Spent a few hours in the emergency room with mother. Seems she got creative and used a pair of pliers on a tiny glass perfume bottle in an effort to get to those last couple of drops. The pliers slipped and well, you can imagine the rest. I was two hours away and our fair city was in the midst of downpours and floods. And it was rush hour. Surviving both rain and traffic, I made it to her retirement center, tucked her into the car and drove to the nearby emergency room. One of my son-in-laws is a nurse in that ER but he wasn’t on duty at the time. The tech x-rayed her finger for any remaining glass fragments, the nurse gave her a tetanus shot, sewed 8 stitches and placed a well-formed finger splint under a pile of immobilizing bandages.

By now it was late and we needed to get the antibiotics into her system so the hunt was on for a 24 hr pharmacy. Finally got her home, went in and cleaned up the waiting mess of broken glass, kissed her goodnight and began the trek home. Husband came by for a while earlier which she especially appreciated – she’s of the generation that just feels better (re safer) when a “man” is around. Yeow. Have to say the hospital staff was professional, patient and pleasant with our little 86-year-old. Kudos to them all.