sudden lack of mobility

[forman]

after 2 nasty falls in her care home my mum is now in a dementia ward in hospital with no apparent damage to her head or body.
before her falls she happily shuffled around the care home but is now unable to walk has anyone come across this sudden alarming lack of mobility that doctors cannot explain.

or could this be another stage of her illness ??

 

[Helen33]

Evening Forman

I haven't experienced this but I wanted to say that I am sorry to hear what you and your mum are experiencing at the moment.

Love

 

[connie]

Could be a stage of the illness, or even that mobility comes back after a couple of weeks. It is a hard one to call.

Lionel's mobility went very suddenly after a couple of minot falls in the home. As well as not being able to walk, he was unable even to stand or hold his body upright in a chair.

He has been immobile now for 2.5 years. This happened when he was 65.

 

[Vonny]

I suppose it couldn't be a coincidental bout of a UTI could it? My mum's mobility was first badly affected by a UTI and she never gained proper mobility following that.

Or your mum may even have lost the confidence to walk following her falls, or it could be another stage of the illness.

Has the hospital tried physio? I'm not saying it would work but it may be worth a try. A lot depends on her age and general condition I would think.

Vonny xx

 

[jayne-b]

Hello Forman

The simply heartbreaking answer is "we'll probably never know"

At the beginning of July I visited Mom in her own home and we walked the seafront and all around for hours. A week later after scalding herself she was hospitalised and she has not walked since. Things wern't helped by a fall in the hospital resulting in a broken hip

Mom remains in a CH.

With assistance of 2 people she can me moved from bed to chair but her posture is gone and she seems to have forgotten how to walk. There has been no move to get her mobile from any sort of therapy, and I feel desparately sad that this seems to be accepted and expected.

I asume that your Mum has been x-rayed? Has she been assessed for possible stroke that may have caused the falls or have the falls been explained

Sorry not very helpful but I do know how you feel, I certainly think that the trauma of Mom's burns and the 2 ops have moved her further down the slippery AD path but I want to at least try and see if she can be helped with mobility.

I hope that the hospital can give you some answers and wish you and your Mum all the best
jxx

 

[jenniferpa]

And when you check that she has been xrayed, please check that they did an xray all the way across the pelvis not just the hips. You would think they would, but I can personally state that is doesn't always happen - it was several months after my mother had been hospitalized after a fall (and had, in fact, been in hospital another time) that I discovered that she had a "healing" pelvic fracture which might have accounted for her ongoing pain As it turned out they had checked the hips, but hadn't gone all the way across because "she wouldn't stay still" . Sigh.

 

[jayne-b]

Jennifer, same here.

Although Mom had been checked over they did not x-ray her, we had to insist on it, and they brought her back from x-ray saying that they could only x-ray her leg because they couldn't get her to put her leg down to enable the hip/pelvis x-ray This didn't sem to ring any bells with them.

This was 2 days after her fall.

Why was it apparent to us what was required and why but not the "professionals", rhetorical question

 

[jenniferpa]

That is so depressing, really more depressing than thinking we were the only ones it had happened to. This means it must happen more often than one realizes.

 

[Jaye]

My mother also lost her ability to walk after a major fall followed by a week in hospital. Although she could weight bear, and was able to put one foot in front of the other, she could not balance sufficiently to do it alone. She could no longer get from a chair to standing by herself either. The physio team were great, but the staff at the 'care' home told me they could not help her with the exercises as that would be 'restraint'.

She lost the ability to feed herself, and her speech became more disjointed at the same time.

There was more deterioration in one week, than in the previous decade.

Interesting to me that other people have had similar experiences following a fall.

Jaye

 

[margrae]

Hi
I am new here

It would seem the same stories are true for a lot of us.
My mother is in an NHS care home, when she went there she was very mobile, but since falling a number of times, the last fall fracturing her clavicle which was not x-rayed for over a week after her fall I find a huge deterioration in her overall health.
She now looks like a pathetic sole......eveytime I look at happy photographs taken in the summer I weep....she has changed so much in the last few months she is like a different person.She shuffles around, slurs her speech and looks so distant that it is heartbreaking to watch.
I am concerned that medication is contributing to her decline, she is on anti depressants and anti psychotics which are known to cause low blood pressure which in turn would cause dizziness.
I had voiced those concerns months ago, but she is still on these meds.
I know falls are common place, but how many times must my mother fall and injure herself before something is done. There would appear to be lack of staff which in turn would mean poor supervision. I have decided to make a complaint, it seems the only way to try and make things better and safer for mum and any other resident.
I am a nurse myself and find the difference in care given to the elderly and paediatrics which I work in like day and night. It seems like the elderly are second class citizens, I know this doesn't happen everywhere but it is an all too often problem experienced by many.
Sorry to go but at the moment I feel very angry, I have only skimmed over my main concern, but there are other issues that I need to address. I also had the 'restraint'word banded to me, safety doesn't seem to be a more appropraite term when trying to risk assess.

Margaret

 

[sussexsue]

Mum had a fall about 3 weeks ago and absolutely refused to move as it hurt (her back was black and blue). After getting worse over the next couple of day she ended up in A&E where they did head CT, chest, back and pelvis Xrays - all clear. Bloods showed up a UTI which I suspect may have caused the fall.

