Hospitals suck.

[95rodeo]

My mom fell and broke her hip today, has been at this hospital for 8 hours now, they're just feeding her shitty pain meds. Can't get in to surgery until tomorrow morning. Its killing me to see my mom in all this pain.
Just needed to quickly vent...

[1990GT50]

tomorrow morning is a long time! Any way you can move her to another hospital? Can you raise hell to get her moved forward?

[DEnd]

Broken Hips suck.

The wait for surgery is not Horrible. There really isn't a large difference of outcome for her time to surgery, though quicker is almost always better. Sometime between 12 and 36 hours is acceptable. With her going in first thing in the morning she will likely get a well rested surgeon, and likely a specialist which is much better than she would likely get at this time of night. Her surgery will also be better planned.

Someone needs to stay with her at all times during her hospital stay. The pain and drugs can make her loopy, because of this and her impaired mobility she is at a high risk for falls in the hospital. Due to her falls risk and other factors the person staying with her should be awake and alert at all times. Whomever is staying with her should look out for things like difficulty breathing, increased or decreased breathing rate (between 14 and 20ish a minute is normal) hers may be slightly elevated due to pain but anything less than 14 and the nurse needs to see her pretty quickly, any change in her mental status like talking out of her head, not knowing where she is, not understanding someone, etc..., any signs and symptoms of a stroke or heart attack such as sudden increased pain (headache, arm pain, etc...), numbness, dizziness, trouble seeing, a feeling of impending doom, heartburn, etc... If the person even just feels that something is not right, then at least get the nurse to assess her.

She needs to keep on top of her pain meds as well. She should not wait till she is in excruating pain to ask for meds. She should ask for them when she notices an increase in her pain levels. This will help not only keep her pain levels down but also reduce the amount of pain meds she needs. Her care such as bathing, linen changes, even bedpan usage should be scheduled for when her pain meds peak. Her Nurses can tell you when this will occur, and you should try to schedule those things with the Nurse Assistant. Most hospitals now have individual phones for the nurses and nurse assistants, get those numbers if you can and try to talk with them instead of using the call bell. This will likely get you better communication with the staff, be sure you get a time frame for when the staff members plan on being able to get to any requests you have. They get busy and may not be able to get to you within a reasonable amount of time, ideally they would get someone else to perform that task, but that often does not happen for whatever reason. If you have that time frame then you are able to know when they are held up and can then contact the front desk and see if they can get someone else to help you.

She is also at risk for developing blood clots in her legs which can lead to a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism. A PE can also develop due to other factors as well. She should have a Sequential Compression Device on, this along with drug therapy will greatly reduce the risk of her developing blood clots in her legs. A SCD is normally a small pump with air lines that go to compression sleeves that wrap around each leg.

She is also at risk for developing a urinary tract infection. Normally these are associated with catheter usage, however even without a catheter with her pain she may not empty her baldder fully when voiding, or try to hold it in. encourage her to try to use the restroom/bedpan after a reasonable time frame.

After the surgery she needs to start walking as soon as possible. It leads to a much lower risk of complications such as blood clots in the legs, as well as shorter recovery times.

One other thing... make sure to ask the surgeon and her doctors in general how much sleep they got that night, and how long they have been awake. If you are not comfortable with their answers it is ok to ask for another Doctor to at least review their orders. Do not be afraid to question her doctors and nurses... if something doesn't "feel" right to you then question it, if you don't understand something question it. Do not think that just because they are professionals they will get things right. For the vast majority of the time they do, but its better to be safe than sorry.

Finally I am keeping your Mother in my Thoughts, I wish her a quick and full recovery.

[UZI 9mm]

awe, sorry to hear mate

a mum in pain is just a damned hard thing to cope with

speedy recovery and good vibes sent!

[ChaseYJ]

Though I'm sure it seems like an eternity, the morning isn't all that far off. Wish you guys all the best.

Originally Posted by DEnd

Do not be afraid to question her doctors and nurses... if something doesn't "feel" right to you then question it, if you don't understand something question it. Do not think that just because they are professionals they will get things right. For the vast majority of the time they do, but its better to be safe than sorry.

This cannot be stressed enough.

[abig84]

might not be any room. when i was a emt you would see all the bs system abusing patients and bullshit emergencies in these places that clog it up for everyone else especially in the ghetto. i have brought patients in showing all the signs of a heart attack and have left them in the waiting room due to there being no available rooms

[Brimmstone]

My old manager just lost one of his eyes due to the hospital keeping him waiting so long. Was transferred to houston for surgery to try and fix a torn cornea and they kept him waiting so long for surgery his blood pressure went so high the back of his eye blew out.

[xrayjeeper]

That's pretty normal to wait till the next day, unless she is having numbness or lack of blood flow to her leg.
Are they waiting for cardiac clearance? I know at the hospital i work at after a certain age everone has to be cleared by cardiology

[tigerxj]

Originally Posted by xrayjeeper

That's pretty normal to wait till the next day, unless she is having numbness or lack of blood flow to her leg.
Are they waiting for cardiac clearance? I know at the hospital i work at after a certain age everone has to be cleared by cardiology

Exactly. Though I'm sure it may seem like it, a broken hip is not really an emergency, so your surgeons are fixing gunshot wounds and traumas from vehicular accidents, etc. a hip can wait until the next morning after she is stabilized.

[95rodeo]

The hospital is in auburn... not too much going on around here, they were waiting on a qualified surgeon to come in at 8am today. Her surgeory went well, no complications. She is back in her private room recovering now. She's only in her mid 50's it shocked me that she actually broke a hip.
Thanks everyone for the prayers, thoughts, positive vibes, and human sacrifice for my mom
Posted from my moms bedside