I totally disagree. I think it depends on the person. I believe many women who break hips are already fragile, suffering bone loss, etc. and it can be the "straw that broke the camel's back", so to speak. I think also people sometimes give up after this type injury.

My father had a fracture of the hip right during the time my mom was diagnosed with cancer. Just over two years ago. He had a total hip replacement. He is 82, is good physical shape other than spinal stinosis. He has a GREAT outlook and even at the time of his surgery, facing my mom's illness, etc. he was determined to move forward through his surgery and rehab. He had a wonderful doctor and I believe the way his injury, surgery and rehab were handled, made all the difference in his recovery. His quality of life is better.

My aunt fell and broke her hip several years back. She is 93. She is in an assited living but in an area for clients that require more care. She did fine after the hip surgery, but has developed diabetes and dementia. She want to die. She is one that has given up.

My grandmother celebrated her 95th birthday in April and I don't believe she has even had a broken bone!! She has always had a good outlook, but the older she gets I have noticed she likes to be "babied" (I don't mean that in a bad way), so I'm not sure how she'd do if she broke a hip. I'm not sure she'd be one to forge ahead in her rehab, etc.

tina

I found a pretty good article on this. Not good statistics, especially for women.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hip fractures

DH's grandma broke her hip about a year ago. She was walking to the convenience store to get a few things when she was knocked over by a dog. She had to have a partial hip replacement, went to a rehab center, and has done fairly well since then. She still smokes, however, which is not beneficial to her bone health. She seems to be the exception, though, as far as outcomes. She's about 83 now.

My father has lived with us since 2000. Since moving here, at the time my mother died and he had prostate cancer, he has not driven. In 2001, he broke a hip. In 2010, he broke the other hip. He has had good care, from dh and I and is happy, in his home and surrounded by family. Up until last fall, he played bridge twice a week and was very good at it. I was chauffeur.
He uses a walker and climbs stairs to come to be upstairs on the main floor with us in the evenings. He can go to the bathroom by himself. Feeds himself, reads the newspaper, watches a lot of tv, listens to audio books a lot and sleeps a lot. He has medium level dementia.

I do not leave him alone for more than 3 hours at most and have to help him with things, turning the tv channel, showering, etc. Of course I do all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, he can't do anything but I love having him here.

Grandma does have an aide who comes in a few days a week. I do not know how the aide is being paid for.

My MIL broke her hip 5 years ago at 87 years old; we just celebrated her 92nd birthday on May 30. It took a year before she was well. She is in good health though generally.

These are good stories. I guess my mom is the 20% that is mentioned in the article.

Hopefully the people saying she's going downhill fast is wrong. But, she's in her mid 80s and smoked all her life.

I need a bone density test. I hope my love of milk has helped over the years. lol

My mother broke her hip a year ago. She's 71 and caught her flip flop on the edge of the rug and fell while making her bed. She had surgery and went home the next day. She used a walker for a few days and cane for a week or so. She's in excellent health and has made a full recovery. She's even gone back in her regular yoga class.

Oakleyok - I'm hoping your mother has a good outcome too!

Don't read this if you don't want to read about one of the 20%.

My father fell and broke his hip when he was 79. He was not in the best of physical condition at that time--we (all his kids) were trying to get him to either get some help in the house or move to assisted living. My sister lived 15 minutes from Dad and was there daily. I lived three hours away and was there Friday night to Sunday night every other weekend. (We won't get into the two brothers who lived 45 minutes and an hour away and who were there every three months or so.)

He wasn't eating very well, just things that were easy for him to cook. His diabetes wasn't always under control. His arthritis was very bad--after they took Vioxx off the market, he couldn't find a painkiller that wasn't habit forming that took the pain away. He was so afraid of becoming drug dependent that he wouldn't take the full dose of the pain killers the doctors prescribed. As a result, he had great difficulty walking and used a walker. He most likely had osteoporosis--elderly men can have it, not just women.

