Mom In Pain

I'm back, after disappearing for almost three weeks.

On the morning of Saturday 30/8, my mom was found lying in severe pain on her bedroom floor apparently resulted from a fall. My relatives carefully moved her downstairs and whizzed her to Fatimah Hospital. I was in the midst of a meeting when I received the phone call from Ipoh, I nearly keel over in shock. I quickly made some arrangements and picked up my girl from school and rocketed back to Ipoh.

When we reached Ipoh, x-ray has been taken and the orthopaedic specialist has already examined my mom. According to the orthopaedic specialist, eventhough mom has only sustained a somewhat trivial fall, she with her osteoporosis bone weakening, has had a femoral neck fracture, or in simple term, a hip fracture.

Well, let me elaborate: The hip joint is a ball and socket joint. The socket part is formed by a cup in the pelvis, called the acetabulum. The ball part of the joint is the head of the thighbone, called the head of femur. The top part of the thighbone, just below the head, is called the neck of the femur. Mom's fracture was just below the ball, on the neck of the femur.

(photos by A.D.A.M)

The only treatment is by operation. Taking into consideration of her weak bone density and her age, a Hip Hemiarthtoplasty was recommended by the orthopaedic specialist. Hip Hemiarthroplasty is simply a partial hip replacement. In this procedure, the head (the ball of the ball-and-socket joint) and the fractured femoral neck are removed and replaced with a smooth metal sphere on a metal stem (a metal prosthesis). The stem is inserted into the centre of the thighbone's shaft and usually cemented in place. In mom's case, her socket was still intact and was to be left alone.

(Photos by MMG)

At the first instance, I was a bit skeptical about the operation, considering mom is already 83 years old. However, the orthopaedic specialist advised that by replacing the damaged section of hip with a hemiarthroplasty can quickly get her out of bed and moving to reduce the risk of complications. As the orthopaedic specialist has no qualms about mom's age and conditions, somemore the man is in fact one of the top orthopaedic surgeon in Ipoh, I signed the consent letter, praying hard for the best.

An immediate operation was not possible due to the age of my mom as other tests needed to be carried out to ensure no other complications. Coincidentally, the following two days happened to be a non-working day due to the National Day and the replacement holiday, the operation was scheduled on Tuesday 2/9. A weight-and-pulley system was set up and attached to the leg with tapes. According to the nurse, this process (traction) helps to reduce pain before the operation.

On 2/9, 1.15pm, mom was wheeled into the operating theatre. Prior to this, I have learnt from the orthopaedic surgeon that the operation normally takes 45mins to an hour plus a stabilizing and recovering period of two/three hours. Nerve-wrecking wait outside the operating theatre. By 4.30pm, mom was wheeled out and back to her ward. Thank God that the operation was successful! The operation was performed under a spinal anaesthetic, so it was not that bad. A small incision about 4 inch was made on the outside of the thigh.

After awakening from the anaesthetic, a drip tube for giving fluid was inserted in one of mom's arm veins. Plastic drainage tubes are left in the wound at the end of surgery and are brought out through the skin, so that blood and other fluids can drain away harmlessly. A catheter tube was inserted into the bladder to pass out urine. After surgery, mom's wound was covered with a padded dressing. A triangle-shaped cushion was positioned between mom's legs to keep her legs from crossing or rolling in. Mom felt drowsy but could not sleep due to severe pain after the anaesthetic died off. Eventually we had to request for an injection as opposed the prescribed pain-killing tablets.

Rehabilitation begun soon after in the hospital. One and a half days after the surgery, mom was able to put comfortable weight down on her affected leg. The physhio-therapist helped mom move from the bed to a chair and walked a short distance using walking aids.

With satisfying progress, mom was discharged on Monday 8/9, six days after her operation. We have moved mom's bed to the guest room downstairs. Josh happened to have a few days break due to the UPSR candidates utilising his classroom, I got him to stay in Ipoh with me.

On Thursday 11/9, we returned to KL with mom. Considering mom will be so immobile, I decided to bring her to KL to stay with us and I will look after her full time.

Mom is recovering well. She is walking short distance with the aid of a quadripod walking frame. Her stitches have been removed this week and dressing was no longer required. However, her intake of food worries me. She keeps saying that since she is not actively moving around, merely sitting in the reclining chair resulted in her poor appetite.

The last few weeks have totally exhausted me. All these years, I sleep like a piggy. Even with two kids, I never have the 'privilege' of waking up middle of the night for my kids night feeding. But now, I have to wake up few times in the night coz mom has a weak bladder. The initial days were tough, but I am now used to this funny sleeping pattern...zzz...zzz