MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Had a fall, broke her hip being operated on today.
87 not in great health, I guess I should prepare for the worse.
Anyone been in a a similar position ?
Grandad of 92 had similar. He was very poorly immediately after. He is now 96 and doing really well.
The after Op care is crucial. ie the Physio support and not languishing in the bed too long. Always s bear in mind sub standard care isn’t the staffs fault it’s the systems fault. Push hard for what your Mum needs but don’t take it out on the staff.
My mum did this whilst staying with us at Xmas this year. She spent a week in Stoke Mandeville and was discharged to a care home (she'd lived on her own up to then but struggled). She's OK now, completely recovered from the hip break although now incontinent.
The most important thing here is that for people over 70, muscle mass disappears fast especially if they aren't eating well and one week of inactivity in hospital does ten years of damage to their leg strength and CV fitness. Even Mrs Gti who is 60 and has just spent almost a week in bed with severe nausea, eating nothing (see my post on Pregabalin) is now finding herself surprisingly weak and unfit. This is the reason why the physios will be trying to get your Mum up and walking as soon as possible.
Can't offer any help (yet) but my wife has just had her hip replaced yesterday (mid 40's!) So about to become an expert in all things hip 😀
Good point about physio - my mum (aged 88) was up the day after her operation for physio
By prepare for the worst, I assume you mean that she'll have a reduce independence of life - then yes. My better half (who has done stints in Geriatrics) would reckon that if someone was living independently before a fall and hip fracture then they won't go back to that same independence of living. Maybe a carer, but once they've had one fall it's much more likely to happen again.
Healing thoughts!
The after Op care is crucial. ie the Physio support and not languishing in the bed too long. Always s bear in mind sub standard care isn’t the staffs fault it’s the systems fault. Push hard for what your Mum needs but don’t take it out on the staff.
this!
make sure shes hydrated & eating well as soon as possible
Oh and to add. Where does she currently live?
If in her own place, potentially unlikely she will get back there for weeks/months. You need to start looking at care/nursing homes at least for the interim and be open minded to it.
The last thing you want is for your Mum to be in a hospital bed longer than is medically necessary.
Hospitals usually have a team who can support you on all this decision making process but you need to be on the ball with it yourself
Care homes vary a lot. My mum's in this one:
https://www.quantumcare.co.uk/care-homes/willow-court
Be prepared to start spending any of her savings / selling house etc.
If she hasn't set up a Lasting Power of Attorney she needs to get one in place so that her nominated attorney (e.g. you) can sort it all out.
There's a whole range of "broken hips"!
If she's done it properly, and they do a half or full replacement, then she can be load bearing within a few days! My mum, who has dementia has broken both her hips, and in both cases was out of the ward and back to her care home in less than 5 days!
In both cases Mum was taken into the Royal Berks in Reading and i have nothing but good things to say about the people who dealt with her, from A&E to the operating staff to the nurses on the ward.
(having dementia makes hospitals a nightmare, as someone keeps coming along and sticking needles in you and trying to force you to take pills etc but you have no idea why!!)
The main worry would be complications in surgery and the effect of the general anesthetic. if your mum has no history of problems from anesthetics, and she was relatively mobile and on her feet before she broke her hip, then things are not too bad ime 🙂
At 86 my Mum had a hip replacement - apart from the graphic descriptions of seeing fountains of blood from behind the green curtain and hearing the electric saws go (done under local) - she's now pretty mobile, and her quality of life in respect of that is much better. My dad religiously made her attend physio etc afterwards so the exercise is key.
Although unfortunately she has recently developed poor short term memory 🙁