October Scare Taking Us Backward to Baby Steps

Our October started out so fun. We had a visit from our son-in-law, both daughters, and our grandson! We got to hold him and talk to him and take tons of pictures of his first visit to grandma and grandpa’s house. The JOY felt still lingers every time I look at the photos.

Little did we know that baby steps would jolt us into remembering how it feels to learn how to walk all over again for a 3rd time.

In a split second, life threw Mr. a quick bounce off the floor and into the hospital along with the reality of needing to go back to baby steps.

Mr. attempted retrieval of a chip on the floor. That’s all he tried to do. With left-neglect he neglected to lock the left brake on wheelchair and his body launched out of it onto the floor with a loud crash onto his hip. I had my back to him and when I heard the thud and was able to race to his side and catch his shoulder and head so he didn’t land on his head! Thankfully his parents were able to come to the house to help me get him up off the floor.

With left-neglect post stroke, he has limited feeling on that side, yet seemed in terrible pain. He didn’t want to go via ambulance or go to ER…not a big fan of the place after all the trips there last summer. He some how muscled through the pain of transfers upstairs (his parents helped us get him to bed). He had a horrible night of sleep. So Saturday – Tuesday we thought maybe he just bruised it or tore something. By late Monday we connected with his PT team. With his sudden change in abilities and expressed pain, they suggested he go in to Urgent Care to get x-rays.

We couldn’t get transportation until the next day so we went in Tuesday. The Urgent Care NP was 99.9% convinced it was a break. But, they couldn’t take the x-rays, didn’t have a lift to use. 😣 So we had to call our ride to take us to ER. Late in the afternoon at ER was just like walking into a scene from MASH. Patients tucked away behind curtains lined the hallways. A LONG wait in the busy waiting room until we were finally taken to a room and he was transferred to x-ray. The ortho-surgeon came in to give us the disheartening, yet better than we expected, news. A hip fracture would’ve been worse, but a femur isn’t fun when it broke like it did!

Left intertrochanteric hip fracture. Sigh…

A night in ER……….

A CT Scan in the morning revealed a more complicated fracture. 😮

FINDINGS: Mildly comminuted and obliquely oriented left femoral neck fracture, with the major fracture plane traversing proximally from the subcapsular region laterally (series 9 image 39) and transcervical region medially (series 9 image 45), and distally to the intertrochanteric/subtrochanteric region, with mildly displaced fracture fragment involving the anterior cortex of the femoral neck (series 10 image 36). No dislocation. Small joint effusion. No significant intramuscular hematoma.

IMPRESSION:

Left femoral neck fracture as described.

It was another long day waiting in ER as surgery couldn’t be performed until around 3:45 pm.

Operation performed: Cephalomedullary nail fixation of left intertrochanteric hip fracture. Mr.’s new hardware:

Surgery was successful and lead to another night’s stay in the hospital. And, as expected with all the medication changes, he experienced 3 seizures. 😥

Next day, he was without pain and in good spirits. They didn’t want to release him yet, but couldn’t decide if he should stay or not. And, they didn’t have a room available. By end of day, a room on the neuro floor where he spent time after his stroke 2 years before was ready for him. Surreal for me walking around that floor!

Friday discharges are always fun (NOT). Mr.’s discharge was frustrating. We felt a Rehab Hospital stay where he went after his stroke or a nursing home were overkill options and requested a referral for Home Health and a transportation ride home.

Every Home Health agency denied the referral either for “at capacity” or “out of our region”.

Clock ticking…transportation services don’t go past 5 pm.

After talking with the NP and PT and surgeon, they were convinced we have a home set up appropriately for caring for him so they arranged transportation.

The memories of how we brought him home the first time, in much worse condition (with Home Health) have been flooding my brain. We have all the equipment, just needed to dust it off and remember the steps of how to transfer with his limited capacity.

We’re both bummed that we need to use transportation services again. We also need to put on pause the progress of walking and independence he was at before the accident. I think it’s harder for me to do the baby steps required to make sure I’m not causing him pain moving his leg when he can’t.

As we prepared to leave the hospital, one of the resounding comments from the medical team was, “It’s a blessing it was his left side, he can’t feel all the pain, and he still has his strong side to help his body recover from this setback.” We agree wholeheartedly.

He returned home on 10/23/2026. I’d love to say it’s been easy. While easier than when I brought him home after the stroke December 2024, it’s harder to be jolted backward so fast. Back then I had Home Health help and a RN to observe his wounds. This time, without that support, I’ve had to become a wound care nurse. He had an allergic reaction to the wound tape used after the surgery. So a blister formed and popped and sutures subsequently drained more than expected. So yeah…that’s been fun. The pain is a challenge and he had adverse reactions to the pain treatment so that’s been fun too.

Today though…thankfully, the October scares are over. He’s standing a bit better each day. We’re not needing extra hands to get him in/out of bed and his wheelchair. We’re tolerating the transportation services. We continue to have new perspectives on how the world that cares for people isn’t 100% handicap accessible. If you want to see something scary, lil ol’ me can be quite the fright without the need for a costume when I’m frustrated. Sigh.

But…baby steps aren’t necessarily a bad thing!

Anyhoo…as we close out the month of October, I’m back to pioneer woman status too. The chilly fall air arrived and the idea of us sitting together in front of a cozy fire is a welcome therapy goal as soon as Mr. can do transfers to the stairlift again. One baby step at a time. He’ll be on target to walk with our Grandson next summer!

Here’s my last on the card for October 2026…

And…how are you dear blogging buddies? I’m hoping your October was less scary than ours and that you’re ready for the change in seasons and have treats to keep you smiling!