Amazing Medical procedures and the importance of Calcium

This past week, I received a phone call telling me that my Mom had fallen and was in the hospital in quite a bit of pain. My first impulse was to get to her as soon as I could. That is exactly what she would do if the situations were reversed. I did arrange to head out as soon as I was finished at school that day.

They did x-rays in the emergency room but did not find anything broken. The doctor was going to send her home and told the nurses to get her up and get her walking. They got her up but she was unable to move her legs. The decision then was that there must be something more that was wrong. They admitted her to the hospital and scheduled an MRI the next morning.

The MRI showed that she had fractured her vertebrae in her back and that is why she was in so much pain and could not move. The best thing was that it turned out she was a good candidate for a procedure that was fairly new in the last 3 years or so. The procedure involved them pounding a needle into her vertebrae about the size of a 16 Penny nail (anyway that is what they told us) and then injecting a type of glue or cement type substance that set up and made the vertebrae stable again.

She had to lie flat on her back for an hour to allow the substance to set up. As she was laying there and after the hour had passed she decided to try bending her knees and amazingly she could! What she couldn't do a couple of hours prior she was able to do again. It gave her back the gift of movement without pain again. She was able to sit up, walk, and just generally get around without the pain that she had been experiencing. I am so glad that we are blessed with such amazing medical technology.

What could have been months to heal will now take a fraction of that time and she will be able to return to normal activity. The most amazing thing to me was that before the procedure was done, my Mom was in a lot of pain, but when she came back the pain was instantly gone.

The greatest blessing for me however, was to be able to be there and care for my Mom. She has given me so much and always been there to help me. This gave me an opportunity to do a small amount of something for her. I am also grateful that I have a husband that is supportive of me and my desire to go and be there for my parents. In fact, he found a way to come up Sunday so that I would not have to ride home by myself. I really think he just needed to be there too. He loves them too.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that I need to be doing a better job of taking Calcium now so that my bones will be stronger later in life. It was discovered that Mom has Osteoporosis and her bones are softening. She has been taking Calcium but realized that she needed to be taking more, however the damage is already done. As women, we are at a higher risk for this type of problem. So drink your Milk and take a Calcium suppliment.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful parents. They have always been there for me and I hope that I can continue to be there for them. I hope to be able to see them enjoy an active life together for many more years. I Love you Mom and Dad!