Saturday, January 14, 2017

Seriously

 NOT a good week for US here!

Since the snow last weekend, we have had beautiful weather 70's and even 80's, sunny and beautiful!! So why am I not posting progress on my shed project you ask?  
Life has a way of knocking the wind out of my sails and sends one challenge right after the other.

This past Tuesday evening my Mom fell at home and broke her left humerus right up below her shoulder joint.  She uses a walker full time in order to walk without falling, (supposed to stop her falling, but did not) She has fallen 3 times while using her walker. It is a balance problem since she has peripheral nueropathy meaning she has very little feeling in her legs, so she can't sense her feet too well...it creates horrible balance issues...so that is the problem exacerbated by having 2 hip replacements after spontaneous fractures due to osteoporosis. When you live to be 92 you will not go out with sound mind or body, trust me on this one. 

So she had her walker but she hung her toe on something and down she went her upper body slammed into the door frame on the way down and that fractured her arm...then she realized her "life line alert," I've fallen and can't get up button, was NOT on her neck...she had taken it off in prep for bedtime, she was not able to wiggle due to her arm being broken to get to the phone or the button....soooo

I was of course next door in my house, asleep...but I got up at 1:30 to shut off the ice maker which is quite noisy in my kitchen, saw her lights on and that is how I discovered her...she had been in the floor for 3 hrs! 

... I got her up but realized she had all the signs of a broken arm so took her to the ER and they verified it.  The orthopedic next morning said they don't normally do anything except put the arm in a sling for a humeral neck fracture...so that's all the care she received. 

Then her entire arm turned black and blue and swollen.  Since she can't walk without a walker and now she can't use a walker with one hand that makes her balance worse, she is pretty much out of commission, and she can do very little for herself.  I did get a wheel chair and that has helped ME to get her from bed to chair to bathroom etc...but now SHE depends on my help for everything...

My sister came down to give me a weekend break I go back to Mom's house tomorrow, I sure am happy to have the break...since the time frame is: the first 2 weeks are the worst, and then it's a 10-12 week healing process.

Just taking each day as it comes right now...I just want my mom to recover and hopefully be able to start walking again, she can walk as long as I am right there to insure she doesn't fall while using a quad cane, I can't hold her up by her left arm due to the break, so am using the tricks I learned while watching her in rehab before, a belt at her waist that I hold onto.

When something like this happens you start to second guess how the events could have been different, only if.  But we can't change anything that has already happened all we can do is go on, and wish for a better future. I know it could have been much worse, so thankful for that.

Hopefully during the coming days she will get used to doing things a little different, and I will feel like I can step outside to work on my project and get some well needed exercise and fresh air while she watches her westerns and naps in her recliner chair. 

Till then its a challenge to be cooped up inside.  










PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

12 comments:

  1. Oh Sondra I'm so sorry! For your mom and for you. Darn it anyway ---

    Wish I could say something more helpful. Getting old is the pits sometimes, that is for sure.

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  2. Everyone's blogs are my window to the world at the moment...I just hate to see my mom go through all these challenges at her age, since the car wreck in 1997, she has had one tough physical challenge right after the other IF I listed them you really would think I'm lying! I don't know how she is still alive!

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    1. She's a brave and feisty lady who is well loved and cared for. That's how!
      Thinking about you. S

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  3. I feel for you both. I know your sisters are there as time permits which is a big help. I know we all thing what if? But we can't stop these things from happening. Just think how you happened to wake up yourself and was able to get over there when you did. Hope she isn't in to much pain and does get sleep so you can get out while the weather is good to work on your project. Stay well my friend. I'll keep you both in my deepest thoughts

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    1. Thank you Jo, it will be 2 long weeks before my sis can help out again, my other sis really should move closer it's kinda not a good good thing that she is 1800 miles away.

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  4. Sorry to read this, its very worrying for you, but thankfully you live next door otherwise it could have been be very different. I expect you Mum has problems sleeping with it too. Hopefully after a couple of weeks she will find it getting easier, but as you get older when something like this happens it knocks your confidence and that can take a while to get back. Sally's comment about getting old rings a bell as I know someone who is in his eighties and he always said that getting old is not for wimps. All the best.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words...your friend is right it is not for wimps, my mom has had more than her share of bad luck with her physical body for the past 20 yrs and now her mental is going too...I no longer want to live to be Ripe and Old think I'd rather go out swiftly rather than slow and agonizingly.

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  5. Sounds like you are having a tough time Sondra.
    Getting old, and all the things associated with it really is hard to live with.

    Having a tough time myself at the moment with my mother. She's now in a care home and suffers with Lewy Bodies dementia and Vascular dementia. So hard watching someone die mentally before your eyes.

    Hope your mum makes a speedy recovery.

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    1. SO sorry to hear of your mom's health issues, it is very difficult to watch them go down and you can do little to make it all right again, the mental is just as hard as the physical.

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  6. Oh, Sondra I am so sorry to hear about your mom's fall. Must have been so scary to find her like that too, but glad you happened to get up in the middle of the night. I wish her a speedier than predicted recovery and no more falling! I've been telling my dog I'm going to wrap him in bubble wrap since he keeps falling down on ice- maybe it would work on your mom too :)

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    1. Thank you Jen I will give mom your regards for a speedy recovery, she is doing well enough, the hardest part so far is getting her to accept that she can't "do what she normally does" her stubborn independent streak will be her undoing!!

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  7. Oh my gosh girl! We are so sorry your Mom fell. NO FUN at all. :( We are glad the warmth and sun are finding you again. We saw sunshine today for the first time in forever and it made our spirits so very happy. Thanks for the pansy pic...makes our hearts smile. :) We hope your Mom heals up quick and your shed project flies together!

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