An Inconvenience
It was supposed to be a dream vacation for the kids, and that is why paramedic Roy DeSoto had been taking extra shifts at the fire station. It was going to bite into their family's budget, and they wanted to have extra cash so they could do the things they wanted without worrying about saying no to the children at Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. It just felt wrong that they lived in California and had never been as a family to the premier attractions of the state. They were even going to stay in the on-site Disneyland Hotel the whole time; his wife Joanne argued that it was her vacation too, so why should she have to cook and make beds and do laundry while everyone else was having fun? That's what was adding up to a huge expense.
Consequently, Roy wasn't around very much, and since their son Christopher was just beginning to be involved in Little League and daughter Jennifer had her ballet lessons, on top of Joanne being in charge of the biggest PTA fundraiser of the year, it seemed that no one in the house had time to turn around and say hello to each other. Someone was on the run somewhere all the time and meals had become snatch and grab, with Joanne cooking up extra food on the weekends so that during the week they would have lots of leftovers.
The past few weeks had been hectic, but manageable. As time went on, the strain was starting to tell – laundry was beginning to pile up, and the kitchen counters never seemed to be totally clear of dishes. Joanne sighed, as she glanced around the living room. There were school books piled on one side of the kitchen table, 40 boxes of PTA cookies to sell on the floor near the window, drawing supplies scattered in front of the television, old newspapers in a two foot high stack on a chair, school bags in the hallway and more shoes than seemed reasonable for four people to own cluttering up the front entrance. The vacuum stood in the hallway. The children had just gotten home from school when Chris reminded his mother that he had an extra ball practice scheduled before supper at the park behind the high school. "Why there?" Joanne complained, as she grabbed her keys and purse, and prevented Jenny from heading into the family room.
"I dunno, Mom, it's just what coach said."
"I know, dear. Grab your gear and let's go," she sighed again. Chris ran to his room to get his bag, and came bounding down the stairs, heading for the front door. Joanne reached out to stop him from leaping over the vacuum, when the dog, racing to get to Chris, tripped her…CRACK! THUD!... she fell over the vacuum, hit her head first on the door frame, then on the tiled floor of the entrance, while her right foot twisted underneath the vacuum canister.
It seemed like time stopped. The children stood there in shock, as their mother lay on the floor. "Mom? Mom? You okay?" pleaded Jenny in a scared voice. Joanne couldn't move. Everything hurt. She couldn't help moaning. And…everything was dark.
Christopher asked, "Should we call 911?" and Joanne gasped, "Yes," while trying not to cry out any more from the pain. Oh, her head. She'd heard of seeing stars, but this was a night with meteors…her ankle burned like it was on fire, and she felt like she was going to throw up, but didn't dare turn her head or move in any way. She could hear Chris on the phone. She could feel Jenny kneeling beside her, but when she touched her mother, Joanne couldn't help crying out, "AH! NO! Don't!" Jenny removed her hand as if she had been zapped.
Jenny started to cry softly as she saw her mother's obvious pain, but Chris was trying very hard to be like his fireman father, and take calm control of the situation. He asked his sister, "Should I call Dad?" and Jenny nodded vigorously, but Joanne said faintly, "No. Wait."
"But why, Mom?" Joanne wasn't able to get her thoughts coherently out over her extreme discomfort, she just knew she didn't want Roy worrying until she was safely with people who could tell him how she was really. "Wait," she repeated in as firm a voice as she could manage.
Within minutes they heard the siren of a rescue squad pulling up at the door, with the sound of an ambulance not far behind. Since Joanne was partially blocking the doorway, Jenny led the paramedics in from the back door and through the house. Joanne overheard the children giving a stereo account of the accident, and soon she felt someone take her wrist and say in a calm voice, "Mrs. DeSoto? Joanne? It's Dave from Station 45. How are you?"
"Not so good," she replied in a weak, shaky voice.
"Where does it hurt?"
"My head, my ankle…"
"Okay, just relax; we're going to take good care of you." Hands gently passed over her head, and she saw a faint glimmer as something was shone into her eyes. "So, I hear you hit your head twice?"
Chris interjected, "Yeah, first on the door – BANG! And then on the floor – THUNK!" He whacked his hands together hard. Dave's hands found the bump forming on the side of her head, and the one on the back. She couldn't help whimpering from the pain even though she knew he was trying to be as gentle as he could. Dave asked the children, "Was your mom unconscious at all?" Jenny shrugged, her eyes wide, while Chris said, "I don't know. She didn't move at first when she fell." Dave repeated his question to Joanne, "Did you lose consciousness at any time?" Joanne couldn't say. She just remembered falling, and then pain.
