State of the Papa

[tsukinofaerii]

Referencing this.

It's definitely a broken hip. Well, "splintered" was the word used, which does not fill me with sunshiny happy bubbles. He's 86 years old, and so a broken anything is Serious Business. The doctors are looking at surgery, but they want to run some tests first. He's had heart attacks before, so they want to assess the risks. :\ According to Doc #3 (seriously, I don't think he saw the same person twice), the life-span for a broken hip without surgery is about 6 months, due to complications/immobility/etc. Obviously, we're really hoping for the surgery, but realistically, it might not happen.

I won't know more until I visit him after work (assuming anyone even tells me this stuff—it's ridiculous the amount of things I'm still "protected" from knowing; hazard of being one of the youngest grandchildren). When I left last night (at around 1:15) he was pretty heavily drugged, and other than some nausea seemed to be doing well. The nurses were all very nice, even though I had to translate a lot. (I have no idea why. They would ask a question, Papa would look at me, I'd repeat it verbatim, he'd answer. Wash/Rinse/Repeat. This got interesting when the "are you abused" questions came around, because I couldn't help.)

Thank you all who've replied with hugs and kind words. My flist rocks. ♥

Comments

[nyreak.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the update. I read your post last night but wasn't coherent enough to reply so was coming back to check in. I hope you get news soon, and that it's good news.

As for your Papa needing you to translate, it could be that he's familiar with your voice and the way you say things, but not with the nurses. It's like with children, people around them a lot understand them, but people that don't spend time with the child often need assistance understanding some words.

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

No news. :( But at least he's not in pain, so I'm figuring that's all that counts right now.

I never thought of that! It's good to know. I wasn't sure what to think of it.

[cursor-mundi.livejournal.com]

Urgh, splintered hip is serious business, no lie. But your Papa's resting comfortably, right? And I hope you guys are able to be comfortable as well! It's tough enough without having back pain from those horrid little plastic chairs. *hugs*

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

Papa's comfortable as he can be. A bit nauseas but we're working on that. I am actually very comfortable. The chairs are padded, and even though the padding is thin, I have plenty of my own to make up the deficit.

It looks like we're going to be doing this for a while, so we're taking it in shifts. None of us can really afford to miss work, but between us we've got it covered.

[velithya]

*hugs* :|

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

(hugs)

[possibilities.livejournal.com]

A 96-year-old woman I know broke her hip a while back, and because of her previous heart attacks, there was quite the to-do over whether or not she should have surgery. Eventually, she got it, and being the stubborn sort of woman who STILL will not sit down to take her pants off (seriously, old people, even _I_ do that sometimes. Why can't you all?!) she did an awful lot of PT on herself out of boredom.

Nine months later, she wanted to sell cards at Bingo, and couldn't understand why no one would her.

She's now nearly 98, and has gone downhill quite a lot recently, but really: that's expected for a woman of nearly-98, regardless of previous broken hips.

Try not to worry until you see how this is going to play out. It's really soon to start mentally preping for the worst case. *hugs*

[tsukinofaerii.livejournal.com]

(hugs) Thank you. This story really helped.

seriously, old people, even _I_ do that sometimes. Why can't you all?!

I know. x.X I swear, common sense leaves when people hit 50. :|