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Thanks so much for this link. I really teared up reading this touching story of Emma dying and it was very informative. My mother passed at 87 in a similar fashion; just not getting up anymore, talking very slurred and soft if at all. She never left her recliner at the end, except for the bathroom. She was ready to go. Her decline was slow, over a couple years and it was hard on her caregiver, my sister.
I have my own "silly" question: what causes the seemingly inevitable pneumonia? And, why is anesthesia so hard on the elderly, even causing dementia?.
Not a silly question at all, especially as pneumonia and the possibility of post-anesthesia dementia are such concerns in the elderly. Here are a couple of links to sources that have some explanations, at least for the pneumonia. I'm not so sure they know exactly why some seniors are so susceptible to the effects of anesthesia, they seem to have some theories, but not sure they are definitive. I have heard that it's seniors who may be on the way to developing Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia anyway who are more likely to have this accelerated with exposure to general anesthesia, but I don't know if that's true in all cases either.
Our next door neighbor was simply standing in her garage when her leg broke. She is almost 90. Fortunately she did heal and is getting around with cane and walker. What bothered her the most is that feeling: if it happened once; can it happen again.
Many of our elderly also resist the bone strengthening medication because of the side affects. I know many have tried to talk my wife into the medication; but she is afraid to take anything on top of all the asthma medication she is currently taking. She takes calcium instead; but that also has risk associated with it.
Boron and magnesium and Vit D are so important for bone health...too much calcium no. Mag is needed for cal absorption.
This is what I have been trying to tell people for so long but they still insist, "Grandma fell and broke her hip". In most cases what actually happened is "Grandma's hip broke and she fell". Osteoporosis thins the bones.
Frequently, the fall is precipitated by a terrible pain in the groin related to the broken hip.
But in one particular case, my Grandfather fell backwards over a hose coiled on the sidewalk and DID break a hip when he hit the concrete. He had surgery, did well, threatening to lead the cute nurses on a merry chase "when I can get out of this bed". Unfortunately, he never did; developed pneumonia and died.
That's just not true and not borne out by voluminous data regarding hip fractures...
Do "some hip fractures precipitate the fall?" Sure..."some"....a minority...
Over 90% of hip fractures are the direct result of a fall, not the other way around.
There is most certainly a high correlation with osteoporosis, most hip fractures occur in the over 65 age group and the majority about 75% occur in women...
The mortality and morbidity within the first year of sustaining a hip fracture is terrible, studies estimate mortality rates between 15 and near 60% in the first year after a hip fracture
There are lots of theories but overall, falling and suffering a hip fracture are often related to other comorbidities such as osteoporosis, balance issues, muscle atrophy, cardiac issues, oncologic issues...
There are many researchers that believe the downward spiral that often occurs after a hip fracture is due to the overall decline that was already happening before the fracture and may have led to the fracture in the first place.
Some people in my family died after a hip fracture. They were in their 90s, fell either in a nursing home or their own home, and never recovered. One aunt, in her 90s, fell on the ice on her own doorstep after returning from a bus trip with the seniors. She did live for another year but was weak and sick until she went into a nursing home and died.
An uncle fell in his own condo when he was in his 90s and died soon thereafter. His wife fell in a few years later and had PT to get her well but she didn't care anymore and went downhill from there.
My grandmother was a little snip of a thing--probably 90 pounds soaking wet and died of a hip fracture in her 90s.
Back to the effects of anesthesia, that reminds me--many years ago a cousin went to the oral surgeon, came home and was never the same. Her husband said she was like a different person, hateful and mean. She stopped talking to her own mother and years later, when her mother was dying and wanted to say goodbye, she still wouldn't speak to her! I don't know what that anesthesia was and until now, I'm not even sure that I equated her experience with the anesthesia. They always just said that "something happened" when she had that oral surgery.
My point was the opposite, that we go through the day and momentarily stumble on the threshold between rooms, or a tree root outside, or we slip for a second in the shower or miss the bottom step...but that we can stumble, and still not fall. Our reflexes and reaction times are much better when young. So that perhaps old people don't stumble any more than the rest of us, it's just that they no longer have the quick automatic corrections that keep the stumble from becoming a fall as we do on an almost daily basis when younger.
Boron and magnesium and Vit D are so important for bone health...too much calcium no. Mag is needed for cal absorption.
This helps, but it won't beat genetics. My mother ate healthy, exercised and took supplements her entire life, and she still looks like the Hunchback of Notre Dame now in her 80's.