Jenny went to lead the ambulance attendants into the house from the back door again, while Chris hovered protectively nearby. Joanne felt the paramedic's face near her own, and said quietly, hoping that Chris wouldn't hear, "I can't see. It's all dark."
She tried not to let her panic into her voice, but Dave wasn't fooled. He told her in a matter-of-fact voice, "You've probably got a concussion. Losing your sight temporarily sometimes happens with head injuries. Don't worry about it. I'm sure it will be fine." His partner Ross had finished taking her blood pressure, and turned his attention to her ankle. As soon as he touched it, she couldn't help but yell out again, tears forming involuntarily in her eyes.
Chris said in awe, "Mom, your ankle is the size of a baseball! And it's really purple!" Joanne couldn't see it, but she sure could feel it. 'Oh. Oh. Oh. Please give me something for the pain!' she thought, but she didn't say it out loud; she remembered all the times Roy expressed his frustration at having a patient with a head injury and being unable to do anything for their pain. She wasn't even aware that the IV line was in; she was so distracted by the knives in her head and the screaming of her ankle.
She heard Dave say to the kids that they could ride up front in the ambulance, and then the backboard they placed her on was transferred to a stretcher. She felt the rush of air as the front door was opened and she was wheeled down the sidewalk to the ambulance. Slam! Slam! The doors closed and the stretcher swayed slightly as the ambulance drove with sirens wailing towards Rampart General Hospital. Joanne lay on the backboard feeling like all her muscles were stretched on a rack. Oh, God, it hurt. And her head. OW OW OW…She just wanted the pain to stop. If only she could get off this damn backboard and lie on something soft!
Roy didn't hear the initial call for his wife's accident, because he and his partner, John Gage, had been busy with an emergency run. It wasn't until they arrived at Rampart and had delivered their patient that head nurse Dixie McCall asked to speak with Roy. Johnny followed right behind like his shadow.
Dixie looked at her friend and told him directly, "Roy, I don't know if you heard, but your wife is being brought in by squad 45."
Roy's eyes became very wide with shock, and he started to speak, but it was Johnny who asked first, "What happened? How is she?"
"She fell at home and hurt her head and her ankle. According to 45, she might have a concussion and her ankle appears to be broken. I don't think there's anything to be concerned about, but I knew you would want to know. They should be bringing her in any minute. Your kids are coming in too."
Roy leaned up against the counter near the nursing station. Joanne hurt? She was always his rock. A sick feeling curled in his stomach. He didn't have time to brood about it, because Dixie announced, "They're arriving now," and they went to meet the stretcher.
Before Roy could see his wife, Chris and Jenny threw themselves onto him, both talking at once. He gave them a quick reassuring hug that enveloped them both, and said, "I need to see your mother," firmly but kindly. They stopped and pulled away, seeing the concern on their father's face. Roy turned to Johnny and asked, "Could you?..." and Johnny knew right away what to do.
"C'mon kids, give your dad some space and come with me. You can tell me all about it." The children had no problem turning to their "Uncle Johnny" and immediately began telling him about their adventure, Chris asking all kinds of questions about the ambulance, and Jenny wanting to know about what the paramedics had done for her mother and why.
Joanne was already in the treatment room, and Dr Mike Morton was holding up his fingers in front of her face. "What do you see, Joanne?" he asked. She replied, "I see movement, but I can't tell what it is." Morton and Roy both looked at Dave, who answered their unspoken question. "She didn't seem to see anything much when we first arrived, but now she seems to be reacting to motion and light." Mike Morton spoke directly to Joanne. "That's a very good sign, Joanne. It means that you are regaining your vision at a good pace. But we will have to get some x-rays." He turned to Carole, who was the nurse helping him in the room. "I want skull and ankle series. We'll also need blood gases asap."
He turned back to Joanne. "How is your pain?"
Joanne thought for a moment, her breathing shallow due to her discomfort. "Uh, head, comes and goes... like knives... stabbing... ankle constant throb...hard to think, sorry."
"You don't need to apologize. That's fine. Do you remember what happened?"
Joanne heard the words, but they seemed hard to process. "I fell."
"Okay, Joanne, take it easy now."
The x-ray technician arrived and Morton repeated his requests for skull and ankle series. As the nurse, doctor, and Roy started to leave the treatment room, Joanne called out in a scared voice, "Roy?" and he came quickly to her side and held her hand.
"I'm right here. You'll be fine, Jo. This will only take a couple of minutes and I'll be back at your side."
