or to be more precise, she had a fall and fractured the neck of the femur. Happened Thursday night the week before last.
Bloody fun and games since. Mum lives alone in a country town. I live in Melbourne 2/12 hours drive away. She had gone out the front to turn off the sprinklers that had been watering the lawn. Just getting dark. She turned the hose off then basically tripped over a sprinkler went down on the drive way and busted her hip. She had to crawl down the drive, through the garage, up steps into the house and through the house to her bedroom to get to a phone. Tough old bugger, took her about 2 hours.
So she rang her sister in law who came around and found her sort of lying on the bed unable to sit or stand, so they figured they’d better call an ambulance. Then they rang me, it was 11pm and I was asleep so it wasn’t a great nights sleep.
So from there an ambulance came and took her to the local hospital and next morning they transferred her via ambulance to Shepparton which is closer to Melbourne and the biggest hospital in a fair distance without hitting Melbourne.
So I pulled friday arvo off work and shot up to see her. Stayed the weekend at her place and tracked back and forward, taking stuff down to her and making sure the house was right. They operated Sunday, full hip reconstruction.
That basically means they throw away that bone ball at the tip of your leg and jam in a metal one on a spike, and also put a metal or some such lining in the hip socket.
I also pulled Monday off and went to see her on the way back to Melbourne. I tell you what, they don’t fuck around with the rehab. The physio came in while I was there and started to work on getting her to start moving the leg.
Now, keep in mind Mum had been basically laying still, doped to the eyeballs on morphine for 3 days with little food and sleep. So she cooperated as much as she could, trying to get moving. You should have seen her face when the physio said “Right, that’s very good. Now we’re going to get you out of bed and you’re going to stand up and walk into the shower”
So she’s now been transferred to a small bush hospital about 20km from home for rehab. She’s only on paracetamol tablets, doing her exercises and getting out of bed by herself and using the walking frame to get to the toilet and shower.
I spent this last weekend at her house with my son, building two concrete platforms to make easier access to the main house entrances and doing stuff in the house to make it suitable for her to be discharged to. I spoke to the OT where she is now and they’ll do a house assessment before she’s allowed to go home. Some of the stuff I could have hired but I thought, fuck it, I’ll buy it then she has it to keep. So I bought a seating frame that goes over the toilet that has handrails, a stool for the shower, a long handled dustpan and brush, reorganised her kitchen and Laundry so she can reach stuff without bending (not allowed to bend the hip more than 90 degrees for 6-12 weeks) and built the concrete slabs.
She’s only 74 and has lived in the bush her whole life. She’s independent and even though it would safer for her to move to Melbourne, she’s staying where she is until she basically has to move. The least I can do is try to make it work as well as I can for her. I’m the only child, Dad died a few years back, someone’s gotta take care of the silly old bugger. So I’ve been fizzing round like a blue arsed fly for 2 weeks, with no break in sight, and trying to concentrate enough to hold down a job as well.
So, sorry if this is an overly long rambling post. Any questions anyone has on whatever I’d be happy to try to answer.
