More family drama

So, my grandfather (who lives out west in a more mountain filled area with the rest of my extended family) was out cleaning/messing around with the pond/water feature in the backyard before the first serious winter cold front was due to hit yesterday.

Somehow- we're not sure on the whole non-pain medication induced story yet- he slipped/fell/? and managed to break both the bones in his right leg in a total of four places AND dislocated something that's not supposed to be yanked out of the socket in his ankle in one fell (ooooh, very, very, VERY bad pun) swoop.

Unfortunately, my grandmother is inside in another part of the house, and he can't get a hold of her.

God knows why, but he decides to snap his ankle back IN to posistion since his foot 'was going the wrong way'. :wince: (My grandfather is typically a sane, level-headed intellegent man. Let's assume the pain made him do it.)

Anyways, neighbor comes out to take out the trash (or something- most details in this story are a little vague yet), sees my grandfather sitting on the flagstone in an unnatural position and comes over to see if anything's wrong.

Nice neighbor lady goes in to get my grandmother/ankle boot her now-ex husband used after he had some kind of surgery a few years ago. Somehow, she and my grandmother manage to get this on his foot (hopefully not doing more damage), and using a shovel- that's right a shovel... somethings in this life are too weird to make up- get him up onto one of those desk chairs with wheels and wheel him around the yard to the driveway/into the car.

Side note- obviously, simply calling 911/etc would not have been a reasonable suggestion at this point. Esp since my grandparent's house is on a hill and the driveway is rather steep. Can you imagine if they had lost control of the chair??? :post-situation freaking:

Both ladies take my grandfather to the hospital, where they do Xrays, etc. Unfortunately, my grandfather is allergic to the normal family of pain medications, so he nearly goes into shock from the pain before the nice nurses and doctors shoot morphine into him. :grrrrrrrrr:

Orthopedic surgeon is already slicing/dicing someone else, so he doesn't go into surgery until the wee hours of the morning.

Latest call from my grandmother is that they're sending him HOME late this afternoon.

My mind boggles because, given the amount screws involved in putting his leg back together, this was definately NOT out patient surgery. (But I don't have a PhD, so what do I know?)

So, anyways, prayers for my grandfather/grandmother.

(Funny side story is when he was in recovery and essentially 'high' on pain medication my grandfather apparently told the nurses just about every joke he's ever heard... which is weird, because he's a nice, fairly funny guy, but the meds made him into one of those crazy uncle's who never stops telling corny jokes, lol!)