Off to a slow start ...

​With only two weeks left to go before our trip, things were falling nicely into place: the house was rented, we had our visas and our bags were nearly packed. Then the call came from the hospital. It was worse than we initially thought. Would we have to postpone or cancel the entire trip?

Over the summer Dave had been helping his cousin who is a renovations contractor. Dave was finishing some work on the outside of a house when he tumbled off of the garage roof and landed on the driveway. He realized immediately that he had broken his left arm. In a state of shock, he drove himself to Foothills Hospital which was about 3 minutes away; reasoning that this  would be faster than waiting for an ambulance. 

By the time Laverne got there an hour after the call, she figured Dave would be sitting impatiently at the front door of the hospital, arm in cast, waiting for a ride. Instead she was told that he was being prepped for immediate surgery. He had fallen with all his weight onto his forearm and had broken both bones. One bone protruded through the skin. 

While being prepared for the surgery one of the doctors asked how he had gotten to the hospital, having not come by ambulance. He could not believe that Dave had driven himself to the hospital with “one arm flapping in the wind”. At which point Laverne gagged at the thought.

Dave spent three nights in hospital so that he could receive intravenous antibiotics to prevent infection, which is a big concern when the bone has punctured the skin. He will now have to see the surgeon in 2 weeks to make sure he is healing properly and to determine when he will be fit to travel. He will also be fitted with a proper cast at that time, assuming that the swelling is down.  

Unfortunately the two week check up falls on September 4th which is two days after our original departure date. In any case, Dave can not travel with a cast unless he has a doctors note. So we have decided to cancel all of our tickets and reschedule when Dave is cleared to travel. Hopefully this will only mean a week or two delay.