Her walking was not good beforehand as AD had caused her to lose balance, but following the fall I was beginning to wonder if she would ever walk again. OTs in hospital worked with her and eventually got her walking with a frame (and issued 2 to come home with her).

Since coming home all she wanted to do was lie on her side. However being a mean daughter I made her get out of bed, sit in a chair and walk around with the frame. 10 minutes after I left her she would be lying down again, so I would prop her up with pillows again. It has been a tough couple of weeks, but I am pleased to say that she is now walking (or at least shuffling) as before, can go up and down stairs and sits up in the chair most of the time. It has been hard work, but well worth it as we have virtually got her back to her previous mobility.

Sadly I cannot imagine in a carehome they would/could spend the amount of time needed.

I think you really should be pressing for further investigation for your mum, as lack of mobility is not going to help her general heal at all.

 

[margrae]

Just been to see mum , she wasn't given her poison (drugs) today and she was much more lucid, was talking and much more interactive. It was so nice to see a little spark there and actually got a few smiles from her.She actually cried when we left and although upsetting it shows an awareness in her that has been missing for a while.She also had a look in her eyes that was not vacant, that showed there was someone there. It was as if a light had been switched on.
If this improvement continues.....and is not some temporary state then perhaps we could manage to have her at home .....just maybe.


Margaret

 

[September Girl]

Sounds silly but it could be as simple as her way of making sure she doesn't fall again? We all know that the shock of falling over gets worse as we get older so to fall several times in the place where you should feel most secure must shatter the confidence, especially if it leads to a stay in the local NHS establishment.

A similar thing happened with my Mum - she had a series of falls in her own home and ended up in hospital. Fortunately she was not hurt, but she was odd for several days after and has since refused to leave her armchair unless there is someone to help.

If I look back on that time (Feb), she did go through immense trauma. She fell one evening in her own home and in the presence of TWO carers (despite the lunch carer noting Mum was particularly wobbly that day). She was then strapped to an immobility board and had to stay like it ALL NIGHT until the X-ray dept. opened the next day. She was really weird in herself for several days after this, some of which was due to dehydration but some of it was sheer SHOCK. What a terrible experience for anyone to cope with, never mind an elderly lady with dementia.

When she came home she refused to leave her armchair unless there was an extremely good reason for doing so (initially,just to go to the bathroom). Nine months on, she still spends most of her life in the armchair but in herself, she is SO much better. It's almost as if a burden of fear and expectation has gone from her shoulders. I feel that in some ways, she is more contented than she has been in years and this has allowed her to "be" as well as she can be (eating better, sleeping better etc.).

Initially there were all the fears about pressure sores, thrombosis etc, but in actual fact, she has got better since we all accepted the armchair situation, not worse. The DNs visit regularly and the pressure sores that she HAD have healed; she's happy enough to be taken to a Day Centre twice a week, and whenever she has anyone come to the house, they take her for a lap or two of the sitting room (with frame of course).

I'm not saying any of this will help your dear Mum Forman, but I know how strong willed my Mum was in health and even though she has lost a lot of control in her life, my goodness, the strong will lives on. xxx

 

[LizzieS]

I got back from my short sunshine break on Thursday 5th November to find my mother had 3 falls whilst staying at the CH for respite care. The staff left two messages on my answer phone, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday, which I didn’t pick up until quite late on Thursday evening when I got home. I spoke to them on Friday morning when I was due to collect up, saying I would be there around 11.30a.m. I was told that sooner rather than later would be better as they thought she ought to go to the hospital as she couldn’t seem to carry her own weight that morning. I asked why they hadn't called an ambulance and they said they thought I could take her when I collected her. I asked how they thought she'd get to my car if she couldn't walk. They said she could go in one of their wheel chairs to get her to the car and then get one from A&E when we got to the hospital. Well, we tried and I had to call a wheel chair taxi as she couldn't get from the chair into my car which was no surprise to me. I got her to the hospital and when the triage nurse examined her and asked what had happened, she was very concerned and Mum was directed straight into a cubical. She was seen by a doctor quite quickly and he was furious that the care home hadn't called an ambulance and told me he would be reporting the home.

Later on, I had to get another taxi back to the care home to return the wheel chair. I spent all day at the hospital whilst Mum had x-rays and tests. She really isn't too well, poor old lady. Mum seems to be marginally better and is still in hospital. She has received physiotherapy and her mobility is slowly improving. However, her mental state is still cause for concern to me as she has changed such a lot very quickly and I believe another check for continuing UTI may be needed.

Mum is due to see the consultant tomorrow, 16th November, and I daresay I will have more information when I visit her in the afternoon. I believe she may be coming home soon and that will make her very happy. However, it remains to be seen how I cope with Mum. I may need to consider more help. As you may imagine, I do not want her to go into a care home until absolutely necessary and I’d rather she was in a state when she is unaware of that as she has told me she doesn’t want to go into a home again. I will be getting advise from the Alzheimer’s Society and from my brother in law who has a lot of knowledge in these matters.

The beneficial effects of my sunshine mini break, which I hoped would help me recover from a nasty bout of pneumonia and when I slept and slept and slept, were wiped out in a few hours!!!

 

[Lynne]

What a dreadful, AWFUL catalogue of incompetences this thread presents. For once, words fail me