On Christmas Eve--was it just yesterday?--Carlene's was T-boned by a young driver who never applied her brakes.  My Christmas gift to beat all gifts this year is that she's going to be fine!  Bob said if I had seen a picture of her totaled car, I wouldn't believe that she could have survived!

I got a flight here to Georgia to help her, be with her, and just celebrate that she got out of it with only a fractured pelvis, not a break that will require surgery.  She had to be moved to a trauma center because of an internal bleed, but they were able to repair the artery and when I left her just now, she was sleepy and a bit nauseated from meds.

The fracture occurred on the left hip, but the bleeding was on the opposite side--where she says her post-shingles pain is worse than the pain of the fractured side.  She had shingles 20 years ago, but has had four recurrences of severe nerve pain as a result of it.  If you haven't gotten your double-shingles shot that promises to prevent this disease for life, be sure and get it!

I'm staying in a motel near the hospital.  I'll be able to go home with her when she's dismissed (she needs a bit of physical therapy first)  and do whatever she might need until her legs are steadier and the pain hopefully gone.