Christmas Statistic

Foibles of putting up Christmas Lights

Just as I was getting ready to close the shop last night, Father calls and says

"I fell off the ladder."

He sounds a little shaken up and he says his ankle hurts, but he thinks he's okay. I rush home to find him limping around trying to do dishes. I make him go into the bedroom and lay down so I can check the rest of him, plus look at his ankle. He fortunately didn't hit his head and he has a few bruises, but nothing serious. His ankle is another matter. It isn't majorly swollen, but has a bump and hurts like heck. Tried to put ice on it, but only made it hurt worse. He insisted I rub it, so lightly massaged it and felt something moving. Yuck! Wrapped it up in an elastic bandage, gave him some bayer and told him to keep it elevated. We would go to the doctor in the morning.

The whole story of what happened came out while administering first aid. He had been putting up Christmas lights on the trim. A chicken was in the oven and they had 10 minutes left before it was ready. Plus he wanted to finish before I got home. He was rushing and didn't watch where he placed the ladder. He put it down right on top of St. Francis statue in the planter. He thought it was stable. But when he leaned to the side, the whole ladder started to go. He over corrected to the other side and riding the ladder, hit the sidewalk. In the process pulling down the string of lights which broke everywhere. The ladder hit our patio fence gate hard enough to bend the hinges out.

We went to the doctor today and had it checked. His doctor's opinion - it's broken, go get x-rays. The result of the x-rays. He broke his fibula in two places. Complete break on both sides with the bottom part displaced out to the outside part of the rest of the bone. He had a temporary cast put on until he sees the orthopedic doctor tomorrow. But from the looks of the xray I wouldn't be surprised if he has to have surgery to repair the damage. We asked the doctor to email us a copy of the x-rays and when he does, I'll post it. It looks nasty. It doesn't look like the type of break that is set it and forget it. He has to stay off it completely for the time being and I gave him some vicodin and sent him off to bed.

So, we are done with Christmas lights and I will probably be working some extra days at the shop for the next few days. Fortunately, we have wonderful employees who can handle the fort for the next couple days, which frees me up to deal with this.

All I can say is life is never boring.