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Prayers Please for my Mom.

retroxler58retroxler58 Member Posts: 32,693 ✭✭✭
edited May 2016 in General Discussion
The worse is over... For now.

Now the healing has to take place.

Wednesday morning on my way to work, I got a frantic call from my wife.
"Grandma fell and they think she broke her wrist!!!"

Crap! I turned around not twenty minutes from work and went back to the house to pick Linda up.
We headed to the hospital where we went straight back to the ER treatment room.
Spoke with my Mom's husband (Parkinson's BTW) who's in a wheel chair at this point due to a foot injury he's being treated for.
He said they had wheeled Mom off to xray.

A few minutes after we arrived, they were wheeling Mom back in.

Then the ER doc came in to discuss the situation concerning the xray.
The doc said that Mom had shattered her wrist and would need surgery.
They had called in the Ortho doc on call who would be in shortly.
Ortho doc examined the xray and explained to us that there were no bones in the wrist intact and that several had three or more breaks.

He explained that what he would do is attach a fixation brace between the arm and hand and place the wrist bones as closely back as possible.
This contraption is like a medical erector set.
The ortho doc screwed two pins into the first finger metacarpal bone.
Two more pins into the radius bone of the forearm.
And connected a rod between them forcing the hand into a specific position relative to the forearm.
Then wrapped it all in a thick Ace bandage to maintain pressure on the wrist.

This mechanical brace will be in place for about six weeks, then she'll have a soft cast for another couple of weeks prior to physical therapy.
She'll lose as much as 50% of the motion associated with her wrist.
Reason is that since ALL the bones were shattered, it's reasonable to expect that they may not heal back as they were to begin with.
A few may actually fuse together, drastically reducing movement of the wrist.

Mom is in good spirits now after it finally sunk in that she'll have to modify how she does things from now on.
It wasn't so evident during recovery...
She's extremely opposed to any sort of Home Care due to her independent personality.
After she had come to, the lead nurse was trying to explain to Mom that she wouldn't be able to function at home as she had.
That the hospital had called in social worker (another RN assigned to Home Health Care) to get information, etc.
Mom interpreted this as a precursor to sending her off to a "Home"!
Well not no , BUT OHHHH HELL NO! You ain't sending me anywhere except MY Home...
Was her retort. Well after a couple of hours of this... They came and got me.

When I got there, I quickly knew what the deal was and realized I had to get her calmed done.
Her BP and blood-oxygen level were way off.
Until these two numbers were regulated she wasn't going anywhere.
Finally, I convinced the lead nurse that she needed to stay the night for observation.
She consulted with the Orrtho doc who agreed and signed her in to the hospital.
THAT was a rough evening and night to say the least.
The next morning she'd had enough time to think things through and was a bit more agreeable. Thanks GOD!

She's tough as nails though.
When she fell, she was outside in the driveway with the newspaper in one hand dragging the empty trash can back up the drive.
She lost her footing on the drive way stone and broke her fall with her left hand.
She knew it was bad when she realized her hand was folded awkwardly back onto her arm!
She took and grabbed her hand and pulled it back into place... Pain and all.

As bad as it is, she knows she's lucky she didn't break a hip or leg.
As upset as I was about the accident, I was a bit angry she was trying to do this on her own without letting me know.
Her husband normally rides the lawnmower down the drive and hitches the trash can up to bring back.
She admits that it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I can tell it was a decision made to prove her independence.
Something now she has to accept as a fact, that she's dependent on others to get through the day.
Like it or not... It's the current situation she's in.

My sister is an RN in Utah that owns her own Geriatric Assisted Living Center.
Coincidentally, she and Mom had spoken a couple of weeks ago about getting some help due to her husbands foot injury.
She's going to be here on Friday next and will be taking Mom back to Utah for a couple of months at least.
Her husband has elected to stay to see his foot treatment through.

This has been a hellish week for me and my wife.
Something we don't want to go through again.

I'm thankful that Mom had the neighbors she does.
We can't be there 24-7 and my wife and I are the last family locally.
Even with that, we're still almost an hour away.
When she fell, the young girl across the road had just got home and heard her screaming.
This girl works as an EMT! She rushed over and took ownership of the situation.
She called it in on her radio and when the responders questioned why she was calling in since her shift had just ended..
Her response was, "I Just told what the situation was, I NEED you here immediately!"
Less than two minutes... They were loading Mom into the ambulance and rolling.
Hospital was about a ten minute ride away.
The next door neighbor called my wife to tell us what happened.
The other elderly lady across the road who I've known for 40 plus years, is helping with meals.
We're going to the store this afternoon and buy some prepared meals that can be heated up for them over the next few weeks.
Home health will be in a few times until my sister gets here on Friday.

I spoke to the girl next door who explained that just before this all happened, she had seen a suspicious van just a house down the road.
When she went inside, her dogs started barking and she heard what sounded like a cat (Mom Screaming) she went out again and seen Mom and the EMT girl AND the van still a couple houses away with two guys in the van.
She figures they seen her fall and just did nothing.
They left moments before the ambulance arrived.
All I can say, is those two guys are gonna to need some help one day...

Since Wednesday... I've had about one night's good rest.
Hospitals are fine for patients... But, family support is severely lacking.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful for what was done for Mom.
But come on... What does a recliner actually cost that you can take a nap in???

We got her home Thursday about 6 o'clock in the evening and we've spent a lot of time with her getting some sort of normalcy reestablished.
I had to work yesterday, after I left work, I went by and picked up dinner before getting ba to her house.
Spent as much time as I could before I started to fall asleep.
Today, I checked in with them and rested most of the morning.
It's almost time to head back over and go by the store.

I'll be thankful when sis gets here...

Geesh... What a week.

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