My mom fell about three weeks ago and had her hip done she is 97 and lived alone but was doing fine until the rug caught her foot. She had a home health aide for only big things three hours a week. She was put in a rehab place/ nursing home to recover and they took her off the pain meds she was on for over ten years four hydrocodone a day. They said they were not comfortable going it. It made her go through terrible withdrawal and diarrhea and couldn't do physical therapy because of the pain. Now after fighting to get her a palliative care consult and back on her meds and it's not even the right amount because they denied what palliative care wanted and dropped her to half the dose they are refusing to give her physical therapy leaving her in bed all the time without even getting out. Eating, from morning to night she never leaves it. They said she has gone as far as she can go with physical therapy and had only gone ten days. I just want to know if they can stop this and leave her in a bed secluded all the time. They don't even have room for a chair in her room to sit in. We wanted to move her but all the nursing homes in the area have no bed's and the closest one is over an hour away. We are not young in our 70s so it's also hard on us or would take care of her ourselves. She weighs 90 pounds so moving her isn't terrible for a CNA so we don't understand. I guess my two major concerns are stopping her physical therapy and not getting her out of the bed at all.
Chances are, at 97 and having endured a major surgery, she will never recover back to her prior-fall self and activity level. I just went through this with my 100-yrr old Aunt. She had mod/adv dementia and we knew the partial hip replacement surgery might not result in an improved quality of life. We knew she wouldn't cooperat with PT and would rip out her IVs. The question to ask yourselves is: What outcome is actually possible? Does it match reality?
We were waiting to find a NH for my Aunt so she was languishing in the rehab, whiich is not meant to provide NH-level type of care. We had relatives go to feed her, help her with hygiene, etc.
If your Mom isn't getting PT (for whatever reason) then she most likely will not be mobile anymore. This means someone will need to be turning her, and lifting her. Maybe time to considerr LTC or hospice, or full-time in-home aid?
I am wondering where you and mom are now in your own heads. What is she expressing to you? Is she coherent and does she tell you that she believes she can get better, or is she expressing that she is ready for the long final rest?
How are you feeling in your own mind? Are you accepting that this may be the end game for your mom or are you expecting a recovery, and that she will once again thrive?
What was done in terms of withdrawal was truly wrong if they knew your mom's history. To not do withdrawal properly after long standing drug use is adding serious injury on top of injury mom already had, but that is neither here nor there as it is done.
I have a friend on long standing opiates and with the added downers of xanax, and her pain med doc and she agree that she is addicted and withdrawal at this point would be done only medically.
I am so sorry for all that happened. I hope you will update us. To answer your final questions, I would keep therapy so long as you can even if just for passive ROM (range of motion) exercises of her limbs, to prevent further wasting of her body until decisions as made whether or not she will enter hospice. Their not getting her OOB tells me that they truly believe she IS already in hospice, that she is at end of life. Being not even moved to a chair further weakens muscles, lungs, and can lead to pneumonia quickly in the elderly. In answer to your question whether it is OK, it isn't if you are still working toward recovery in any way.
As I said, I think I would ask for a Hospice consult, even if you choose not to implement it at this time. Good luck.
Her medications and treatments should be determined by her medical doctor. Your questions should be answered by that person, so that's who you need to have this conversation with.
I'm very sorry about all this, but you need to get a clear picture of the situation from someone who can thoroughly inform you.