Any Doctory / Nursey types out there please?

[Pfer]

Can anyone help with this please?

My mum had a bad car accident 5 weeks ago. On the 1st Night she had a patella replaced and a nasty head wound stitched up. On day 10 after the accident she had a hip replacement.
She's now been at home for a week and has heard nothing from hospital yet about physio etc, but I'm wondering how long should it be now before she's allowed to put any weight on her leg? I know after hip replacements they get you up and about quick, so I think it's the knee that's the issue. They told her 6 weeks after the op. Do you think that'd still 'stand' after the hip op as well?

Also, her head was stitched, and the surgeon bless him has nearly got her eyebrows level. The question is when should she be able to 'feel' her head again, the side that was bashed doesn't feel like her's. Also when she's asleep that eye opens (pretty scary walking in and seeing her like that I can tell you), can she expect this to go back to normal?

I'm getting passed around various depts. at the hospital at the moment and it's getting a little frustrating.

I'm NOT a medical person but thought I'd bump this for you with my experience.

I had major knee surgery years ago and although I coudn't be fully weight bearing for some time the physio had me up and about and doing exercises from day one (similarly the people on the same ward who had hip replacements were seen by the physio and got moving much sooner than I would have thought).

Was your Mum not seen by a physio before she was discharged? Was there a consultant she was under whose team admin you could contact? If not maybe speak to someone on the ward she was on and explain how you've been passed from dept to dept.

HTH

Thanks for that.

Mum was seen by a physio who gave her basic exercises to do to get her knee back into moving back and forth, non of which are weight bearing exercise. Also the OT there made sure she can hop on her good leg with a frame and sent her home with a few red cross bits and bobs.

Will try to find out who the consultant is etc and get hold of him.

Wondering if mum's GP can help at all as I had to take a letter in to them about it last week, so they know what's happened.

GP might be a good bet -they would know who to contact and hopefully get quick results.

Its a nightmare if you don't know how all the departments work isn't it, especially as your mums probably been seen by people in different departments throughout the hospital?

Good luck pfer

From ahip replacement point of view it would depend on what she had done as to wether she should weight bear or not. did she have it pinned or have a replacement of the ball joint. I'm assuming she broke it the accident so its unlikely they would have done a total hip replacement.
Patella ops normally do non or partial weight bear for around 6 weeks post op, she should have an out patients appt with the surgeon at about 6 weeks.
Contact GP re; physio but they may be waiting for the go ahead via a consultants letter.
Regard her head its quite normal to have numbness and altered sensation for some time maybe a few months. HTH
You could always contact her consultants secretary aswell and arrange an appointment to speak with him/her about what happens next.

hello layla and seths mum
She gives fab advice.
Also you could ask for a referal to the occupational therapist/district nurse to see about getting her a few aids round the house if she is having problems getting in and out of bed, off the toilet etc.

she has seen te ot (just read) I .would keep bugging them if she is having any problems.
~Teh asume if they dont hear from you everything is ok so keep pushing the for the physio as well.
Arnica and zinc can work wonders for post op healing, speak to your local pharmacy

Thanks everyone. LaylaandSethsmum - what happened was the impact that broke her patella pushed her leg backwards, the ball was intact but the socket was shattered and I understand that there was a lot of internal tidying that needed to be done before replacement bits could be put in.

The District Nurse was there today so I asked her about her head and also her distended abdomen, which apparently is going down, but to me still looks enormous - seat belt injury I'm told.

We've not been told about physio yet, and we are waiting for an outpatients appointment to come through. I guess we should chase them if they leave it too long to make sure things are done when they should be?

The ball actually went all the way through her hippy bit.