BOTH? How did she break BOTH legs???

This is about my Mom, not me, so we’ll dispel that right off the bat. Last Tuesday (one week ago today) my 71-year old Mom managed to break BOTH her thigh bones. :eek: Oh, and before anyone asks, yes, she has osteoporosis.

Here’s the saga: she works at a small-town hospital in a local suburb for a doctor’s practice; she does check-in & check-out and it’s a good part time job for an older lady. She shares the desk with another unit; someone on that unit got flowers, so my Mom was moving them to the other side of the desk…when she tripped over a chair mat & went down.

They tell me she landed on her left side; that’s the side that was more swollen & looked much worse. Luckily, being in the hospital she was able to be moved pretty quickly to the ER and they started trying to reach me. (Of course, it’s the one day I don’t put my cell phone in my pocket at work, and went into a meeting.) When I got there (breaking a few landspeed records, I’m sure) they told me they were waiting for the orthopedic specialist to see her, then they were going to move her upstairs. The ortho showed me the x-rays (horrifying) and then they got her moved without a great deal of trouble.

They couldn’t schedule surgery right away because she’s on coumadin, so she got to sit in a hospital bed for TWO DAYS with fractured femurs, and I’ll tell you the Demerol wasn’t cutting the pain nearly enough. Surgery happened on Thursday; they were speculating at 5-6 hours, but it took almost 11 hours.

She now has rods in both legs; she just got out of ICU today because the surgery threw her into atrial fibrillation and they had to wait until her rhythm stabilized. The doctor won’t speculate on when (if ever) she’ll be able to move/walk again - 6 months is the earliest estimate but he’s not tied to that number at all.

The only plus in the whole thing is that the practice she works for filed a worker’s compensation claim, and all her medical expenses are being covered - and they’re holding the job for her for when she’s up and around again.

Things are going to be quite interesting for a while; I’m trying to remember to do things for myself or I can’t take care of her. I’m the only family she really has (besides my 14 year old daughter), so the lion’s share falls to our household. Lots of driving, lots of not sleeping.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share with the Dope, since this place has been a refuge for me so many times in the past. (Yes, I have a blog too and do most of the emotional stuff there.) If anyone has any experience in dealing with long-term rehab of an elderly woman, I’d be glad to hear it.

Now, lunch is over; back to work. Hospital tonight. Bed later. Ugh.

{{indyellen’s mom}}

Seconded.

And {{indyellen}}.

:eek: YE-OUWCH! :eek: Prayers sent for Indyellen, Indyellen’s Mother, and family.

Your poor mom! 71 and still working – she’s going to hate being laid up.

Will they let her come right home from the hospital? I broke my hip too (also osteoporosis), and would have had to go to a care center for a few weeks if not for my husband being able to help me, and having a bathroom on the first floor of the house. (My fall happened at work too. I fell on a rug, but I don’t think I tripped – I think the hip broke and I went down.)

You’ll want to get a riser seat for the toilet, and maybe even a commode, if the bathroom isn’t close to where she’ll be sleeping. Workers comp should pay for that.

For the first two weeks I was home, a nurse/therapist visited twice a week to check the incision and to help me with exercises. The exercises don’t amount to much – I sat in a chair and tried to lift my leg. It was awhile before I could do even that.

It’s the weirdest feeling – not being able to raise your foot off the floor – but you can’t, not for awhile. I also accidentally put weight on that leg once, and another weird feeling – there was nothing there! It was like I had no leg.

But I didn’t have much pain. I came home with pain meds and took them for a couple weeks, but didn’t refill the prescription.

Your mom will probably need to take an aspirin every day for at least six months – make sure she does that.

I didn’t have access to a shower – ours is on the second floor – so it was bathing and washing hair at the kitchen sink for three months. That sucked. If your mom’s shower is on the first floor, she’ll need a shower chair, and safety bars or rails to hang on to.

I borrowed a small wheelchair from a neighbor. Even though I could get around with a walker, it was really tiring, and using the wheelchair meant I could carry things – help set the table, do some light housework and laundry, etc., without worrying about forgetting myself and falling.

When it comes time to settle your mom’s work comp claim, you might consider hiring a lawyer to make sure she gets everything she’s entitled to.

