Goodbye to the Lincoln Town Car, and thanks

We'll agree, I'm sure, to pass on having days like this past Sunday again any time soon. Never again would work for me.

Queenee was driving home from the meat raffle at the Scrounge when she hit a patch of ice and spun her car off the road and into a tree late Sunday afternoon. She was less than two miles away from the house. A young woman driving by on her way to the mall stopped to check on the car she saw off the road and in someone's yard, since it didn't appear to be for sale. As luck would have it, Heidi was a nurse. Queenee was in shock, but awake, and was saying that her ankle hurt and she was trying to get out of the car. This wonderful young woman looked in and saw that Queenee had a compound fracture of her right ankle, and then sat in the car with her and held her hand and kept her still, calm and awake while they waited for the ambulance.

I got there maybe fifteen minutes after the crash, and by then there were two fire trucks, half a dozen police cruisers, an ambulance and a tow truck. To a person, the police, firemen and EMTs were all everything one could hope for in a situation like this. The driver's door had to be pried open, and Queenee was on a stretcher and just being moved to the ambulance when I arrived. There were five or six people in the ambulance checking her out, making sure her neck was stabilized, her leg was stabilized, and getting her on oxygen. The police and firemen did a quick check-in with me to be sure of our address, the direction she was headed when she lost control of the car, things like that, but they were all very respectful of the fact that I really didn't want to bother with them just then. They also said she was very lucky to have been in a big, solid car.

Once the ambulance left the scene, I headed home to pick up PopPop. I called him and told him to get some shoes on, we were heading for South Shore Hospital. I filled him in as best I could on the way.

When we got to the hospital, a preliminary workup had been done and the doctors and nurses were getting ready to do a series of x-rays and a cat-scan of Queenee's head. Her ankle was clearly a priority, what with the broken skin and exposed bone, but another concern was her ribcage, which was giving her a lot of pain. The cat-scan showed no head or neck trauma (thank god), but x-rays revealed five broken ribs and a small air pocket above her left lung. Fortune continued to smile on Queenee, as there didn't seem to be any lung puncture. Other than her right ankle, there were no broken bones in her legs or arms. Her two titanium knees survived without issues.

Because of her ribs, she was given a spinal anesthetic and three screws put her ankle back in place. No ligaments or tendons were torn up and the major blood vessels were still intact, so good healing should follow. Her tibia had a fairly clean break above her ankle joint, but the lower fibula was what the orthopedic surgeon referred to as "dusted", meaning it had been broken into many small bits and pieces and was not repairable at this time. However, because of the intact supporting structure, he feels this will heal well anyway, and while she may not have complete flexibility in that ankle, she will be able to walk pretty normally. PopPop and I said goodnight to Queenee and got home a bit after midnight. Try to imagine how please we were to drive on plowed roads through Weymouth, then Rockland, only to hit completely unplowed and unsanded roads in Hanover. I mean NOTHING. We were driving on packed snow. Now that's fine for me, I've lived in snow country and have good tires on a 4-wheel drive vehicle, but for Hanover to have not bothered to plow/sand/salt, even by midnight, is inexcusable.

By today, things were looking up. Queenee is being sedated and medicated and is groggy and sleepy, but otherwise is doing well. She is a good patient and will do her breathing exercises, which will help her lungs heal. PopPop and I swung by to see her after collecting the important paperwork from what was left of the car, and DamCat arrived shortly behind us. We didn't stay long; Queenee was struggling to keep her eyes open, so we said our goodbyes and left her to get some much needed rest and sleep.

So now we keep our fingers crossed and hope her lungs stay inflated and no pneumonia or infection sets in. She remains in post-op, in full view of the nurses' station, and that is a good thing. Post-op is fairly empty, so she has the staff of nurses and residents pretty much to herself. South Shore Hospital is a fine place and she's very happy with the treatment she has received.

9pm update: Hanover Officer Mike McKeever just stopped by to see how Queenee is doing. Can we clone him? What a nice man, he was the one I spoke to at the scene, the one who was keeping things moving and together and making sure Queenee was getting whatever she needed. And he was as angry as I was about the condition of the roads that night. It happens he knows the Peas, he was a teacher and had them both in class a few years ago! In fact, he knows of the Dog as well, remembers him being a bit of a partier (the Boscarfest legend lives!). It was a real pleasure to get a chance to see him again, and especially to thank him for what he, and everyone in the Police, Fire and EMT departments, did for our Queenee.