Just found out that my 72 year-old friend broke her hip!

[ellenrr]

She was visiting Mexico and is in a Mexico city hospital.
which is not reassuring.
Much as the US health system is flawed, for a broken bone, it is where I would wish to be.

Anyone here ever have a broken hip?
I don't know what happened. still trying to get details from her boyfriend, and find out how I can - if I can - speak to her.

She is healthy, I know that will aid her recovery, and I hope her immune system is strong to resist hospital-borne antibiotic-resistant infections.

[csziggy]

1. It depends on how bad the break is

Did she have to have surgery to set the break?

My 94 year old Mom cracked her hip a few months ago - clean through but not displaced. She used a walker for a while, got physical therapy and is now walking without a cane most of the time. She carries the cane around, but seldom needs to use it for balance. Mom is tougher than most people, though.

[ellenrr]

2. good for your mom that she didn't need surgery--

sounds like she has made a good recovery, and at 94!
(my father is 96, in relatively good health happy to say)

I found out later, that my friend had a partial hip replacement.
which sounds to me like it must have been a pretty bad fall - maybe smashed some bones, so they couldn't be set...

I talked to her and she is lucid and upbeat, more so than I would have expected (maybe partially due to the pain meds.)

They told her she would be 6-8 weeks in recovery.
They also told her she would not ever be able to walk a lot, which to her is a huge loss- as she is a hiker.
But we'll see. Hopefully that prediction will turn out not to be true.

[csziggy]

3. It may mean that your friend broke the head off the hip joint

That ball that fits into the hip socket - a prime place to break and one that is hard to knit back together.

These days they use more targeted pain relief and fewer opioids - when I had my knees replaced they had this wonderful machine that pumped cold water through a mat on my knee. The cold helped the the pain better than the drugs.

I hope your friend can continue to hike.

[SheilaT]

4. 72 is somewhat on the young side to

be breaking a hip, although you don't yet know the exact circumstances.

Is she going to be stuck in Mexico for weeks to come?

[ellenrr]

5. csziggy and SheilaT

csziggy :
you are exactly right.

Yesterday that is what she told me.

Interesting about the cold water. Much better for you than drugs.
I doubt they have that in Mexico.

thank you - I hope she can hike too.
~~~
SheilaT:
I learned that she caught her foot and fell forward. Some people I was talking to about it, said sometimes a person can have an undiagnosed problem with hip, and that the hip breaks, and then the person falls.

But in this case that didn't happen.
And she is very healthy- good diet, and does yoga every morning--
sigh... I guess that cannot protect us in some circumstances.

Yes, she must stay in Mexico for the recuperative period, 6-8 weeks.
Apparently flying risks a blood clot and stroke.
~~~
She is upset bec. the doctor told her she could not start physical therapy for 6 weeks. In the states, acc. to what I read, and acc. to many people I talked to who had or know someone who had, a hip replacement, it is common to begin p.t. before the person even gets out of bed.

there could be some situation with my friend that I don't know about to explain the different approach, or maybe that is how they do things where she is.

In another stroke of luck, the person she will be staying with (she is to be released from hospital today or tomorrow) has a niece who is a physical therapist, and my friend is going to talk to her about getting p.t.

I'm going to ask her today about a rehab. facility.
I don't know if they have them there - well, they must.
Unfortunately medicare does not cover her expenses so she is paying out of pocket.
perhaps if there is a rehab facility, it would be prohibitively expensive, even tho less than in the US.

I am concerned, we know how important the recuperative period is to how active she can be when it is healed.