An Accident-prone Family

I spent 5/11 – 5/25 in Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley, a rehab facility in Littleton, 15 minutes away from our home here in Stow.  They take physical and occupational therapy very seriously there, and I was able to make good progress in recovering my ability to walk and maneuver.  I had a number of appointments in at Beth Israel that advanced the cause of my participating in a clinical trial of a Multiple Myeloma vaccine.  All looked fine for a normal release to home and Barbie’s care.

Then Thursday, 5/23, Barbie fell on the tennis court and severely broke her left wrist. 

EMTs brought her to Emerson Hospital in Concord Massachusetts where she received excellent and timely care from skilled ER doctors. They performed a process known as reduction, where the hand is suspended from the fingers while someone gently massages the bones back into proper alignment. A solid cast is affixed to preserve the alignment until surgery. This was done while Barbie was receiving quantities of pain medicines which managed to affect the entire body except the incredibly painful wrist!  A dissociative drug, ketamine, provided her with the first truly hallucinogenic trip of her life. Son Brian was there to help interface with doctors at Emerson and those his wife Bridget was lining up to perform surgery in Boston the following day. 

Turns out Barbie managed to break both her radius and ulna as well as some of the smaller bones in the wrist 

so it is a pretty complex fracture of an important part of the body for anyone, even more so for someone who 

loves to play the piano! Brian took her from Emerson to his home in Boston, then delivered her for surgery 

Friday morning. Apparently, the surgery went well, but Barbie was still asleep when the surgeon came by to 

deliver the post-surgery report.  Needless to say, Barbie was in major pain and the pain killers struggled to keep 

up with the intensity.

Saturday Andrew and Gabriel (age 4) drove down from Vermont to Jamaica Plain to pick Barbie up.  Brian’s son Brendan (age 6) came along as a playmate for Gabriel.  Then they drove to Littleton to pick me up, who was being discharged into what was intended to be a stable home environment.  Barbie was pretty well incapacitated, but Andrew provided all the care and feeding required for both of us.  In addition, he did a number of chores around the house that had piled up in my absence, such as putting in screens and getting the tractor into summer use shape.  Brendan and Gabriel had a great time playing in the yard with bikes and various toys from our barn.

Sunday Andrew made breakfast and brush hogged the pasture.  Then he and Gabriel headed back to Vermont while Brian came out from Jamaica Plain with Jack (age 4).  By Sunday Barbie was feeling better as the distortions of the systemic pain killers were wearing off.  Now the problem is swelling.  

The instructions are to keep the wrist above the heart to minimize the swelling.  Barbie has been sleeping on the couch, as that enables her to keep the wrist well elevated all night long.  Still, the swelling remains a problem.  We had a visiting nurse come Tuesday to evaluate our home situation and arrange for various home therapies.  She agreed with Barbie that the swelling was worrisome, and Barbie has been in touch with the surgeon’s office to see if this is “normal”.

Meanwhile our local caring network at First Parish Church has leapt into action as well.  We have meals every other day through June 21^st.  People appear to be competing for cooking kudos, as each recipe sounds more enticing than the last.  We also have rides to our various appointments, as neither of us can drive just now.  We also have many willing and helpful hands in the chorus and among the piano parents, for which we are very grateful.

Who could have dreamed up this plot twist?  Barbie likes to say she was tired of me getting all the attention, but this is a rather extreme way to grab the spotlight.  At this point we are doing fairly well on our own, as Barbie provides the legs for moving things around and I provide the hands to open jars and packages that Barbie cannot handle with just one hand.  Fortunately, we had a stair-chair installed just 6 days before I fell and broke my hip.  I am using it regularly, and it does a good job hauling me up to our bedroom, the showers, and my office.

Since coming home, I have been hobbled by pain in walking.  The prevailing theory is that this is the result of the treatment I got last Thursday.  If the chemo is working, it is killing myeloma cells in the bone marrow, and the dead cells are the cause of the pain.  Friday I go in for another such treatment, and we are hoping it causes more pain by killing off yet more myeloma cells.  Meanwhile, we both feel as if we are one small false move from yet another disaster.  Our comfort cushion is the wonderful support of friends and family – THANK YOU ALL!