After the surgery for the broken hip, he developed an infection in the leg bone, which required yet another surgery. Then he caught the C-Diff infection and had three months of hospitalization, then rehab, then hospitalization, over and over, until his heart just gave out and he died. (After the first surgery, I ended up quitting my job and moving into his house, in order to oversee his care.)

While all that was going on, my aunt, who was 81, fell and broke her hip. She had the surgery and was home within a month. She had out-patient rehab for a while and, five years later, is still going strong.

So it really depends on the person.

There is some evidence that in some cases, the fall does not cause the broken hip. The hip breaks first, while the person is walking or standing, and then they fall. In these cases, the broken hip is the symptom of other health problems.

camlan - My mother said she felt her hip break on the way down. Her breast cancer treatment caused her osteoporosis. She had good bone density before the treatment.

>>I didn't want to hijack Texanjana's topic but I've been wanting to discuss this with multiple people.And you really thought NOW was a good time to bring this up?
Seriously... think about it. This is more than not wanting to hijack a thread.

As if Texanjana doesn't have enough to worry about. Even if she is aware of this phenomenon, somewhere in the back of her mind, did anyone need to bring it to the forefront? I don't think so.

Sea

it happened like that for both my grandmothers... one within 6 months and the other within a year or so... both had been healthy, but they also were both in mid-late 80's.

An article I read actually listed the death rate within a year after breaking a hip to be 25% among the elderly, so no surprises for me here. I don't understand why, though.

Texanjana - so far, it looks like more happy endings that not here on the board, so keep that in mind.

Oakley, I'm surprised your doctor hasn't ordered a bone scan for you.

tina

I think it is a combination of factors. The stress of the surgery, the rehab afterwards, the exposure to everything in the hospital--there are a lot of germs in hospitals.

Then you add in any preexisting medical conditions that could make recovery difficult, or be aggravated by the surgery.

Many people do make it through the surgery and are fine afterwards. My aunt says that whatever they did has left her pain-free in that hip for the first time in years and she is more active after the surgery than before.

Seashells, (new moniker?) my mom is possibly DYING. I've been here a lot longer than you and I haven't told anyone here what I've been going through.

I've had these questions for a long time now and what better place to ask where I can get multiple feedback?

Actually I think it turned into a positive thread if Jana is reading this.

But thank you for being so kind to someone who is in the process of losing their mom.

To the rest of you, I love how it turned out for your family. Cam, I'm sorry about your dad, what an awful experience he went through!

I've never heard of the hip breaking before a fall, that's pretty interesting.

I had several home health patients that broke their hips because a loving and concerned family member followed inst . from health care providers, not me, and purchased shoes for the patient that did not slide on the floor . The intentions were good but the outcomes were disastrous.

Many elderly walk with a shuffling gait. There are many reasons for this. When they are suddenly placed in shoes that restrict this learned gait they become very unsteady and prone to falls. One of my patients was standing at her sink . She started to turn and her shoes didn't ...she heard her hip snap and she fell. She had the underlying condition of osteoporosis and this in addition to the shoes caused her hip to break. Another patient simply lost her balance and when she fell she broke her hip.

Another common injury is the fall that breaks the shoulder. This often is preceded by the change in shoes and results in a debilitating injury . Often there can't be any surgery and the shoulder is left to " float"..this happened to my Dad. Other times the surgery takes place but due to increased pain the rehab never results in full use of the arm.

Every single woman should have an initial bone density test at 50 years old. I am not aware of any standard that doesn't dictate this. Oral meds can only do so much and a person's life-style choices are the primary determinant , whether the woman will have osteoporosis or not.