Good luck to both of you!

uff da!!!

my mum had breaks in 2 legs and collarbone. thankfully she was able to get into a rehab/nursing home. they actually wanted to send her home! only one working appendage into a house that you have to go up 4 stairs to get into; with no way to get out in an emergency; and no one there for 8-12 hours a day!

it was unbelievable dealing with healthcare issues. for 10 weeks every friday afternoon around 4pm i would get a call saying “we will be able to release your mother today!” can she walk? no. can she go up and down stairs? no. can she use a toilet or commode? no. then how can you release her? lather, rinse, repeat. hopefully you won’t deal with that as it is worker’s comp.

i hope things go well for y’all. will she be able to bend her legs? sit in a chair? keep her supplied with things that will entertain her. port. dvd player, cd player, books, hand held games, hobbie stuff, etc. boredom is the worst.

also look out for “odd” behaivour. my mum would think certain nurses were against her, and that this one or that one was out to get her or didn’t like her. combo of not enough to do and the drugs she was on for heart and pain.

Oh, how horrible! I certainly hope she has an easy, speedy recovery.

It’s certainly not the same, but I can offer a generally positive story about elderly ladies recovering. My grandma, who will turn 87 this spring, survived breast cancer and triple bypass surgery sometime in her 70’s. Three years ago, she was diagnosed with appendicitis three weeks after her appendix ruptured. That did slow her down a bit, because she developed COPD* afterwards. My aunts and uncles alternated taking care of her when she needed it. She was in the hospital for several weeks, went home on full-time oxygen, and is now close to fully independent again, on occasional ‘as needed’ oxygen.

So, speaking from experience, the elderly can and do bounce back extremely well from even serious problems. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for your mom.

*I think that’s it, it makes it hard for her to breathe.

[mother mode]If you fall and break both of your legs, don’t come running to me[/MM]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks for all the replies & thoughts.

Mom is doing better - physically, at least. She’s been working with the physical therapists for 2 days now, and managed yesterday to slide herself from the bed into a wheelchair with help. She’s much more alert (although, expectedly, still easily tired) and is in better spirits overall.

The worker’s comp people have been remarkably cooperative. There’s this VERY expensive medication they’re giving my mom, and there was some concern that it wouldn’t be covered after she leaves the hospital, but today the nurse case manager said that she thinks they can get it covered for a year, maybe.

I’m not going to visit tonight due to another appointment, and we’re supposed to get some sort of godawful snowstorm, so I might not make it there tomorrow either. We’ll see how she handles it.

Emotionally, she’s still on a rollercoaster; she’ll be fine, and then she’ll think about maybe having to give away her dog, and she starts crying again. She said she had a meltdown during the day yesterday. I contacted her therapist, and apparently the therapist plans to stop by to visit/counsel her.

Anyway, I just wanted to drop back in with a quick update…don’t want to OP & run. :wink:

Thanks again, everyone, for the encouragement and advice.

(BTW, Rick, that was really funny.)

If you don’t mind sharing, is the medication something for her osteoporosis or is it for something else? I’m taking Fosamax and supplemental calcium, but if there’s another med out there for osteoporosis, I’d like to know about it.

I hope your mom gets to keep her dog. I wasn’t able to walk Boomer for awhile, but other than that, we managed okay. He’s learned the boundaries of our yard, and that helped.

One big change – on an emotional level – is that I’m much more tentative (maybe even fearful) than I was before. I never go up or down stairs without wondering if something will break again. Once when I was taking baby steps on a snow-covered parking lot, a 90-year-old man (using a cane) asked if I needed help. :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s life-changing, osteoporosis. Be ready for that.

It’s called Forteo, and it’s manufactured by Lilly. It’s supposed to actually build bone back, not just reinforce what’s there. It also costs $1000/month. :eek: You might be able to find coverage for it, but I don’t know. Lilly does have some patient initiatives to get medications to patients with low-income or other issues, but I don’t know if you’d qualify. We’re trying to see if Mom will.

My daughter’s father has tentatively agreed to take the dog, but I’m not sure if we’re doing this or not; I’ve only talked to her, not him, and I want to make sure that he really understands what he’s getting into - and that he won’t randomly make decisions about the dog. Mom has a fenced in yard, so it’s just a matter of being able to let the dog out, and not have it get underfoot if she’s in a chair or using a walker. She’s willing to look at options now.

Mom was already paranoid about the osteoporosis. If she was going upstairs, or getting up on a ladder, or going outside when it’s icy, she would call someone to tell them and either have them wait on the phone for her or call back in 10 minutes to make sure she was ok. The irony of her tripping and falling when she was in what should have been a safe environment is not lost on any of us.

There’s going to be a lot of life changing things going on for the next few months, maybe years. But we’ll get through.

Thanks for the info on Forteo. I’m without insurance coverage right now, but I’m going to look into it anyway.

Best of luck to you and your mom.