Last week's   visit to the emergency room was rough.

As many of us with aging parents know, your world can suddenly change within seconds.  Accidents can be deadly, but if you're lucky somehow you can avoid serious injury.

We had a situation like that with my 82-year old Dad.

He fell down a flight of stairs at one of our rental properties.  I was in the kitchen when it happened and the loud booming thuds of him hitting each of the stairs almost paralyzed me.

Running into the living room I found him on his back, eyes wide open staring at the ceiling.

Had he broken his neck?  Could he talk?

"I'm okay.   Don't call an ambulance."

Relieved, I got him in a sitting position which is probably what you're not supposed to do.  Then I remembered Tim, our maintenance man and his nephew, were working on another one of our properties nearby. 

I ran to them for help.  Taking a shortcut through some bushes, I almost fell myself because my knees were trembling.

Within a few minutes my Dad was fussing because I had called them, but they got him in the car and we headed home.

When would he finally decide to go to the emergency room?  This time it took four hours.  By 6:30 his blood pressure was up to 199 over 101.

It was past time.  We called my brother in Brentwood and he said he would meet us at St. Thomas.

We've have had so many visits to the emgency room at St. Thomas, I've got their system pretty much figured out.  If you don't make your case convincingly enough to the first nurse who interviews you, you will be sitting  in the waiting room for 2 to 3  hours. 

That just wasn't going to happen this time.

I wrote "fell down the stairs, blood pressure 199/101" on the survey sheet they hand you to fill out.

Forget how tall he is, how much he weighs and whether he's pregnant or not. The whole survey is a big waste of time, if you don't mind my opinion.

That did it.

Shortly after my brother arrived, Daddy was called back and began the next four hours of tests.  My brother went back with  him.  After all, he's the most charming one of us.  If anybody could take the ball and run with it, he could. 

I felt confident, but was still upset.  What would they find?  Of would they l00k?

I decided to wait in the waiting room.  I stayed as long as I could stand it.

A young girl who was about eighteen had come into the waiting room, wailing very loudly.  I couldn't tell whether she was on drugs or not, but I thought she was putting on somewhat.  That's not the way to get to a doctor fast.

I called my brother on the cellphone( something you're not supposed to do around all that  heart monitoring equipment). He reassured me, everything was okay and to go home.

I headed out into the parking lot which was full to overflowing.  A car was waiting, engine running right behind mine.  I managed to pull out without bumping into him and gave him my space. 

I decided  not to feel guilty about leaving early.

 At least someone would benefit

The news is good. Daddy will be fine.  We visited our regular physician, Dr. Mark  Houston on Friday and he was amazed Daddy was in one piece.

 How this miracle actually happened, the Lord gets the credit.  An almost 83-year old falling down a flight of stairs is something they usually don't walk away from.

But we're blessed for now

As I write this I'm sitting beside the television watching a show about a family with six children, two of them conjoined twins, or what we used to refer to as Siamese Twins.

The Quintuplet show  about five babies born at 26 weeks is next.   I don't think I can stand it.

No matter how difficult you think your circumstances are, there's always someone who is worse off.

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