painful groin /pulled muscle 90 year old mum

[violetqueen]

Just wondered if anyone had any advice - started couple of weeks ago .
Mum attributed to reaching up ,trying to bolt back door - though she is prone to attributing complaints to unconnected events and is now admitting that she didn't feel any pain in groin at time ,just that she felt generally bad and couldn't manage bolt .
A week later I noticed cellulitis on leg ;since she finished antiobiotics for cellulitis her groin seems much worse and she's having great diffuculty walking .
I'm thinking she's been more sedentary in last couple of weeks ( what with cellulitis )
and maybe has stiffened up /accounts for " pulled muscle effect ".
Should I involve GP - mum is reluctant and I rather fear being referred for xray ,hours at hospital and finally being told " pulled muscle ".
I'm fine with x ray etc - but mother won't be and it will feed her usual argument of - " see I told you no point going to doctor ,all they do is send you to hospital "
What would you do ?

you could contact the GP and request a physio assessment. depending on circumstances they may be able to assess her mobility at home and see what they can offer in terms of exercise, advice, equipment.

Round here you can self refer to NHS Physio. You ring up and they assess your need over the phone and advise or give an appointment.

It is mentioned on the NHSDirect website so I assume it is nationwide. Might be worth finding your local number and giving them a bell.

I would def see the GP. In a person of that age, pubic bone fractures are not uncommon even if not much trauma, so that should be ruled out. But physio should be relatively easy to access too, fracture or not.

I would think it could be a lymph reaction to whatever caused the cellulitis, tbh.

Was that diagnosed by a doc?

iloveaslyumseekers - yes fracture is actually a concern of mine .
I wouldn't put it past my mum not to tell me if something worse has happened ( a fall for instance ) .
I've tried casually raising idea of whether she may have knocked it ,but she doesn't think so .
But I am currently trying to persuade her to have a pendant and I think she wouldn't tell me if something serious had happened..
Do you know what treatment would be for a fracture ...

For something like a pubic ramus fracture, it might just be painkillers, rest and gentle physiotherapy - but hard to say. If I were her GP I'd def want to see her because the average 90 year old woman's bones are very vulnerable.

(am a GP)

Ok - thank you so much for your help .
I will screw my courage to the sticking point ( my mother is a tricky one ) and the GP it will be .

flightattendant - yes that's another thought ,I did wonder if there could be a connection ,it's same side .
Gosh ,it's good to get some feedback ,I can't explain how hard my mum is to deal with and how difficult I find persuading her to do things she doesn't want to .
( I actually watched her have a mini stroke one day - and she still denies that it happened and refuses to take warfarin as docs want her to " because my life won't be my own " ,she takes aspirin instead )

oh and yes ,cellulitis diagnosed by doc we called out - after much struggle ,weeping mother etc .

Oh you poor love. It must be such a heavy responsibility trying to make sure she receives the care she needs.

Let us know how you get on, if you feel up to it x

GP has ruled out fracture thank goodness .
She seemed surprised by the level of tenderness in groin ,and I wish I'd asked about possibility of swollen " gland " related to cellulitis and infection .
Anyway treating for pulled muscle and physio referral .
I'm pleased about latter as feel it would be helpful for mothers general instability and might also lead to further referral for aids /grab rails .
Thanks for guidance and support last night .

sounds like a good outcome, well done.

That's great about getting the referral, but honestly, I would take her back in a day or two if it doesn't improve.

Lymph nodes, without meaning to scare you, can swell up because of other things and it isn't worth leaving...could you ring up the doctor and mention that you are concerned about this?

MargaretAtwood - thank you for that .
After initial euphoria ( yippe ,not a fracture and the professional must be right ) I'm worried again .
It seems worse - mum thinks maybe because GP moved her affected leg around while examing .
Also I'm sensing ( mum not very clear ) that it's painful all the time now .
Also - how does a 90 year old recover from a muscle strain affecting what is already poor mobility ?
Especially if long waiting time for physio advice ?

Oh golly I am sorry to hear that

Your poor mum, well tbh I don't know the answer re physio and getting better. What I think they ought to be doing, purely from an instinctive point of view, is an MRI of the area. That would give a clear and fast idea of what is going on - well, it might give some clues, at the very least.

Are you able to try and push for this? Especially if it is affecting mobility so badly, which is never a good thing with an elderly person. They should be onto this quickly if they have any sense and get ehr up and running (well maybe not sprinting) again asap.

Let us know how you get on. I know it's hard to bother doctors when they are seemingly a bit slow - but this could be really crucial for your mum's health and wellbeing.
Good luck x

Well guess what - pain so excrutiating by Sat evening that we had to go to A&E .
So mum sits ( too painful to lie ) on plastic chair from 1 am to 6.30am.
( wets herself 3 times during this period )
About 3pm she gets a little codeine ,still weeping in agony at 4 pm .
All A&E staff avoid eyecontact when I go in search of them at nurses station for help - I tackle doc who'd seen her and prescribed codeine to explain agony unabated and told " don't where your mother is on the list but she will be seen "
Anyway ,after 3 doses of morphine and one knock back from xray dept who couldn't cope with her in such pain - 8.00am reveals fracture at top of femur .

is she more comfortable now?

well done, how awful for you both.

Thank you ,yes mum is 150% more comfortable .
In fact she seems and looks better now than she's been for years ...
They've sorted out her pain relief ( crossing fingers that she's still ok this morning and none of those little mishaps that take place on busy wards ,patient off ward for a procedure and misses drugs round ... ) ,she's on oxygen and a drip .
She must I think be less scared and relieved .
Feel bad of course that I didn't influence the situation more in A& E - she shouldn't have been left in such pain ,for so long .
And I think she should have had a drip - I told one of the doctors ( actually a " senior " one that they summonsed about 6.30pm to oversee the third morphine shot and before the xray ) that I was concerned that my mother was getting dehydrated only to be told " You'll do more harm than good with that - nods at bottle of water that I'd been trying to get mother to wet her mouth with - if she needs an operation today ".
Plus some disparging remark about possibility of her being dehydrated in such a short time .
Oh I could go on ,but must stop .
Better to spend energy thinking of short ,to the point feedback for hospital .
Any advice ?
I have a feeling that PALS is just a smoke screen ,designed to deflect complaints reaching a higher echaleon .

Bloody hell

Violet, sorry I missed this. What an awful, awful story - how can people be so callous? Your poor, poor mum, I am so glad she is finally being treated.

I'm wondering how the GP ruled out a fracture, actually. That's pretty outrageous.

PALS ime has been very good and what it does is cut through the crap, so your point gets made to the right person instead of passed round between God knows who.

For the moment though I would concentrate on your mum's ongoing care and making sure that is handled far, far better. I would be seeking an apology in the interim but emphasise that you will be taking it further.

Thanks Flightattendant - yes ,most of my energy is going on current situation ,just letting off steam really ,and of course it all goes round and round in your head.
I just don't know what happened about GP's assessment ,keep thinking about it all .
What I'm thinking is that mum must have had a hairline crack ( guessing away here ,no medical knowledge ) that was gradually getting worse and that the manipulation by Gp ( she was raising the leg ,seeing how far she could lift it )was probably the last straw.
That was Thurs pm ,mum significantly worse on Friday ,and much ,much worse on sat evening .