Broken Hip

[Jessie5]

Mum who is in a care home fell and broke her hip this week. She has had surgery and is now in hospital and they are saying 1 week to 2 weeks until she is discharged back into the care home. Her dementia is quite advanced now and she often doesn’t recognise us and has hallucinations already. The dr says there is possibility of delirium and that she is likely to decline in her physical health and possibly dementia. I know this is a common injury with dementia and wondered what other people’s experiences have been? I know everyone different just good to get a picture.

 

[Banjomansmate]

Sadly, after his fall and broken femur The Banjoman’s cognition became such that he was unable to interact with the physiotherapist and therefore couldn’t do any exercises to get him back on his feet.

 

[Collywobbles]

There are a range of possibilities here. You might find that the delirium is specific to being in hospital and that the worst of it lifts once back in the care home. This was our experience with my Mum. The hallucinations stopped when she came home, although the situation triggered a step deterioration in her underlying dementia. If it’s a comfort, she remembered nothing about her distress afterwards. She didn’t even remember having been in hospital.

My Granny refused to co-operate with a physiotherapist - she told us that she “didn’t want someone else ordering me about”. Granny went into hospital just about able to stand and move around, but came out bed-bound and immobile despite the hospital’s efforts.

There’s also the short-term memory loss. Someone can be given physio and shown how to move and walk safely given their injury, but with dementia, they may not retain that information or be able to do as they’ve been shown.

 

[Jaded'n'faded]

Same happened to my mum but she recovered well. As others have said, the main problem seems to be getting them to do exercises, etc, afterwards.

I got mean with mum and ended up threatening her - 'Well, no, it's fine if you don't want to do the exercises. But it means you'll be stuck in a wheelchair or in bed for the rest of your life...' That worked because she liked being up and about. But the exercises didn't actually help much. What did help was the carers (at my insistence) getting her up and walking her up and down the corridors every day. First it took 2 carers, then one + a walking frame and soon she could manage herself with the frame.

It did slow down her walking (no bad thing!) but there wasn't a big dip in her dementia. (Apart from a few days delerium in hospital which went when she returned to the home.)

So I'd say get your mum up and walking - don't take no for an answer!

 

[Jessie5]

Thanks so much for those thoughts everyone - really helpful! She loves to walk so I am hoping this at least will be in her favour.