Hip fracture

[belay]

Mum in law fell at home yesterday and has a badly fractured hip ( doctors words). Operation today. She is 90 and frail. What is the outlook? will she be able to carry on living independently? wonderful , independent lady

Sorry to hear about your mum. I hope the op went ok. She will be seen by a physiotherapist and occupational therapist to assess her progress while she is in hospital. She may well benefit from some rehab which the hospital team can arrange. If she is strong enough and wants to go home then ask the therapists to do a home visit. She might need some adaptations and.equipment put in place to help her. In the UK you are entitled to a free care needs assessment and up to 6 weeks help. Make sure this is all organised before she leaves hospital.

Worrying now -for the part two days since the operation she has been telling me that she is in Australia (never been there) and where is her husband (he passed away 18 months ago). She has pulled out both her canula and catheter

Has she had her urine dipped? She could have uti causing her to get confused with Australia n fil. I can remember being frozen covered in snow and dgm was adamant it was July.. also discovered Elvis was my grandfather that week and that lovely man (Andy Murray on the telly) came round n had tea with her.

The recovery on her hip depends on her own willingness and the care she gets after. It’ll be a long haul though and she will need help for a long time after it but make sure they assess her for care at home etc before she’s out. If you can’t do something make sure they’re aware.

the confusion may well be down to infection-make sure staff know she is not like that normally.
And make sure it is known what her mobilty and independence was like before the fall. Good luck

The operation, strong drugs, pain, dehydration and possible infection and anaesthetic can make people disorientated for a while. It's very early days. Hope she feels better soon and you get the support you need.

I can't remember what its called but there is a recognised type of confusion related simply to going into hospital or maybe an infection. Important thing is ensuring that hospital staff understand that she is not normally like this.

Sorry to hear she's struggling, OP. x

It's hospital acquired delirium helpfulperson

You need to see how the delirium goes before making any long term decisions OP, but yes I've known many 90+ year olds get back home again with reablement.

make sure staff know she is not like that normally. Yes, this is very important. I didn't get the message through to the hospital until I wrote it down, along with a description of DFs activities in the week before going into hospital, and made sure that it was put with his notes.

Still confused and aggressive today . I have spoken to the Sister today. The doctor will be looking into this tomorrow. It is completely opposite to her normal behaviour

Is she on a strong opiod for the pain? My mother went completely delusional (paranoid) after a skull fracture, due to the morphine.

Hi, belay, my mum broke her hip 6 months ago aged 88. We were so worried about her after the operation she was, so confused and scared we tried to reassure her, but it was 10 days before she started coming out of it, nobody told us about this, wish I’d known about this forum then I didn’t know which way to.turn.She also suffered from a chest infection and a uti nobody told us about this either, even though I asked every day.
They got her out of bed everyday, she only managed to walk two steps, it was too painful.After two weeks in hospital she was transferred to a rehabilitation home, she stayed there for 12 week until she could look after herself. She can now walk with a Zimmer frame about 300 yards, but some days the pain is still unbearable. Hope your mum in law does well. if you have any questions just ask .Good luck.

How is your mum today?
Both my parents broke hips. Both had cancer and really needed operations. They had no choice but to operate on my mum, and the expectation was that she might well die during it. However, she survived and made a good recovery from it, leaving hospital a week to 10 days afterwards and walking again.
They wouldn't operate on my dad, so he was bed-bound for 6-8 weeks with all that that entails. He did manage to walk short distances (e.g from his room to the dining room in his care home) after a while.
Neither could live independently, but that was due in part to their other issues.

We spent a long time together today and her memory is very badly affected. She is very frail and confused and won't be able to return home. We are in that awful vacuum at the moment, of waiting to see what the ward doctor wants to do next.

🌺🌺🌺

My dad was uncharacteristically confused when in hospital, and it was put down to a mixture of a urine infection and the steroids he was on.
He was also put out by being out of his comfort zone, but returned to his usual self once out of hospital.

My dad was very confused after his last op (broken hip) due to the pain killers - he was convinced the ward was flooded, there was a bear in the bed opposite and the nurses had bird feet.

This may well have all moved on by now and hopefully resolved, but I think it's very important to let the doctors know that this confusion is not typical for her.

Now in a recouperation home for about 4 weeks. It's a drab and joyless place so hoping it won't be for that long. Delerium has cleared but we need to be wary of any long term memory problems