I exercised my whole adult life,and weight-bearing and cardio, and I am becoming riddled with arthritis and other degenerative problems in the past few years (I'm 55 now) and it is literally the thing keeping me from exercising. I have to keep changing what I do, and the list gets smaller and smaller....can't run anymore due to my knees, walking long distances hurts since I had back surgery last year (degenerative, and most likely due to my gym rat weightlifting days plus my genetics), and now I can't even do my back exercises on my hands and knees because a few weeks ago I developed tendonitis in my right wrist (guessing partly from drying my hair with a round brush for decades and other repetitive things, plus my genetics (that's actually the most relevant factor). I can't even get something out of my purse with my right hand, and I'm right handed. Have an appointment in 2 weeks, and hoping a shot of Cortisone is all it needs.
So while exercise and eating right are vital, they only go so far. I feel now that a lot of the exercises I did actually contributed to the degeneration of my joints, and that yoga was not the best thing for my back, with a pre-disposition for osteoporosis (there is a world-renowned PT named Sarah Meeks who is adamant that flexion should be avoided at all costs with those with this genetic makeup)
But I still do exercise, I just have to keep changing to find the right thing depending on what hurts that week, lol.
I do admit it kind of makes me mad that I tried to do everything right and didn't get to skip deteriorating, makes me feel like maybe I should have had the Bloomin' Onion once in a while
ocnjgirl: I'm 79 in a few days, so I'm really 79. Exercised all my life starting to dance at about 12, and danced into late 50's,,,went to gym from my 30-60's and had to stop due to knee getting worse and worse. I have posted about my recent mess as I'm doing ALL to NOT do a knee replacement. Hip replacement at 72, I believe, started more of a downslide in my body. Everything is OFF.
My back is amazingly Straight, no a sign of a hump. I have a friend who is 80 and she has used cortisone a lot of her life due to asthma and she has a pretty pronounced hump. I used so little steriods in my life. One or two knee injections and that's been it. I refuse them now, they did one in the hospital recently and it did nothing, it was an infection going on and "they" didn't catch it for some months.
I've been working with supps since my early 50's. And true my parents lived into 90's they had their issues, mom loaded with OA, dad drank. Genetics or what we have to keep doing all we "think" can help us. I stretch as much as I can now and walk with walker from the knee issue and staph infection in it.
I'm looking at your username and I'll send you a rep what I think it means.
In my grandmother's case at 99 years old, she was in very good health until she fell trying to get out of bed. She broke her hip and the surgeon had her put under general anesthetic to operate. IMO, she should have been given a local (epidural) I was VERY angry AFTER the fact (not knowing they were going to put her right under)
The surgery/anesthetic affected her whole body, but especially her congnitive ability. Sadly she went into a coma, never got out of the hospital, and she died within a couple of months.
My FIL is 93 and has a walker, but the stubborn old coot is too stubborn to use it. He has had a few bad falls and one of these times I'm afraid he isn't going to bounce back up. We keep telling him, but he won't listen. He thinks the walker makes him look old. (shaking our heads and rolling eyes)
ocnjgirl: I'm 79 in a few days, so I'm really 79. Exercised all my life starting to dance at about 12, and danced into late 50's,,,went to gym from my 30-60's and had to stop due to knee getting worse and worse. I have posted about my recent mess as I'm doing ALL to NOT do a knee replacement. Hip replacement at 72, I believe, started more of a downslide in my body. Everything is OFF.
My back is amazingly Straight, no a sign of a hump. I have a friend who is 80 and she has used cortisone a lot of her life due to asthma and she has a pretty pronounced hump. I used so little steriods in my life. One or two knee injections and that's been it. I refuse them now, they did one in the hospital recently and it did nothing, it was an infection going on and "they" didn't catch it for some months.
I've been working with supps since my early 50's. And true my parents lived into 90's they had their issues, mom loaded with OA, dad drank. Genetics or what we have to keep doing all we "think" can help us. I stretch as much as I can now and walk with walker from the knee issue and staph infection in it.
I'm looking at your username and I'll send you a rep what I think it means.
Thanks! I just want to mention one thing I've seen a lot over the years in y job. Someone has a knee that is so bad it won't even hold them anymore, and they say some variation of "my doctor wanted to replace it years ago and I said no, and now they won't do it because of my age" . So yes, try conservative first, but don't be so afraid of surgery if it doesn't work. Knee replacements usually have good success rates.
I did everything to avoid back surgery, but after 10 months of pain and endless $50 co-pays for PT, I got the surgery and afterward I felt I waited too long, that I could have saved myself misery as well as money.
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