mums broken her hip

SHANDY

Registered User
Jan 24, 2007
26
0
i had a call at work yesterday afternoon off dad, mom has broken her hip, she fell over in the nursing home, (even though she wears hip protectors). she is now in hospital and due to have an operation this afternoon to pin the bone.

i was wondering if anyone could give me an opinion on roughley how long she may be in hospital, and wether the would let her go back to the nursing home asap because we are really worried about mrsa.

mum is 79 years old and we made a concious decision last night that we would not tell her about the operation as she has vascular dementia and we thought she may fret all night about it, hope we made the right choice, any information you might be able to help us with, will be greatly appreciated.


very worried

shandy
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,445
0
Kent
Bad news, Shandy, I`m so sorry.

I haven`t had any personal experience of broken hips, it was bad enough when my husband broke his arm, but I think you are doing the right thing, not telling her anything in advance.

I`m sure it`s better for your mum to meet things as they come, instead of being warned in advance. She`d either become confused and agitated, frightened or would just forget.

I`ve no idea how long she will take to heal. I imagine different people have different healing qualities.

I hope everything goes well and she`s one of the rapid healers.:)
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
3,452
0
Liverpool
Hi Shandy

My mum broke her hip last year. She actually spent about 5 weeks in hospital but that was because the EMI home she was in was no longer able to meet her needs and we had trouble finding a new place. I would think that your mum should be able to be discharged much quicker than that, provided all goes smoothly with the op and she recovers well. Was she mobile before she broke her hip? If she was then I would say that there could be advantages to staying in hospital, as it will be easier for her to get physio there than if she was in the nursing home. The more physio she gets the better her chances of regaining mobility. Obviously if she already had impaired mobilitiy then that is less of an issue.

| think my mum's hipbone was replaced rather than pinned, but that may be due to how bad the break is. I hope the operation goes well for your mum and she soon recovers.
 

SHANDY

Registered User
Jan 24, 2007
26
0
mums broken hip

Thanks for your advice, mums operation was cancelled and re scheduled for today, but not guaranteed, i am really angry as she has had no fluids since yesterday morning, she has refused a saline drip , so all they can do is sponge her lips, please let it be today!

thanks again

shandy
 

Kathleen

Registered User
Mar 12, 2005
639
0
69
West Sussex
SHANDY said:
mums operation was cancelled and re scheduled for today, but not guaranteed, i am really angry as she has had no fluids since yesterday morning, she has refused a saline drip , so all they can do is sponge her lips, please let it be today!

It's awful to have to wait so long for an op to repair her hip, poor thing must be in a lot of pain as well as confused.

I hope all goes well for you and wish her a speedy recovery.

I understand your concern re MRSA, our local hospital was listed a among the worst 5 in the country for standards of hygeine.

A friend of ours contracted MRSA there three times while in the ICU!

Good luck for today.

Kathleen
 

DeborahBlythe

Registered User
Dec 1, 2006
9,222
0
noelphobic said:
Hi Shandy

If she was then I would say that there could be advantages to staying in hospital, as it will be easier for her to get physio there than if she was in the nursing home. The more physio she gets the better her chances of regaining mobility. Obviously if she already had impaired mobilitiy then that is less of an issue.

.

Hello Shandy, I don't usually disagree with Brenda, and I'm not necessarily doing so here, as the point about 'the more physio the better' is I think spot on. But it might be helpful to try and find out whether your mum can have physio when she gets back home, and how much. My thoughts are broadly that the home environment is better in the long run, for someone with dementia, than the hospital. My mum DID get some physio in hospital, but it wasn't a great deal and she did also get some at the home. Even without formal physiotherapy sessions, if she had some mobility before, the home should be encouraging her to keep mobile anyway.
How did things go yesterday?
 

noelphobic

Registered User
Feb 24, 2006
3,452
0
Liverpool
I understand what you are saying Deborah and do think it is generally best to get people with dementia out of hospital as soon as possible. However, we had a problem in that once mum had actually left the hospital it was very difficult to get any physio for her. It seemed to be accepted that the fact that she was in a nursing home meant she almost didn't need to be mobile. So, although she was capable of walking and did walk whilst in the hospital, she hasn't walked since she left and now finds it difficult even to weight bear.

Hopefully our experience wasn't a common one.
 

SHANDY

Registered User
Jan 24, 2007
26
0
Mum Broke Her Hip

thank you all for your help, mums operation was cancelled again at 7.45pm friday night, she eventually had the op on saturday 2.30pm (3 .5 days wait)

she is not too bad, a little sore and confused, but guess what ? the hospital rang my dad this morning, she took 2 steps with physios this morning and they are sending her back to the nursing home tomorrow.

i really don't know how i feel about this, i think in one sense it's good for her to get back to the home asap, but it seems a bit quick to me, personally i think it is the fact they cannot deal with the dementure, anyway guys thanks and watch this space !


best regards

shandy
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
0
I think you're probably correct: they probably can't deal with the dementia. Try to look at it this way: in an ideal situation she would stay in hospital and receive adequate care, physio etc until she was more mobile, but in this day and age, that's not going to happen. So, even if a return to the nursing home isn't ideal, it's better than the alternative: staying in hospital where everyone is too busy, no one takes the time to undertand her AND she's at risk from infections.

Jennifer
 

Nell

Registered User
Aug 9, 2005
1,170
0
72
Australia
Dear Shandy,
When my Mum broke her hip eighteen months ago, she was kept in hospital for six weeks and that was considered a short stay!! I'm amazed your Mum is allowed to go back to the NH so soon! :eek:

We organised a private physio to visit my Mum in the NH - expensive, but worth it I think. Could you consider something like that??

I'm sending you my best wishes for a speedy recovery for your poor Mum.
 

Staff online

Forum statistics

Threads
138,144
Messages
1,993,331
Members
89,799
Latest member
GillWife