friend david

Phone call from friend David. (There are so many David's in my life, but I am not making up names – this time!)

Friend David H (keeping him separate from David W) is in western Oregon at his in-laws place.

David and his wife Linda have been taking care of the in-laws for a year or so now. Dad was sick and died, mom is 90 and is unable to get out of bed or care for herself.

So they went back to mom's town to take care of paper work and most likely put mom in a facility. David has a bad back and Linda is about 5' tall. Neither are able to lift mom when she needs moved.

The phone rang. It was Linda. David had been on a ladder adjusting the tarps on their motor-home. The motor-home is a vintage Newell, which was about the size of a Greyhound bus of the day. In other words it was high.

The ladder slipped and David fell hard.

He had a phone, but Lynda was in the shower. He called 9-11 and had them call Lynda's brother who lives close, but there was no answer, so they sent the ambulance to get David.

At the hospital a CT scan show no broken bones, so they medicated him for pain and he went home. I have talked to him every day. He is miserable. He is in pain all the time and they have him on some really powerful pain killers, which he has to take regularly.

How much damage is there really? To early to know. It is a holiday weekend now and he can't get in to see a doctor until next week, though he could go back to ER.

The moral of all of this, I guess, is to be very careful. David is not new around ladders. He thought it was solid and secure, but the ground was rain soaked and it was much less secure than he thought.

He will be sore for a good while, I fear. Rats.

Heal quickly my friend.