Thursday, November 08, 2007

Mom's Doctor Visit Today

This is from an e-mail my brother sent out:

"Upper arm is broken, 4 pieces floating around up near the shoulder. Doc did not think surgery a good idea at her age, suggesting outcome would perhaps be worse than present treatment. Which treatment is binding of the arm and a sling. She is allowed to take off the sling and binding to bathe, and he wants her to be flexing the forearm at the elbow to maintain flexibility. Won't be able to raise her arm for a few weeks (4-6 in the sling...figure the longer I would guess). There will be therapy involved down the road. For now the bones need to start knitting.Next appt is in a week. I didn't raise the issue of driving, but imagine that will be later rather than sooner."

The "I" in the above is my brother Bill. He's staying with Mom until next week. My sister plans to come out around then, and then my other sister will be there Thanksgiving week. I'm thinking the first week of December--either myself or myself with Katherine.
Bill says my mom is depressed. No wonder. This is her busiest time of year, with the holidays coming up. She is very involved in her church and in a hospital volunteer group. What I'm hoping is that, by the time the holidays near, she'll be so used to the bandages/sling that she'll be able to do a lot of things. Driving, of course, is out of the question. But my mom has a lot of friends, so even if we kids aren't there, she will definitely have no problem with chauffering!
My Aunt Mary, Mom's older sister, is there helping, too. She is 87. Bill says she's an enormous help.
For the record, this incident is one reason why I hope and pray that Mike and I will be able to stay here on Long Island, near our kids, when we retire. My family is all over the map, and I hate being 500 miles away from my mom at times like this!
Thanks again for all the good thoughts and prayers. At the very least, I'm glad my mother won't need surgery. She might not have healed any faster with it, anyway!

3 comments:

Susan @ Blackberry Creek said...

My mom had surgery twice in her 80s for two broken hips. While the surgeries were successful, she had terrible reactions to the anesthesia. Don't think her mind was ever right after the first one. So I'm glad your mom will not require surgery. I'm praying for a quick recovery for her.

BittersweetPunkin said...

I hope your Mom doesn't stay depressed although I understand how she can be with the Holidays and such...maybe this incident will force her to slow down a tad...as unfortunate as it was. I will continue to pray for her.
Blessings,
Robin

ChiefFamilyOfficer said...

I just wanted to say that my prayers are with you, your mom, and your family. It's so hard when you don't live in the same town as your parents!