did, and then once settled down, he realised he had his cell phone on him. ‘The wonders of modern technology’, he remarked to me.
He said he phoned his wife and she came down there as fast as she could.
I was mistaken in earlier posts - I thought she was right across the road from him. Nope, turns out she was a mile away. A mile is a long time to wait when you’re in that much pain, but he knew it’d still be faster than calling 911. He said it was “blowin’ snow” out there, with 2 inches (5cm) of snow piling up around him and falling on his face cuz he was flat on his back.

Dad says he had a 14 inch (35cm) incision for the surgery and 22 staples after surgery.

I’ve been meaning to look for graphic videos of hip replacement surgery. I want to know more than just the illustrated drawings I’ve seen insofar as what happens to someone with a broken hip undergoing hip replacement.

I think despite how well my dad’s doing (he knows people can die from this injury and from complications of the surgery and hardware), I think it was just finally all too much for me to take, emotionally.

I was upstairs rocking the baby to sleep for afternoon nap when my eyes just welled up and tears spilled down my cheeks. Silent tears. I’m still teary and still have a lump in my throat. I need a good cry. Hopefully can get one in before the baby wakes.

I cry because of the pain my parent is in and because he’s that much closer to the end of his life. Hip fractures happen most often to the elderly. I’m forced now to face the reality that my father is indeed elderly at the age of 66½.