Today has been very, very long.

And my long day has nothing to do with work. I feel like all I do on blogger is complain, but today I have a right to. This morning, I called home to tell my mother I was on my way back to my hometown from Louisville, and I found out that she had fallen on the front porch and was taken to the ER by the ambulance. It was another two hours before I got the complete prognosis: she was washing off the front porch and slipped because it was wet. Her ankle was basically shattered and she also broke the bone right underneath her knee. It turns out her left foot might be broken as well (they just x-rayed it; it's all bruised and gross looking.) She had to have immediate surgery on her right ankle, and now it has pins in it. She'll probably have to have surgery again in three weeks and this is the kind of break that takes a loooooooooong time to heal -- her foot will probably never be the same. My poor mother! My dad was at the hospital all day, and I've been to the hospital twice, taking care of my brother and sister in between that time. My sister is seventeen so she can pretty much take care of herself, but my little brother is eight and very worried about his mom. I took my brother and sister to the hospital to see Mother tonight, and my brother saw where her foot was draining -- lots of gross blood. He was pretty freaked out by it, but now he's all cheerful again. I'm going to try to do as much as I can before I return to Louisville -- and I'm going back tomorrow night. The plan is to do as much housework as possible, make things "cripple friendly", and cook some food that my dad or sister can just heat up over the next week. My sister will be able to help out around the house, but she starts school on Friday, so I don't know what Mother is going to do then. It really was a terrible break; she's not going to be able to do much herself. I hope she gets back from the hospital pretty early tomorrow, because I want to spend as much time with her before I head back to Louisville. I feel guilty for leaving her high and dry, but there's not really much else I can do except cram in a lot of work in one day.

Obviously, I haven't been knitting. I could have knitted in the waiting room while she was in surgery, but I was on and off the phone with my sister. She kept asking the most (at the time) insignificant questions -- "Can my boyfriend come over?" "Can we still go to the wedding?" "Is Daddy going to the wedding?" (this, after I told her that he was going to stay at the hospital with Mama . . . of course he isn't going!) "Are we still going school shopping next week?" . . . those things don't really matter to me while my mom is under anesthesia. We kind of downplayed the whole thing to my brother, and maybe she just didn't get how serious it was -- at first they said there was a chance it wouldn't heal at all; now they're saying it should be okay but it's going ot take a long, long time. Seriously, though, she acted as if nothing was wrong. Like, when I called home this morning, this was our conversation:

Me: Hi, is Mama there?
Sis: No, she's not here.
Me: Where is she?
Sis: She's not here 'cos the ambulance took her away.

That's enough to make me have a heart attack. She finally told me that she fell on the porch and that the ambulance came, but the bone wasn't broken, just chipped. Obviously it was much more serious then that. THEN, this afternoon, she went to my cousin's house (the same cousin that was getting married) and just hung out while he was trying to get ready for his wedding. I told her that she should leave him alone so he can get ready, and she said, "it's okay, he's in the shower now." I personally wouldn't want my little cousins hanging around while I was preparing for one of the most important days of my life, but she insisted that he didn't mind, so I have to take her word for it. I'm just kind of stressed out and trying to figure out what I can do to help before my I have to go back to the 'ville, and my sister is concerned about the fact that her boyfriend is going on vacation on Monday and she doesn't get to see him tomorrow before he's gone for five days. I guess I keep thinking about how I would want my children to treat me, and I'd be pretty hurt if I were laying in a hospital bed and my daughter asked me when we could go school shopping. (They were going to go to Louisville on Wednesday to visit me, see the boy play, and do the school shopping then; now Sis is concerned that she won't get to go school shopping before Friday. So what? She has plenty of clothes.)

I guess my main problems are a)my mom is hurt and b)my sister is kind of oblivious to the fact that my mom can't walk, and won't be able to anytime soon.

I'll get over it. I just really wanted to vent.


I'm too tired to check the other blogs I usually frequent; I'm going to call the boy in about ten minutes when he's finished playing to give him an update, then off to bed. I do want to say that Petra, the Unbearable Lightness of Being is probably the best book I've ever read, and you should get it immediately.

Thanks to all you people in blogland that have put up with my complaining. I promise, there will be a happy post soon. I did end up taking the brother and sis to the wedding, since I couldn't really do much at the hospital, and that was good times. Those two are so perfect together! Anyway, I'm much too tired to type any more, and I need to wake up early tomorrow.

Much love.