I was turning Jeanne in bed, as I do every few hours throughout the day. I was doing it the same way that I've always done it over the past year. The way that her nurses taught me. And then I heard an unmistakable "crack." And although I had never heard this particular sound before, I instantly knew that her left leg had just been broken.
If misfortune has an upside, the upside for Jeanne was that she has sustained enough nerve damage in her leg that she felt no pain when her leg broke. But her knee began to swell, and her leg -- which, up until that moment, was spastically frozen in place, could now be moved in any and every direction with absolutely no resistance.
I called an ambulance, and we were off to the UCLA emergency room. And so began a trying, frustrating and even difficult two weeks that perhaps other caregivers have already faced, or may face in the future. Over the next several days, I'll be sharing some of the surprising turns in Jeanne's care that I observed...and posing several questions about basic patient care in our health care system.
