Ah Yes. Out Of The Relaxing Pan and Into The Hospital

The ringer on my phone was still off, because my sister was here with mom for the weekend and would be taken care of. Of course that's not how it panned out. Mom got up in the middle of the night and fell, and she was in a lot of pain. It could have happened to anyone, I guess, but my sister didn't have to come out for Thanksgiving at all. It was a choice. When she and other sister caught up with me, there was fun to be had. We decided she had to be taken to the hospital. My sister has some pretty severe anxiety about this because my mom turns into The Beast lately when confronted with authority. But I (who was with her through the situation -- only one person allowed) had a comparatively good time:

• They gave mom fentanyl before moving her onto the gurney, and she was sweet as pie
• I got to ride in an ambulance with her (my first time)
• It was quiet at the ER
• Mom kept telling me that it was such a nice hospital and that she was only the 2nd person to be a patient
• She thanked me for being with her
• She had no additional injuries since her last ER visit a month ago
• We were out of there in three hours. When has that ever happened? 

The paramedics, by the way, were so great with my mom and everybody. They exchanged short hellos with people at my mom's building that they'd met before, and were telling the lady in charge of showing them around stories that she didn't even know about residents -- "Bob was an engineer during World War II..."

Anyhoo, the mom was much better when she got home. We felt more reassured that any pains were going to be not serious, and after buying them some McDonalds (traditional post-medical mom treat), I slipped out, feeling like I could go home without guilt.