Mom and I left the hotel about an hour after I returned from my run/walk. I wonder why Mom didn’t get a phone photo here? Maybe we were in a hurry.
We headed to the nearby Stage Star deli for a delicious bite. I had a bagel and lox, yum.
And then we headed into the park, stopping for a photo in front of the Dairy Visitor Center. I ran in and bought a couple of magnets because I’d just seen them when I’d been there earlier and hadn’t any money with me.
By 1:30 we sat and rested for a couple minutes on the mall.
And I got this great picture of Mom in front of the Women’s Rights pioneers statue. Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. And Mom.
It was drizzling a little, I think, and Mom was about over with walking. I kept assuring her that it wasn’t much farther to the Frick Museum. I’d read a while ago that the museum had been updated and was really looking forward to seeing it. I persuaded her to stop for one more photo before leaving the park. This was 1:48, when she kept smiling even though she didn’t mean it.
We were only about five minutes from the museum and of course I really needed a bathroom, so I hustled up the marble stairs…and all of a sudden there was a commotion behind me and Mom was lying on the stairs. Uh oh. She’d fallen, and I didn’t witness it.
A group of people quickly circled her, asking if she was all right and one woman said, “I’ll stay with you.” I told her that she was my mom, and I’d handle it. Mom said that her arm hurt, but she got up. A guard quickly wanted to know if we wanted an ambulance and we said no.
We went inside, bought tickets, I went to the bathroom and when I came out we took this picture. It was 2:05.
Mom, smiling no matter what. But then she said she needed to use the facilities and when she came out she said that she couldn’t use her right hand. Oh boy. I consulted with a guard, and then a person in charge, and they said the only thing they could do was put her in ambulance and take her to a hospital. No way, Jose.
My experience with ERs in Springfield is bad enough, and I was sure we’d spend the rest of the day and probably into the night waiting around in an ER. I called Amy and told her what had happened and she quickly found nearby Urgent Care places. She called one which said there wasn’t much of a wait.
We got a cab and it took a while to get the facility which was a half mile away.
And here’s the crazy thing – when we got there, we were the only people in the place! Unheard of. They got her into a room and somebody examined her. The only thing holding us up was that she needed an x-ray and the x-ray guy with his x-ray was over on the east side of the park and had to get over to us. It’s not a long distance, but it was raining in New York.
Here she is, at 2:53.
Since it was going to be a while I decided to head around the block and find a ittlle something to eat. I found a place with pain au chocolat.
Finally, the x-ray guy arrived and then the doctor had to read the x-ray and then, by 4:43, she gave us the bad news…Mom had fractured her shoulder.
Hers was called a Comminuted Fracture, and here’s what the internet says about that. A comminuted fracture is a severe injury where a bone shatters into three or more pieces. Because of the high-force impact required to break a bone this way—such as from a car crash or major fall—these fractures are complex, unstable, and almost always require surgery and an extended recovery timeline.
Hmm, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t shattered into three or more pieces, I think the doctor said that it the piece of bone had separated from the shoulder.
Here’s the x-ray, and I guess I’m not 100% sure about what it shows.
Smiling again as we’re about to leave at about 5:00 p.m.
Whew. At least the Urgent Care thing didn’t take hours, and we had much to do that evening.
OK then,
G.