Worst Family Day ever!

On February 16th, most of my fellow Ontarians enjoyed Family Day – a paid provincial holiday that encourages families to spend time together. While federal government employees (myself included) are excluded from the holiday, I’m certain that I ended up spending more time with my family than most folks. Sadly, I did not think said reunion would involve being in the ER for eight hours.

After a particularly grueling day at work, I got a panicked call from my mother at 7:00 PM asking me and hubby to come over because my father had slipped on the driveway and couldn’t move. We leapt in the car and got there in time to see him being loaded into an ambulance – his leg was bent and his knee was clearly not where it was supposed to be. I then learnt that he had fallen on some ice while putting the garbage out. Apparently he had no coat on and was stuck in the cold, yelling for help for 15 minutes – poor guy.
Off to the hospital to play the waiting game.

It took roughly three hours for Dad to get an X-Ray. Thankfully he wasn’t in too much pain, just worried because he couldn’t straighten his leg or move his knee properly. At the 4-hour mark a doctor confirmed that the leg was not broken but that the problem could be more serious. After examination from another doctor and some painful maneuvering, it was decided that Dad had a complete rupture of his right quadricept tendons. In other words: the tendons that attach the quadicept muscle to the knee was been cut, leaving the knee cap floating and the muscle rolling up towards the thigh – a definite case for surgery.

By midnight, hubby had to drive Mom home because she had no more energy and could barely stand on her own wobbly leg. I stayed on in the ER with my brother and father to meet the surgeon and find out about the procedure. After three hours of waiting in the Case Decision Unit, we finally found out that Dad would not be leaving the hospital until after his surgery…very disheartening.

After spending a horrible night in the CDI (no beds available), covered in blood, no food, and getting zero sleep due to a dementia patient that kept screaming, Dad was finally moved to a private room last evening (thank God). He is awaiting surgery today but we aren’t sure when. Recovery will be slow with lots of physiotherapy. All this because of a lousy freak accident. Sadly, my father’s weight-training days may have to come to an end.

Once again it seems as though fate has decided to pick on my family. Mom is in poor shape to help dad out after surgery and he, in turn, will not be able to help her either now. Now sure what we’ll do; we’ll just take it one day at a time.

Worst. Family Day. Ever!