The thing I can't help but laugh over is the rush from some people to donate their ribs or internal organs to the octogenarian.
When was the last time you heard of a rib transplant? The only thing I could find is some leading edge science? It's just not done. Listen, I've had broken ribs before. It's not a picnic; in fact it hurts like a bitch for the first couple of weeks. OTOH, transplanting ribs into someone is going to hurt about a thousand times worse. Getting split open, old ribs sawed off, new ribs bonded in place, sewn back together...
Her biggest risk for broken ribs is that because of the pain she may not be able to breath deeply enough to ward off pneumonia. I bet that chance would double or triple if someone actually transplanted ribs into her. Getting hit by a truck is likely to feel good by comparison. (I've been there, done that, too - getting hit by a truck - take my word it and don't try this at home: that really hurts, too.)
Just let her get some rest with some quality opioids for a week or two and she'll be fine - as long as the fall is the only thing that broke those ribs.
As for the other offers of letting her have "any internal organs", that actually makes more sense except for the part about broken ribs probably not causing any damage that won't heal on its own so there's no need for a transplant.
The only rib transplant that makes sense is transplant those beauties into my stomach!
Getting Ginzberg some pork ribs...would be an improvement.
ReplyDeleteSo there I was...downtown Afghanistan, middle of the night, had to go...
ReplyDelete"To go" meant down two flights of stairs 200 yards across the way to the porta-potty.
Of course I fell on those stairs and broke three or a dozen ribs AND of course this was on the way down, sooo, get up make it to the ever popular porta-potty and then stumble back to the rack and go to the Medics the next day. I'm not tough, I whine, moan, and complain with the best of them, but unless the ribs are impinging the lungs - not much can be done (except for the Medic kindly offering - "Ouch, I bet that hurts"). Finished my tour praying we didn't have any OPFOR attacks - cause putting on the battle rattle SUCKED. The OPFOR played nice and only had one the last two months I was there.
I hope that RGB feels better and decides to take early retirement and takes it easy. I know the demoncrats haven't had a good crisis in almost a full day and need something to scream about.
MSG Grumpy
Good story, MSG Grumpy.
DeleteAbout the most they do is have you wear an elastic belt, but the belt works by restricting the movement of the bones and that increases the chance of pneumonia.
I never wore a rib belt, but I only had one broken rib.
The issue isn't the broken ribs.....in 4 decades of radiography I've seen countless cracked ribs. The harbinger of doom is not the injury but the mechanism. She fell....on a flat floor....in her office. It's THIS that
ReplyDeleteshows us the problem. Fall skiing and its normal but falling in a well
lit office indicates her health is declining dramatically. Once you start falling due to age it's just a matter of time till you break a hip....and broken hips are the welcome mat to the afterlife for people over 80.
Absolutely. RBG has told her followers she'll have to be wheeled out of her office on a gurney, and it looks like there's a chance that will be what happens.
DeleteI almost told this story last night, but in my mom's last few years she started falling more and more. Most of the time she refused transport to the hospital, but she got to the point where the ambulance guys knew her by name and would ask, "how are you doin' today, Mrs. Graybeard?"
The last time she fell her thigh broke, but it didn't break because she fell, she fell because it broke. Thigh fractures need to be surgically reduced and the surgeon honestly told my brother (care giver due to living much closer than me) that the surgery went well, but that 90 year olds who had that surgery typically lasted about six months. He was right. She made it one month past her 91st birthday.
Yeah, the traditional diagnosis was a broken hip due to a fall. Now, they think the broken hip is the CAUSE of the fall, in lots of cases.
DeleteTake your calcium and associated supplements.