Hip fracture without surgery. Any experience?
My mother fell and broke her hip on Sunday. The ortho doc at the hospital determined it was a clean break and the bones were still in alignment. He offered as an option doing nothing but managing the pain, and x-raying again in 2 weeks. If the alignment has shifted, putting in pins could be considered then. That is the option we took.
Poor Ma can't tolerate narcotics and pain management is tough. Yesterday and today she has been in delirium.
My sisters are freaking out that she has been declared eligible for hospice; I'm freaking out at she may be facing surgery. I understand that surgery risks are high for persons in their 90s with dementia. I don't know anything about the risks of not putting pins in if the bones are misaligned.
We will be discussing this further with the ortho clinic. In the meantime, does anyone have experience with a hip fracture that wasn't treated surgically?
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I know of something perhaps similar, but not the same. My sig other, G, broken his pelvis in four places after falling to the ground from the second story of a house he was helping to build. They did no surgery. The nurses tried to move him daily, (as they normally would with a bedridden patient) and he has told me that he could feel the bones grinding on one another, so after one attempt by them, he forbad them to move him any more. The bones seemed to have healed in alignment and he has had no problems in that area. When he was a child he broke both forearms in some farm machinery, casts were put on but they were not set properly, and it shows in his fore arms. He cannot rotate them normally, but it in no way affects their function, other than in playing golf. He can't swing as well as he would have been able to. I think it would be very important they keep your mother from moving, so the bones stay in alignment. Bones certainly can and do heal without surgery. ((((((((hugs))))))))))
Now when Gary broke his pelvis he was a very fit 50 some yr old, which is not the same as a ninety yr old, but bones do repair themselves.
Please keep us updated. You, your mum and your family are in my prayers.
Breaking a hip is so traumatic. I hope your mother comes out of the delirium soon. And I hope she doesn't need surgery.
Mama is 89 and pretty much lived in her lift chair. She could still stand to get on and off her potty chair with assistance but otherwise was very happy, jovial and enjoying life in her lift chair, which seemed to actually work pretty well. I was able to bathe her and wash her hair both in her chair and on the potty chair and so we made it work.
Just before Christmas, while getting on her potty chair, Mama's ankle just fractured...they said that happens with advanced age, One minute she was sitting down to get on her chair and the next she was sitting on top of me (thank God she landed on me)...anyway, no one mentioned ANY issues re anesthesia and while I should have known I suppose, she had gone through a pretty intensive bone fracture reset a few years back with no issues so they put her under anesthesia and set it...In the blink of an eye, Mama went from laughing, talking, eating on her own, to being TOTALLY bedridden. I don't mean to frighten you by telling this, I simply look back and think had I known then what I know now, I probably would have opted to have her stay in bed til it healed...and it was an ankle...it seems to me the pain could have been managed long enough for the bone to knit and even if she was bedridden, it was not a lot different than the chair, except she was bedridden not chair ridden.
Now Mama will eat nothing but the nutritional drinks, sometimes the occasional pudding, yougurt, applesauce, speaks very little, sleeps most of the time and is on hospice. So, in a matter of a week, went from NO HOME HEALTH CARE ASSISTANCE to being on hospice....I know each situation is so very different...but that is what happened to her...and it breaks my heart as I feel like I should have made a different choice.