yolanda
01-03-2007, 07:05 PM
My Dear Mother slipped off the toilet onto the floor about a week and half ago. The worse part about this is that she is not ambulatory.(sp)We bathe her while she sits on the toilet, my sis and I are the only 2 of 6 kids here in town to assist my Dad in caring for Mom. He takes care of her all day, getting her up, into her wheel chair, into the bathroom and gets her ready for the day. Gives her meds and gets her meals. My sis and I trade every other night coming to get Mom bathed and pampered and help Dad lift Mom into bed. We have a beautiful set up that allows us to thoroughly clean her body on that toilet since as of about 2 years ago we just could no longer safely get her into the bathtub.
3 years ago a brain tumor was found, the surgeon said she had probably had it for 17 years, they were only able to remove 70% of it, it was not malignent but was found in the optic area of the brain. About 6 months later we started radiation thinking she would one day be back to some kind of norm but after treatmeant she did not regain her sense of balance and other things indicated that something was off. She was given parkinson meds and responded to them, therefore, light onset parkinson was a new challenge. Oh this gets better, before all of this, a blood clot had formed in the left leg, we got her on cumintin, eventually she got one in the right leg and just recently one again in the left, that was a week in the hospital just a month ago. Back on the cumentin for life. Mom is 76 and diabetic.
I said all this to give some background on this beautiful lady. We had xrays taken and they saw nothing broken. This accident happened because our routine was changed. We had family come in to relieve us just a bit for a few days over the holidays. The worse part is, I was there trying to relieve a sister who had been doing our routine for several days. I go to bathe Mom and didn't notice that one of the grip rugs that sits in front of the toilet grip rug had been pulled up after getting soiled earlier that day and had not been place back, her feet slipped and even though I had her arms she did slip to the floor with legs straight out. Can an xray see everything? She is on pain meds, being treated for pulled muscles but I am scared to death because although she is in pain when we lift her from bed to wheel chair and to toilet, she says it's her lower back and that it doesn't feel like a pulled muscle. She sits in her recliner all day as she always does, doesn't seem to be in much pain until we have to move her. As she slid down, her back was against the potty chair that sits over the toilet so we thought maybe part of the pain was from rubbing against the hard plastic front on the chair but when we touch, massage her back she says it doesn't hurt. Would a mri tell us more if this doesn't show signs of getting better in the next 24 hours. We pride ourselves in the great care we give our Mother, the Doctors just think we are her angels and then this happens, I can't tell you the guilt I feel, even though that's not the issue here! Just miserable, Yolanda
3 years ago a brain tumor was found, the surgeon said she had probably had it for 17 years, they were only able to remove 70% of it, it was not malignent but was found in the optic area of the brain. About 6 months later we started radiation thinking she would one day be back to some kind of norm but after treatmeant she did not regain her sense of balance and other things indicated that something was off. She was given parkinson meds and responded to them, therefore, light onset parkinson was a new challenge. Oh this gets better, before all of this, a blood clot had formed in the left leg, we got her on cumintin, eventually she got one in the right leg and just recently one again in the left, that was a week in the hospital just a month ago. Back on the cumentin for life. Mom is 76 and diabetic.
I said all this to give some background on this beautiful lady. We had xrays taken and they saw nothing broken. This accident happened because our routine was changed. We had family come in to relieve us just a bit for a few days over the holidays. The worse part is, I was there trying to relieve a sister who had been doing our routine for several days. I go to bathe Mom and didn't notice that one of the grip rugs that sits in front of the toilet grip rug had been pulled up after getting soiled earlier that day and had not been place back, her feet slipped and even though I had her arms she did slip to the floor with legs straight out. Can an xray see everything? She is on pain meds, being treated for pulled muscles but I am scared to death because although she is in pain when we lift her from bed to wheel chair and to toilet, she says it's her lower back and that it doesn't feel like a pulled muscle. She sits in her recliner all day as she always does, doesn't seem to be in much pain until we have to move her. As she slid down, her back was against the potty chair that sits over the toilet so we thought maybe part of the pain was from rubbing against the hard plastic front on the chair but when we touch, massage her back she says it doesn't hurt. Would a mri tell us more if this doesn't show signs of getting better in the next 24 hours. We pride ourselves in the great care we give our Mother, the Doctors just think we are her angels and then this happens, I can't tell you the guilt I feel, even though that's not the issue here! Just miserable, Yolanda