I've fallen, and I can't get up

Yesterday I got another morning phone call from my mother while I was at work. I had just spoken to my mother about 20 minutes earlier while I was on my way to work, so I held my breath hoping that she wasn't about to tell me about another passing in the family (which has become a bit of a routine over the past few years when she calls me at work).

Well, it wasn't a passing but it was still bad news. My mother, while home alone, had fallen HARD in her house and couldn't get up (yes, just like the commercial). I was instantly in a panic because falling is a daily fear of my mother's. Several years ago, my mother began to suffer from a degenerative condition in her spine. More specifically, the ligament in her spine began to ossify (or turn to bone) and was causing nerve damage in her arms and legs. The surgery to correct the problem resulted in her complete paralysis for four months from the neck down. As you can imagine, that time was very scary for my family. The surgery was extremely dangerous, as the outcome could have resulted in permanent paralysis or even death. Luckily for my mother, she began to retain feeling after four months and over the years has been able to get around with just the use of a cane, even though she still has limited movement in her arms and legs. However, the fall has now changed all that.

After getting my mother's call, I immediately left the office and rushed through the 40 minutes it takes to get to her house. When I got there, she was on the floor near her bed and complaining of a swollen, sprained ankle. It looked more to me like a broken ankle, so I immediately called 911. She was taken to the hospital by ambulance and after a few x-rays it was discovered that she did indeed break her ankle, and unfortunately it's the ankle of her stronger leg. Now she's home with her ankle wrapped in a soft cast and elevated, her pain medicine at the ready, my dad at her beck and call, and anxiously awaiting her appointment with the orthopedist on Monday. And I'm now left to worry about how she's going to get around for the next few months.