Is Mom in too much pain to participate in rehab, or suffering depression?

1. Discuss this with her ortho doctor, the one who performed surgery (if it was performed). We went through this when my mother fell. She was in too much pain to stand on her broken leg, the therapist concluded that she wasn't trying, and the staff began discussing discharge for failure to cooperate.

Her ortho doctor was literally furious; he wrote a letter to the rehab facility advising that she was not to be weight bearing for 6 weeks, with absolutely no weight bearing activity on the surgically repaired leg.

We presented the letter at a "care" meeting, staff did back down, the grouchy therapist suddenly was transferred to another in that facility's chain of rehabs, and Mom got a great therapist and progressed well.

2. Start researching rehab facilities, interview them with a checklist of issues, especially staffing ratio and food. The better ones in my area have chefs; they don't use prepacked frozen dinners shipped in and turned into undesirable blobs of unidentifiable substances like some rehabs do.

3. Address with her ortho doctor, not only her pain, but the inadequacy of the rehab facility. I'm guessing that one of the discharge planners selected it and made the arrangements? That happened to us too.

4. We also switched after my father suffered his second leg fracture, after getting a confirming letter from our ortho doctor, as one of his NPs explained that would be a good backup in case Medicare challenged the switch from one facility to another.

5. It's not always advised that family attend rehab, but I did with Mom until she got used to the new therapist. I also did with Dad after I transferred him from the unsatisfactory rehab place. I felt they had been through enough trauma, and I wanted to ease the transition so that they could start rehab under different conditions, and knowing that they still had family support.

5. And document everything wrong with the current rehab and complain to Medicare, after your mother is safely away from this place.

Good luck.

My mom was in rehab and having difficulty standing to do exercises. It turned out that she had broken her hip.

Think about having the PT go over with her where the pain is; a portable xray can be brought in OR you can have her taken back to the hospital for imaging.

So, please forgive me, but why is she still there? It’s probably worse for her because she’s there 24/7 while you’re there just for visits. Call her doctor and tell them Mom needs to be admitted to a different facility. She being nasty probably because she hates it there. Try another rehab and see if her mood doesn’t change.

Very good point of BB's, to check that something else hasn't been missed.

For the moving her idea, what about going back to her surgical team at the hospital and asking them to make a fresh referral? After all, they won't want to see their skilled work going to waste through poor after-care. Good luck with this - your poor mother! Elbows are sooooo sore :(

GardenArtist speaks from experience. Listen to her!

I speak from common sense. Get mother out of there!

First your Mom is lucky to have you watching out for and listening to her but I know first hand how hard it is to navigate when you have no experience. I agree with the others here, it's time to get her into a new rehab facility and while they tell you moving can't be done, there have to be ways. First as far as Medicare is concerned rehab is a hospital, they are charged out on the same benefit so she would be coming from a hospital. The facility is going to do everything they can to discourage (read prevent) you from moving her so you will probably have to work around them unless of course you can make their lives so miserable they want to get you out of there, hehehe. Seriously though, making a stink about this is not only watching out for your mom but also watching out for patients that come after her. Keep a list of every issue you have and share it. If people don't know that they have problems and aren't caring for patients the way they should be then it wont get better and they will keep getting away with it. Looking for other injuries and medical possabilities for her pain is a great suggestion and the professionals there should be receptive to that. Based on your description there are lots of other reasons to get her out of there but still while your working on that suggest, strongly, they check for other physical problems but stick with your instincts about the facility and advocate for what you feel is best for your mom. Absolutely bring your mothers doctors into it, her surgeon, her Orthopod if they are different and her primary, the more people with clout the better. The surgeon probably has the most because they have patients going to rehab every day and if they start saying to their patients "don't go here" well... I would also enlist the coordinator at the hospital who sent you there, they may care they may not but they are the ones steering people and if they are good they care about where they are sending them. If you are that unhappy they might even want to help you navigate the system for moving her and be a good resource, at the very least they need to know the issues. Good luck and keep up the good work advocating for her!

Recently my FIL fell and broke a hip while at the hospital for testing. After surgery he was sent to an Acute Rehabilitation Center. 
Dad’s roommate was discharged from the rehab center with a surgically repaired shoulder fracture much sooner than we imagined he would be. This man’s son explained to us he would be taking his dad to a therapy center every day for therapy as an out patient so his dad could be at home with his family.
I’m wondering if this could be an option for your mother?

It sounds like it may be time to have her evaluated both physically and mentally he because it sounds like there may actually be some underlying mental conditions as well as possible physical reasons she's having so much trouble. If it's not physical, then have her checked mentally

If you break your elbow as a sane and valid person, it is extraordinarily difficult to move that whole arm or to dress oneself for months. If the person is old or frail or in any way impaired, you can double the time for the healing process. So rehab after surgery is essential. And proper nursing care. If the facility is horrible, change it without changing the status of the patient. The degree of care is important.

Depression has nothing to do with it. Refusing to move is common if the patient has only just found a position where the pain is least, and decides to freeze there.

With my aunt, something was missed. Pain may be coming from another area near where she hurts. They xrayed where it hurt, found nothing till a few days later. Higher up on the spine was a compression fracture. Something is definitely wrong. Good luck.