Mama had only been back at her Forest Ridge apartment (with assisted living help) for 8 days when she fell YET AGAIN last Friday, her third fall in 11 1/2 weeks.  This fall was the most serious of all...she broke her hip requiring a total hip replacement last Saturday.

Not an easy surgery for anyone, but especially challenging for an 84-year-old woman with her right arm still tender from that fracture in late March and her left wrist still in a cast after breaking her wrist in May.  The poor woman cannot get a break...whoops, I guess it would be more accurate to say she gets too MANY breaks!

After a 5-night hospital stay, Mama is now staying at the cabin with me and Kim, with my sister Barb (a retired physical therapist) staying too for a few days until Mama gets more mobile and strong enough for me to handle her alone.

We considered a rehab center, but as soon as we found out that all of them in the area require a 14-day quarantine for any new admissions, that was a deal-breaker.  The LAST thing Mama needs is to be isolated from people who love her!  (Side note...these Covid restrictions are, in my opinion, just as damaging or even more to lots of elderly people than the risk of actually contracting the virus.  Quarantine and isolation are not kind to the elderly...) 

So we decided to bring her back to the cabin for a month or so and then we'll reevaluate her options.  Barb was wonderful to volunteer to come help out and I'm learning lots of patient care skills from her.  She'll be coming a day or two each week, and then when we leave for our family beach vacation the second week of July, my other sister Maria who is currently a physical therapist in Florida will be coming to stay with Mama at our cabin.  I'm truly the least qualified of any of us to care for her, but my home is close to her doctors for appointments and such.

We're praying that Mama, after so many setbacks so close together, still has enough bounce-back left in her to regain her strength and mobility.  She has home health professionals coming to see her at the cabin...nurses as well as occupational and physical therapists.  And in between Barb and I are making her walk and ease (very slowly!) back into caring for herself.

So you'll understand that my blog posts will not be as regular as I'd like, but I'll do what I can to keep up.  I've already got a stockpile of photos to share when I get the time.

March 31 - broken upper arm

May 26 - fractured both arm bones near her wrist

June 19 - broken right hip

When you're frail and 84...

...third time's NOT the charm.