Her voice quavered, "I can't see you, Roy." Tears fell out of the corners of her eyes.
He squeezed her hand. "You'll be fine," he repeated.
Morton hurried him out of the room. "C'mon out Roy, you're holding things up."
Roy was anxious and upset. To see Joanne in pain like this! He remembered when the children were born – it was difficult then to see her suffering, but they knew it was normal, and the births had been without incident. She was a real trooper, and if she was crying now, it was because she really was hurt. He knew the vision problem was probably temporary, but what if it wasn't? He pulled Morton aside. "Give it to me straight, doc. How is she?"
"You know we can't tell until we have the results of the x-rays and blood tests, but I think she's going to be fine, Roy."
"You're not sugar coating 'cause you know me, right?"
"Roy, I think you know me well enough to know I never sugar coat – no matter who I'm dealing with."
Roy nodded. "How long till you have some answers?"
Mike squeezed Roy's arm reassuringly. "I will let you know the minute I have any news." He removed his hand and commented, "Don't you think you should see to your kids, hmm?" Roy looked down toward the waiting room, and saw Johnny animatedly describing something to his children while gesturing with his arms. The children were rapt, open mouthed. Roy grinned slightly, despite his concern for his wife. He wondered what kind of damage control he would have to do to counteract whatever story his kids were hearing. Boy, he sure was glad he got along with his partner, and that Johnny was close to his family. He walked down the hall to call Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51 and let his captain, Hank Stanley, know what had happened.
Finally the technician was done 'torturing' Joanne. She couldn't help the analogy. She was already in so much pain, but then to have someone playing around with her injuries, turning her ankle this way and that, touching her head...it was too much. Carole came back into the treatment room, and said, "The doctor will be here soon." Joanne didn't respond. What was there to say? Carole came beside the gurney and compassionately touched Joanne's hand. "We will be able make you more comfortable."
"Thanks," Joanne whispered.
Roy peeked his head in the door. "Can I come in?"
Dr Morton was right behind him and said as he pushed past Roy, "Only if you're going to be a help. I don't need any dead wood in this room, got it?"
Roy looked surprised, and was a bit offended, "Hey doc, you know I would leave if I thought I couldn't handle it. C'mon!"
"Fine. Then let's do it."
Within a short while, Joanne was in a semi-private room, with her right foot in a raised splint and her head bandaged. Roy stood beside her bed. Dr Morton and Dr Kelly Brackett, head of Rampart's Emergency Department, were on the other side. Brackett said to Joanne with a smile, "You know, I believe that your husband has already been a guest in this very room on one of his adventures."
She smiled back at him weakly. "I'm just so grateful to have my sight back. I never understood the expression 'sight for sore eyes' before – but, honey, I can't believe how good you look!" she said to Roy.
He grinned back at her with relief and squeezed her hand, then looked over to ask Dr Morton, "So what's the story?"
Mike glanced at Dr Brackett before answering. "According to the orthopaedic surgeon, she has a fracture in her ankle at the base of the fibula, with extensive tears in the surrounding ligaments and synovial rupture. Although she's avoided surgery, we're looking at a probable 4 to 6 weeks in a cast, with physiotherapy after that. No pressure on the foot for the first 2 weeks – then we'll take some more x-rays and see if a walking cast is feasible. We're giving you a low dose of morphine and that should help with your headache and the pain in your leg," he said to Joanne.
Joanne groaned and when they looked at her with concern, she complained, "How am I going to manage running a home with a leg that won't work?"
Dr Brackett's dark eyebrows drew together and he said, "You won't be running your home for a while, Joanne. You did a pretty good job of banging yourself up today. We need to keep you here for about a week to monitor that concussion. You need rest, and lots of it." She frowned, and he explained, "A concussion is a bruise on the brain. You know that bruises take a couple of weeks to heal – well, imagine the soft tissues in your skull are like that, swollen and very tender. You need to rest as completely as possible for a while. Also, although your eyesight is back, I want an ophthalmologist to look at you in a couple of days, and another neurology consult."
Joanne sighed. She looked at Roy again. "What are we going to do about the kids?"
"I'll trade off my shifts this week. We'll manage."
Dr Brackett interjected, "That will do for the short term, but remember, Roy, it's going to take a while for Joanne to recover. You're going to need some other support." He looked at Joanne. "Have you got any relatives or friends who can come and stay with you for awhile?"
Roy got a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with Joanne's injuries. He knew what was coming, and tried to suppress a cringe as Joanne said the words he dreaded... "My mother could come and stay with us."
Dr Morton sealed Roy's fate with, "It's just a temporary inconvenience."
