. Wednesday afternoon I called my dad to try to talk him out of going to NJ for his dentist appointment the next day. I already said I'd drive him (safer, with his vision problems) but they forecast heavy rain all day, and its 3 hours of driving.
As expected, he poo-pooed my concern, so I dropped it. Better I drive than he drive, and that's what he would do if I didn't want to go. He's so stubborn!
Later that night, dad went outside, slipped and fell on the ice.
He had a hairline fracture of the femur and was considering not doing the surgery, but he was in a lot of pain when he moved and in my mind, not doing surgery was just not an option. So with a little encouragement (done in a roundabout way so he thinks the idea was his), he chose the surgery option.
My sister and I were with him in his hospital room waiting for it, for 9 hours. Even the surgeon came in around 3 pm and said he wanted to get going, but they didn't have any room for us yet. Finally, they took him, so he only waited 24 hours since he was brought to the hospital. My research came up with a clinical study showing that the quicker you have hip fracture surgery, the greater the survival rate, and that surgeries delayed for more than 48 hours result in worse outcomes.
The hard part hasn't even started. The most important role I see dad's 4 kids playing is cheerleader, ensuring he doesn't become depressed, discouraged or give up with the physical therapy. Because springing back from surgery at 85 is not easy, and the stats aren't pretty.
Dad in hospital
January 25th, 2019 at 02:20 pm
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