Ladder Safety or lack thereof

My mother is not allowed to climb any more ladders! I have cut her off for life!

So my Sunday started off pretty uneventfull, I went to the softball field with Steve to get some extra batting practice till the rest of the girls from the team showed up. We were having a pretty laid back practice. I was in the outfield with my youngest sister Chelsea just gossiping about the usual crap when my son comes running out to me and says "poppa Ken is on the phone" well he never calls me. He is such a gentle man and in a totally mellow and nonemergent voice he tells me " Um I just thought you should know that your moms on her way to the hospital, she's in the ambulance going to the emergency room and I'm following in my truck on my way to the V.A. hospital" Ok so all I heard was the words MOM, AMBULANCE, EMERGENCY ROOM. So I ask what happened. He says " She fell off a ladder hit her head and broke some bones and was having a hard time breathing so they ambulance is taking her to the E.R. I'm going to the V.A. cause I think I broke my foot" Now at this point I'm trying to relay all this info to Chelsea and still listen to what Ken is telling me, but he is trying to drive himself to the hospital with a broken foot and I'm trying to calmly tell my sister that our mom is in an ambulance with broken bones and possible head trauma.

I yell to Steve " I'm riding with Chelsea and you and the kids can take the van home" I don't think Chelsea and I have ever moved so fast, In one fluid motion we jerked off our cleats and gloves, threw them in the bags, and ran up the hill to the car. We called our other sister and she was at work so she drops everything and starts heading to the hospital too.

So we get to the hospital and they let us in to see her and it's kinda like a role reversal took place. She was the kid and we were the parents. We all start with "What happened" My mom says "Well Ken needed help with the trusses and" ok lets stop there and explain a little. They are building a room on the back of their house for their hot tub. The trusses are the giant triangular support beams that hold the roof up.
The trusses have to go like 12 feet up and with no pulleys or cranes they have to taken up by hand, hence the ladders. So now that we re all caught up. My mom tells us "We were taking a truss up the ladders, Ken on one and me on the other, and the truss fell and we went down with it."

My mother and stepdad were climbing 12 foot ladders with like a few hundred pound beam and didn't think anything bad would happen.

Anyone who knows me well knows I am not the most graceful person. I got that from my mother.
This is the third, count em people 3rd, time she's fallen off a ladder! Like I said before SHE IS CUT OFF !!!

The doctors decided to admit her cause she couldn't walk by herself. They drugged her up pretty good and took her to x-ray.

She broke 4 ribs right behind her left breast, hit her jaw, and banged up the rest of her body pretty good.
We got a call from the V.A. and Ken broke his foot so bad that he has to go to Portland to have a pin inserted so they have to scheldule surgery for him, and he drove on that broken foot, ouch !

Well it's now Tuesday and my mom's still in the hospital. They won't let her go home until they can get her to take pain meds oraly. She is still on IV meds right now. They tried to give her some meds yesterday but she can't seem to keep them down. It's for the best that she stay in the hospital for a few days cause with Ken home with a mangled foot he can't get around very easy and she is the type of person to try to help him even though she's not getting around very good either. At least if she's in the hospital they can make her stay in bed and rest.

My mom and Ken love each other so much that they have to do everything together, even their yearly trips to the E.R. now thats love :) Well now they can have a drug induced vacation together at home with someone else to wait on them hand and foot ! It's room service in your own living room :)