Living in Pain

Fawn and Spot were getting ready for bed when Fawn noticed the lights were on at the main house.

“Something is wrong, “said Fawn. “The Hansen’s are never awake at this time of the night.”

Fawn and Spot, both in their pajamas, went up to the main house to find out what was going on. When they got there, they noticed that Mrs. Hansen was sitting in her lazy boy chair, blanked wrapped around her and heating pad on.

“Oh no!” exclaimed Fawn. “What is wrong?”

“My back,” said Mrs. Hansen.

“Yes,” said Mr. Hansen, giving Mrs. Hansen a glass of water and some pain pills.

Fawn and Spot both knew this wasn’t good. They had very seldom seen Mrs. Hansen take any kind of pill, let alone pain pills.

“What happened to her back?” Spot asked Mr. Hansen when she followed him out to the kitchen.

“I don’t know,” said Mr. Hansen. “She says she didn’t fall or trip or strain her back.”

“That isn’t good,” said Spot.

“No,” said Mr. Hansen. “I am really worried about her.”

“Me too,” said Spot.

That night Fawn and Spot decided they would stay up at the main house so they could help look after Mrs. Hansen.

“Do you need anything?” Fawn asked Mrs. Hansen before he went to bed.

“No thank you,” said Mrs. Hansen.

Fawn and Spot went to sleep and about an hour later they heard Mrs. Hansen screaming in pain. They got up to find Mrs. Hansen in the hallway, one hand hanging onto her back. She was trying to put her shoes on with the other.

“Oh dear !” exclaimed Spot. “Come and sit down. We can help you with your shoes.”

Mrs. Hansen cried out in pain as she went to sit down. Fawn and Spot both helped her put her shoes on.

“I’m taking her to the hospital,” said Mr. Hansen, holding his wife’s hand and wincing every time she took a step because with each step she took, she was in agonizing pain.

A few hours later, Mr. Hansen helped Mrs. Hansen back to her hazy boy chair. Mrs. Hansen didn’t seem to be in as much pain as when they left.

“The doctor gave her something to take the pain away,” said Mr. Hansen after he had put Mrs. Hansen to bed.

“Well whatever they did, “said Spot. “It looks like it worked.”

“Yes,” said Mr. Hansen. “She is not in as much pain as she was. They also ran some tests on her so we should know what the problem is and then we can work on getting her fixed up.”

It was a pretty sleepless night at the main house. The next morning Mrs. Hansen was in a lot of pain again. She could hardy walk, the pain was so severe. That afternoon the doctor called and said that there was something wrong with Mrs. Hansen’s spine. She would have to be booked into the hospital to have some urgent tests done.

The next couple of days were torture for Mrs. Hansen. She could not do anything except sit and read or watch television. It was very hard on Mrs. Hansen to suddenly go from someone who was very independent to someone who could do nothing. She could not cook, clean, go to work, do the laundry or do the grocery shopping. Every single step she took was excruciatingly painful for her.

The hospital called later on that day and they advised that Mrs. Hansen needed to have a shot of cortisone in her back. They said that would fix the problem she was having in no time.

“It’s no wonder Mrs. Hansen has such a sore back,” said Mr Hansen after lugging in twenty bags of groceries. She used to do all of this, every week, all by herself.”

Mrs. Hansen did recover from her back problem and within a few weeks was almost back to her old self. Fawn, Spot and Mr. Hansen always made sure one of them were around on grocery day, to carry the groceries in the house for her.