broken hip(1)

June45

My husband fell in the middle of the night at the MCF. (He has been falling quite a bit lately) They notified me but they didn't think that he had hurt himself. But when I went in to see him this morning I could tell right away that he was in a lot of pain so I had him transported to the ER.  He does have a broken hip and they are suggesting surgery.  I know for a fact that my husband would not be able to follow instructions for PT. My husband has a toe in stage 7; he could barely walk before the fall and has been in a wheelchair. I am not sure if I should go with the surgery which has major negatives or try to let him heal bed bound under sedation which also has major negatives. I would appreciate any input on this. I will talk to the surgeon in the morning.

Gig Harbor

That is a hard decision. Having the surgery will definitely reduce his pain. Even if he is bedbound when he moves a nonrepaired broken hip will cause him pain. Having a general anesthetic may make his dementia worse. I don’t think the memory care will be able to sedate him enough to keep him from moving for days on end. I might opt for a repair but only to help his pain and not push for rehab.

M1

June I am so sorry.  Agree that pain control is the important thing. Will be thinking about you.

Ed1937

You have to do what you think is best, but I had a hip replacement, and I can tell you that after surgery my pain was much better than it was before surgery, and my hip was not even broken, I didn't take much pain medication after surgery at all.

60 falcon

I'm hoping for the best outcome for you two and that your meeting with the surgeon goes well.  Thinking about you.

June45

Thanks everyone for your input and well wishes.  I have put together some questions for the surgeon.  The ER trip was a bad experience...no surprise there.  The ER doctor released my husband from the ER saying the scans didn't show anything and they ordered a transport to take my husband back to MCF.  I insisted that I talk to the doctor again because I knew something was wrong.  When the doctor came back to see me, I slightly lifted my husband's left leg and he screamed in pain. The doctor looked like a deer caught in headlights and went back to look at the scans.  It turned out that the radiologist had misread the scans.  The doctor apologized to me profusely and thanked me several times for challenging the diagnosis.  I feel so bad for those who don't have an advocate in situations like this.

Additional:  I didn't like causing my husband pain by lifting his leg, but the ER doctor initially didn't believe me when I challenged him.

RanchersWife

June45,

Last month we opted for surgery on a broken femur to manage pain. My LO looked so much better after surgery. Unfortunately, she then failed swallow tests (she was semi-failing those tests right before the surgery too) and could not do any pt. We tried to give her time to come out of the anesthesia but she could not eat or drink. The sedation interfered with eating and drinking before and after. The disease probably progressed too. 

We know we did the right thing doing surgery. It just didn’t work out. We brought her home. She might have survived longer if we’d had a feeding tube and sent her to a facility with an iv but…

Prayers for strength and peace and lots of help showing up. 

One thing I found interesting (and I’m still mulling this over) is what the doctors and nurses won’t say or offer when your LO is at this stage. Ask questions and make them tell you straight out what you want to know or what will most likely happen due to his condition. Make them give you all the possibilities and options so you are fully aware. I didn’t like feeling guided into decisions. I wanted the facts, risks and possible outcomes explained to me. Feeding tube was not even mentioned. We did consider and decide against it on our own. It was a roller coaster few weeks because she improved right after surgery. 

Joydean

June, praying for you and your husband!

Kibbee

A radiologist who missed a broken bone when reading a scan?  And the ED physician did not pick up on it either?  Perhaps that hospital needs to take a serious look at the quality of it's radiology / ED providers, or at least a review of that particular situation.

extex

Having been down the broken hip road with my wife back in 2018 I just have a suggestion.  My wife’s hip bone was broken midway between the two joints. I opted to have the bone repaired with screws because the surgery was much quicker than THR.  Big mistake.  The bone healed ok but the pain persisted throughout 5 weeks of rehab.  X-rays of the bone appeared to be ok but further investigation revealed that one of the joint bones was dying due to lack of blood flow.  My options then were a THR or to try a device called a bone stimulator..  After about three months of using the device the joint began to heal and the pain subsided.  Now she walks ok.  This whole process took about a year.  We would have been much better off opting for the THR in the first place.  There may have been somewhat more mental decline due to longer sedation but there is going to be mental decline anyway.  Since her hip healed she has fallen many times, including on hardwood floors and even concrete but never broken another bone.  Now in very late stage 7, she is still chugging along and still at home. I have a lady who cares for her part time during the week.  Good luck with the problems you are facing.

June45

Thanks again everyone for your replies. And thanks to Rancherswife and extex for sharing details about your LO's experience. It really helped. The surgeon and anesthesiologist answered my many, many questions.  Surgery was the only option. The break was in the ball/ neck area.  The blood supply to the bone was threatened and untreated would likely result in death of bone. Thus leading to more serious problems. And the pain would be constant.

And Kibbee, the only thing I can figure out is the scans that the radiologist read were actually someone else's.  I saw the xrays films and I could see it was bad. It is too scary.

Surgery is already over and surgeon said he did well! He is in recovery...time will tell. But whatever happens, I am convinced I made the best decision.

June45

Gig, I too was concerned about anesthesia and I was reassured that they weren't using versed or other memory type drugs. They did a nerve block with some sedation. They were conservative in their approach.

60 falcon

Really glad his surgery went well!  I hope you find time for yourself to rest and let's continue hoping for the best outcome.