John and I drove to Nebo, NC last Friday to hang out with my father and my sister's family. Jill, my sister, and Carl, my brother-in-law, own a marvelous thirty acre place here. Dad lives in a trailer on their property.
Jill and Carl invited us along with Carl's mother and sister to a great cookout Saturday night. Right after dinner, my father fell while trying to sit down in a rickety folding chair. He hit his knee hard against the concrete, but John caught him as he fell and kept him from hurting anything else. His knee was clearly badly hurt. Dad's eighty-nine. We headed to the local ER to find out exactly what had happened.
About five hours later we knew he'd fractured his kneecap. He's been admitted to the hospital. By Sunday morning the orthopedic surgeon had a chance to look at the films. The two pieces of Dad's kneecap had separated by about a inch, and they wouldn't heal without surgery. The surgeon assembled a team to work on Dad on Sunday afternoon, and he was back in his room around dinnertime on Sunday.
John and I camped out with Dad Sunday night in his room. By this afternoon (Monday) he been up on and took a few steps. He'll need to spend about two months in a rehab facility as the knee heals.