Not consciously, of course, but that seems to be the result of their treatment. In late March she was admitted for uncontrolled diabetes, which gave her kidney failure and a raging foot infection. They put her on insulin and dialysis and lopped off part of the outside and underside of her foot. “But no tendons or bones and not much meat!” :real rolleyes: So yeah, she was very sick, but my problem is with her near lack of physical therapy, just a few minutes a day after she had been in the hospital for three weeks. And they were and are having her use a walker instead of crutches, as people with missing or broken feet, myself included, have gotten around on swimmingly for centuries. Instead of having the padded tops stuck in her armpits where she is strong (yes, I know about the potential nerve problems from doing that too long) using a walker is more like a parallel bar routine with one foot on the ground, and she doesn’t have the biceps for that, especially with the three stone of water weight they haven’t pumped out yet. Now that she’s home she can only get off the sofa with help and can barely move around the room.
My conspiracy thinking, which is always waiting in the back of my mind, comes from an experience I had a couple years ago. I fell at my doctor’s office and he slapped me in the hospital for what he called “mobility problems.” But what I thought was strange was that he prescribed complete bedrest; I couldn’t even get up to go to the john. I was a fall risk and I could only think they didn’t want to get sued if I fell, so instead of being hale and hearty when I got out a week later I was as weak as a kitten. Just like my wife. So was this CYA both times?
I know also that therapy is a two-way street and she needs to work harder or she’ll be on that sofa the rest of her shortened life. She doesn’t react positively to the “tough love” she showed me when I fell and broke ribs and cracked my skull; when I got out of the hospital our adult daughters weren’t allowed to help me when I fell down some stairs, much less just to stand up. “Don’t help him. He has to get up himself. I didn’t marry a cripple,” comes to mind.* And because she’s a medical know-it-all she won’t listen to any things that worked for me. But I still put part of the blame on her doctors for not being bossy enough.
So, do hospitals play it too safe with their fall-risk patients, to the detriment of their recovery?
FTR: it took me an hour to crawl from the hall and into my bed, but I did it myself, dammit!
A walker is much easier to use than crutches. That is why you see frail elderly people with walkers and usually younger, healthier people with crutches. They both use the same muscles but crutches are much less stable. You are balancing on a lever that can pivot as opposed to a more solid apparatus that has 4 contact points with the ground. If someone is too weak to use a walker, they are far too weak to use crutches. The benefit of crutches it that the swing-through makes it easier to move more quickly for those with good balance. Hopefully, somebody with more physical therapy expertise will chime in here, but I would always recommend starting with a walker if you are at all concerned about strength.
I agree with psychobunny. I recently broke my ankle pretty badly, and started with a walker then progressed to crutches when I felt better. I am a petite female with without much upper body strength.
If/when she does use crutches, make sure she is instructed in how to do so. A physical therapist can help with this, or you can find good videos on YouTube. If used incorrectly, you can cause problems elsewhere in the body.
I know this wasn’t your question, but making someone with broken ribs and cracked skull who just fell down the stairs crawl for an hour to get into bed isn’t tough love. It’s sadism.
Weeellll, that was my thought at the time, but she had her reasons. Maybe not good ones, but reasons. And it was over two whole weeks after the fall when I got hurt, so I should have been back to normal, like on TV. I was about to yell at a daughter for leaving a big Rubbermaid box of Christmas stuff at the bottom of the stairs, but I went face and chest first into it instead of the tiled, concrete floor, so that was good.
The point of the OP is that she was not that decrepit before she went into the hospital, and that an entire six weeks later I think she should be doing better. Like on TV.
Physicians aren’t your life coach. Based upon your description, your wife wasn’t in the best, much less even normal healthy fitness condition prior to her trip to the doctor. If she had been, and she broke her foot or ankle, they probably would have been offering her alternatives to get back to that sort of condition. Sounds like they saved your wife’s life. It’s up to her if she wants to improve better than what she had before.
My wife is the Falls Prevention nurse at her facility. While there is some CYA going on, it’s more important that the patient doesn’t get hurt from a fall. A fall can cause other serious injuries including death. These added injuries would make it more difficult to recover from the original problem.
They ARE worried about her falling, which is why they gave her a walker rather than crutches. I got the same treatment as an otherwise healthy 28-year-old after leg surgery. I was far too weak and dizzy to be safe on crutches. After much PT, I graduated to crutches. (And after subsequent, less major leg surgeries, I was given crutches right away and not released from the hospital until a physical therapist was satisfied that I was using them properly. Of course, after the 2nd and 3rd surgeries, I had the same physical therapist in the hospital – she recognized me and offered to race me down the hall on crutches, because she certainly knew that I knew how to use them by then.)