This is a topic that can not be discussed too often and it is great that oakley brought it up in such a timely fashion. c

good point about proper shoes for their gait!

my gyn doesn't rec a bone density test until a woman is postmenopausal....(no periods for a year) and i think that's pretty typical.
i think the 'standard' rec is older(mid 60's) unless there are risk factors for osteoporosis.

another reason for increased falls in the elderly is lack of core strength and resulting decrease in balence/one's ability to 'catch' themselves before they fall. relatively simple excercises to help maintain (or develop!)core strength and balence can go a long way in helping to prevent falls in the elderly...

one of my GM (the VERY active one!) broke her hip when she was out shoveling snow and she slipped and fell on some ice... the only thing that prob could have prevented that fall was a realization that maybe she shouldn't do everything she once did!! (or liberal use of salt!)

Hey busybee...the reason I gave the age I did for the initial bone DEXA scan is that a baseline test before much if any deterioration is considered to be a very good idea by many institutions. Onset of menopause rather than waiting till it ends is suggested.

" . Following the onset of menopause, bone loss increases each year and can result in a total loss of 25%-30% of bone density in the first five to ten years after menopause"

I went into menopause in my mid 40's so 50 was actually rather late for my test. The MD said I had " exceptional " bone density. Weight bearing exercises and diet and life style choices all made a big difference in my report I am sure.

You are so right that the balance issue and core strength are very important. Starting young rather than trying to correct an existing problem is always best. But it is never too late to improve. This is such a great thread. c

50 seems to be the recommended age around here - at least by my internist and several friends I've talked with report the same.

tina

That is good information about the shoes. My mom's surgery went well, and she is in a much better state of mind. PT is getting her up this morning. Her sister is there with her today and tomorrow, and I will go back on Wednesday. If nothing else, this incident has taught me that I need to be vigilant about my own health and calcium intake.

texan....that is such great news ! Getting " up and at 'em " is the best way. Every minute of bed rest is a death warrant. Bones and joints and muscles have to be used or they begin to deteriorate in days.

I had so many bed bound patients in Home Health. Most had urinary catheters. You should have seen the milky sludge that accumulated and clogged the tube. It was their bones !! Horrible.

Much more than taking in oral supplements..which have questionable results is using your body. Every woman needs to do weight bearing exercise...walking is enough and lift weights. No need to be an Amazon...just general good fitness and push the envelope enough to break out in a light sweat and get the breathing going. I can't stress this enough. Get a baseline Dexa scan to see where you stand and then go from there. c

HAve you spoken with the doctor about your mother? I am confused as to why/what has caused her decline. I know a nursing home is the only option for some, but in so many cases, that seems to cause further decline for the patient. Perhaps you could get caretakers to help in the care of your mother. I would encourage you to speak with her doctor and to go and spend some time with your mother.

She had a great 24/7 caretaker before her surgery, then she went to rehab and the dementia just started going downhill immediately. After rehab she no longer could live at home with the caretaker so she had to go to a nursing home. It was during rehab when she started rapidly declining.

I remember when I got the call that she broke her hip, my first reaction was "is she okay?" My second one was, "This is the beginning of the end" which I heard so much about. Outside of her mind, she was perfectly healthy beforehand.

I have heard that some of the medications given to the elderly are the reason for the decline.
Maybe they just can't tolerate those painkillers as well as a younger person.
My grandmother really didn't handle the morphine very well at all.
It was, unfortunately, the beginning of the end for her.

My husband's grandmother, however, did great after her broken hips, BOTH of them, a few months apart.
She lived many good years after her hip surgeries.

Please remember that we so often say "they fell and broke their hip" when what actually happened was "their hip broke, so they fell." Thin bones give way and break, so then we fall. Take care of those bones!

I don't have time right now to read thru all the posts, so I hope I'm not duplicating what someone else has already said.

I saved the attached article when my Mom experienced a broken hip. Very interesting and a good example of why it's important to stay abreast of evolving health info. Even tho the article is a few years old, I think the point of it -- that recovery involves many aspects - mental, physical, customized to the patient -- is still relevant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Once Just an Aging Sign, Falls Merit Complex Care

Mother-in-law broke her hip 3.5 years ago. Still doing fine, and no particular pain in that hip either.

Oh, by the way, she just turned 98.