Sudden Loss Of Mobility

Sharon G

Registered User
Jun 5, 2007
9
0
Greater London
My father is currently in a nursing home and suffers from mixed dementia - Lewy Body and Vascular. Just over three weeks ago he had a fall and since then he has not been able to walk. Prior to the fall he was mobilising without any difficulty whatsoever and now he is transferred by 2 carers from armchair to wheelchair to bed. The GP didn't see Dad until the day after the fall and prescribed paracetamol for the pain he seemed to be experiencing in his knee. She saw him again the following week and her advice was to continue with the same treatment. I asked for a second opinion from the senior partner at the practice and he carried out a thorough examination, this time in my presence, and his probable diagnosis was a fractured hip. Dad was x-rayed at hospital but returned to the nursing home with news that there was nothing wrong! Does dementia progress in this way? Sudden onset with such devastating results! Could he have suffered a stroke? He complains of pain in his knee and abdomen and there does not seem to be any paralysis on one side. I'm baffled and feel like I'm being stonewalled by the medical professionals - no one seems inclined or able to give me a definitive explanation. Has anyone else experienced this kind of rapid deterioration in their relative? HELP!
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
0
When they did the x-rays did they do a full screening i.e not just checking the hip but also all the way across the abdomen? Because something similar happened to my mother, and it wan't until 2 months later when the pain had increased that a new x-ray showed she had a healing pubic bone fracture: the hospital had ONLY x-rayed her hip on the first go round, and hadn't gone all the way across, so they didn't pick it up.

Jennifer
 

Natashalou

Registered User
Mar 22, 2007
426
0
london
Maybe he has just lost all confidence. My mother fell twice and broke her pelvis twice in different places each time however she did recover suprisingly well and was gettin about on a frame and was thinking of moving on to a walking stick.
Then she fell again another twice, this time breaking her shoulder. Her pelvis was re ex rayed and it hadnt been affected by the second set of falls, but now she will hardly try and move at all.
she says she is frightened of falling again and it will be the end of her. But presumable her actual mobility would be the same as it was before which was not 100% but it wasnt too bad, and now as she hasnt walked for several weeks I suspect she will have delveloped muscle wastage .