It sounds like your wife needs PT, but is possibly not quite ready yet for all of it.
As far as mobility goes, might she do well with a knee scooter / knee walker? You kneel on the padded part of that, use your hands on the handlebars, and push yourself along with the good leg.
Feh. Next you’ll tell me I shouldn’t have gone all the way up that ladder a few months later. Then fell off it, bouncing my head off the bricks before the rest of me bounced off the ground. Literally bounced–it was so cool! You people are such wimps!
Then again, some may suggest my attitude is why women live longer than men.
Nah, we just had a rough patch then because of my drinking. I suspect another part of it was that I’m so heavy she couldn’t have helped me if she wanted to, but she wouldn’t admit it. And it gave me a place on the “moral high ground,” just like catching her lying to a doctor about her diabetes.
An interesting thought, but I’m going to push for more walkering.
Just a thought: what could help is some sort of sling for her bad foot to keep her from putting weight on it. Or something like a walking cast, with the pad under her heel, which is sorta okay. Or a chrome steel frame with a pad on the bottom and a sling for her heel so there’s access to the wound. Or…
I’ve always been fascinated by handicapped mobility and access, even when I wasn’t paid to be.
As fo getting her in PT, getting her to and from the car is more work than they were making her do.
I’ve had open heart surgery at a facility that does a lot of transplants. In any case, the day you are out of the ICU and in the regular ward, often only a day later, they have you up and doing laps around the ward. Best thing for you. Besides the wonderful food, which gets tiresome really quick.
I’m told that’s to prevent “adhesions,” your guts healing together, but yeah, that’s something I thought of. Doesn’t seem prudent to leave folks festering in bed, and I’m speaking as a fat lay-about. Plus she was too cold to go outside when I came home–the day was gorgeous, but there was a slight nip in the air. Earlier she sat in our greenhouse of a station wagon while the kids shopped and was comfy. She’s turning exothermic.
After my husband’s brain surgery, once they finally sent him home after six weeks in the hospital and two weeks in a rehab facility, our insurance sent a PT person to our house for a few visits, and a home health nurse for one visit. However, it was the husband’s own stubbornness that got him back to his “normal” - walking with a cane. Is there any way the PT people could come to your house?
(Also one of our cats is known as Husband’s Personal Trainer - he likes to be followed around the house, usually one or two full circuits, before he will hop up on a bed to be petted.)
Yes, the doctors are trying to cripple your wife. That’s why they went into the medical field, to slowly maim the community. There isn’t enough bandwidth for me to post the quantity of eye roll emoticons I’d like to express right now.
So, you and your wife treat your bodies like shit, lie about your condition, and then you have the gall to blame the doctors when her health starts to fail? Jesus. I know I sound harsh as hell right now, but I am sick to DEATH of this kind of thing. “Why can’t you do anything about my lung cancer, and when can I go outside for a smoke!?” “What do you mean I wont be discharged for another two hours? I haven’t had a seizure since last night and I feel fine, so get me out of here NOW!” “What do you mean my 95 year old father with congestive heart failure can’t have bacon for breakfast! Get his diet change, and yes he WILL be a full code, so you’d better save him when his heart stops, or I’ll sue!”
I swear, it never stops. I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.
This. Having recently recovered from a pretty severe orthopedic injury (completely torn patellar tendon) and the subsequent surgical repair, I can say with confidence that a walker is a LOT easier to use when you’re having balance issues- it’s basically a small table that you can lean on and slide around. I started with a walker myself, and I’m a big, burly 41 year old guy with no upper body strength problems, and I’ve been gimped up enough due to various sports to know how to use crutches correctly.
Crutches OTOH, if you use them right, require you to lever yourself up on your hands and swing your legs forward, plant your good leg, move your crutches forward, lather, rinse repeat. This is a LOT harder if you’re in pain or if you’re not doing it right, and resting your weight on the underarm pads is absolutely NOT the right way to do it.
And… PT often starts out pretty easy and becomes more intense from there. My initial PT was pretty lame as well, but it’s pretty intense now- I leave both exhausted and soaked with sweat.
I was about to yell at a daughter for leaving a big Rubbermaid box of Christmas stuff at the bottom of the stairs, but I went face and chest first into it instead of the tiled, concrete floor, so that was good.
