Mobility-Challenged Aging Parents: From Rehab Center to Home for Thanksgiving at 97

Our Thanksgiving celebration, like that of many, brings together family members and one or two very close friends and their families. We span generations. This year the youngest is 5 months old and  R is 99.

R has never missed our Thanksgiving gatherings be they in the East or in the West. But year before last--on September 30th--she broke her hip. Attending Thanksgiving dinner that year was questionable. Doctor's orders were no weight bearing on leg with femur fracture for 90 days....and she was in a rehab center.

There were times leading up to Thanksgiving when R didn't think she could make it; but in her heart of hearts she wanted to come. The rehab center people said if she wanted to come, we all would be trained, keeping in mind she could only put weight on her good leg. Here's how:.......

Since there are several days until Thanksgiving, R's experience may be useful right now. The percentage of older people who can expect to fall and sustain a broken hip is always high, so remembering R's experience could be important in the future.

To view entire post, please visit my other site: http://wp.me/pGfkw-2AW   or http://helpparentsagewell.com/2012/11/18/mobility-challenged-aging-parents-from-rehab-center-to-home-for-thanksgiving-at-97/

Broken Hip: 97-year-old's Fall, Surgery, Rehab, Amazing Recovery--Part 1 (of 4)

97-year-old Recovers and Regains Independence After Fall and Broken Hip--Part 1

Finally, I'm back. Getting wireless internet connection while out here with R, as she prepares to leave rehab, took longer than expected.  That said, a recap of R's experience will, I hope, provide a frame of reference for those going through this not-for-sissies/prima-donnas experience.

For everyone fearful of...caring for...or recovering from...a broken hip,  Help! Aging Parents will chronicle Senior Advisor R's fall, her "rescuers," surgical consideration, rehab highlights and insights, and lastly her preparation for returning home.  Ultimately she will be aided by an alarm wrist bracelet, a cane, and a walker with a basket for carrying things (the rehab therapist says she only needs additional support when things must be carried from place to place). No caregivers.

Part 1: The Fall, the Rescuers (911 and doctors)

What follows may repeat snip-its from earlier posts.  But the chronology and additional information make it hang together better.  R. didn't have an alert pendant.  In late September she was walking from her bedroom to the kitchen when she noticed her twice-a-month cleaning help had moved something on the desk she was passing.  She reached over to reposition it, realized she was losing balance, grabbed the nearest chair, but it wasn't heavy enough to support her weight, and they both fell on the carpet.

R. remembers she grabbed at a table leg thinking she'd pull herself up; she couldn't. One side of her body would not move. She knew immediately she couldn't get up. That ad, "Help, I've fallen and I can't get up," for the first time--resonated, R said.

The next 3 hours were spent inching her way back towards the bedroom, to a telephone.  She rolled over on her stomach and with her arms in front "kinda pulled her knees and body along." Her knees sustained carpet burns, one of which is still not completely healed.

The phone, on a table, was too far to reach from the floor, but there was a waste basket nearby.  R grabbed it, was able to reach up and, after repeated attempts, knocked the phone out of the cradle.  "Very hard work," she says.  She phoned a nephew, who drove to her home, called the doctor, got the answering service, who told him to call 911.

The paramedics came immediately. First 2, then more to make certain her condition was stable then to place her on the gurney and transport her to the hospital designated by her primary care doctor (who by this time had been contacted).

Now in the "right" hospital, the next step was the "right" surgeon, for this 97-year-old, with a broken femur. R's primary care doctor was insistent on one particular orthopedic surgeon who had "technical excellence" and "good hands."  Why?  "Surgery is a trauma to the body. It is not tolerated as well in the elderly as in the young," according to R's highly regarded doctor.  "It's important to get in, get out, do a quick job with less anesthesia, less blood loss, less time in the operating room.  That means less trauma."

Clearly these early steps cleared the way for R's ultimate excellent recovery and gave us far-away-living children (one of us was out here almost all the time) confidence that--in terms of helping parents age well--we were on the right track. To be continued...


Also visit my new site: http://helpparentsagewell.com