Another ER Visit for Mom

On one of the last few days of our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter's visit with us we were sitting down to a leisurely breakfast. Mom has her breakfast at 4:00 AM, gets on her treadmill for a morning exercise and heads out the door to pick up fallen leaves around the yard and tend to her small garden and lemon trees. 

On that Sunday morning we heard what sounded like a crash. We figured it was mom just dropping her stand up trash pan again.

However, Tiffany went to the window to look out and saw that her grandmother had fallen on the concrete walkway and unable to get up.

We ran outside and saw that her hand had ripped open. 

Luckily, we have a lightweight wheelchair we keep for just this sort of emergencies. We carefully helped her sit on it and took her to Kaiser's ER.

We were very lucky that the ER was not too busy. 

Mom got her wrist X-rayed and her head CAT scanned. 

The doctor said nothing was broken internally. That was a huge relief.

The nurse then used Sodium Chloride to clean her wound. (Isn't that just salt water?) Hmmm.... I asked the nurse if they weren't worried about flesh eating bacteria. She said, "No." Really? I thought they'd use something like hydrogen peroxide. I know Tripler Army Hospital won't use alcohol because it can cause tissue damage and inhibit healing. 

Don't they often show people using alcohol to treat gun shot or knife wounds in action movies? It would hurt like the dickens, I'm sure. But I know they used to disinfect wounds with hydrogen peroxide when our kids were growing up. No longer.

We have added sodium chloride to our first aid kit since it looks like we'll need it more often now.

The very competent nurse used these steri-strips to close the wound and applied some kind of sealant on top of it. She then bandaged mom's hand and we were good to go. 

Friends and my cousin stopped by with mangoes, desserts and even a wonderful soba salad to cheer mom up. 

Bruising where her face hit the concrete prevented her from smiling fully, but she was feeling much better two days later and was back on her morning treadmill. 

She had one day when I had to give her some Tylenol for muscle pain, but after that she was up and around with no pain at all.

In fact, she started mopping the kitchen before I took the mop away and told her to rest for a few more days. 

My brother said, "Wouldn't it have been great if we had inherited her genes?"

POSTSCRIPT: 

After 2.5 weeks where I changed her bandage every other day and bathed her so she wouldn't use her hand, we had her first in-person appointment with her new doctor. (I'd chosen someone who could speak Japanese.) 

The doctor removed her bandage and checked the wound. She was surprised! I'd emailed her a photo after the accident so she knew how bad it was.

It had healed! I checked it a couple of days before (while changing the bandage) and didn't like the color, but the doctor said it was great and mom could get it wet now and in a couple of days could resume her yard cleaning, etc. activities.

Art and I have compared the initial wound to how it looked 2.5 weeks later and don't quite believe what we see.

How is this possible? 

When Art and I injure ourselves it takes much longer to heal.

Art chuckled, "Maybe it's all the natto (fermented soybeans) she eats?"

The doctor had laughed during our visit and told her that if she feels like having sweets, feel free and enjoy. It's not like she doesn't. I've got all kinds of snacks and desserts that friends and family have given her.

So.... are her genes giving her the ability to heal quickly and is that the reason for her longevity?

Or... is it the natto? 😄