VolNExile
Easily amused
- Joined
- May 12, 2011
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In connection with your other post about why would they even try, it might be useful to ask the intended, hoped-for purpose of orthopedic surgery. It won't be curative (she won't die of a broken leg), but are they doing it to try to preserve mobility and some quality of life? It's a very reasonable thing to ask about. If it helps her preserve or improve mobility, it might be (just a guess on my part!) related to their prediction of life expectancy. Many things make sense with a six-month (or more) outlook that would not be done with (for instance) a four weeks' expectation.
It's so, so hard trying to balance all this stuff - risks of surgery + having to go through rehab vs. hoped-for improvement in quality of life, all in the setting of everything else going on and overall life expectancy. It's maybe the most important thing to keep in mind while discussing this stuff with the docs. So much depends on how much the patient is able (and at least as important, how willing) s/he is to go through whatever rehab is necessary post-surgery or post-procedure.
For instance, when Covid hit, both my mom and mother-in-law were in assisted living, the same facility, in fact. Although they were both in MUCH, MUCH better physical shape than Tiffany's mom, their dementias would have never allowed them to be able to do what they would have needed to do to get off of ventilators, if that had happened. (It's called pulmonary toilette, and it involves a lot of deliberate deep coughing and other respiratory stuff to clear all the crap out of their lungs that the patient has to be able to do somewhat on their own.) @hmanvolfan, as a Registered Cranky And Stubborn Dude, was able to do it, despite all the physical stuff he had gone through - lung CA, pneumonia, sepsis. Neither of the moms had the required understanding or memory needed to participate in any pulmonary rehab. We put them both on DNR (do not resuscitate), DNI (do not intubate/ventilate), and eventually Do Not Hospitalize. (MIL died of non-COVID issues 2-ish years ago, my mom is still chugging along at 96, watching game shows and the Golf Channel, and wondering why she can't go be with my dad, who died in 1980.)
It's so, so hard trying to balance all this stuff - risks of surgery + having to go through rehab vs. hoped-for improvement in quality of life, all in the setting of everything else going on and overall life expectancy. It's maybe the most important thing to keep in mind while discussing this stuff with the docs. So much depends on how much the patient is able (and at least as important, how willing) s/he is to go through whatever rehab is necessary post-surgery or post-procedure.
For instance, when Covid hit, both my mom and mother-in-law were in assisted living, the same facility, in fact. Although they were both in MUCH, MUCH better physical shape than Tiffany's mom, their dementias would have never allowed them to be able to do what they would have needed to do to get off of ventilators, if that had happened. (It's called pulmonary toilette, and it involves a lot of deliberate deep coughing and other respiratory stuff to clear all the crap out of their lungs that the patient has to be able to do somewhat on their own.) @hmanvolfan, as a Registered Cranky And Stubborn Dude, was able to do it, despite all the physical stuff he had gone through - lung CA, pneumonia, sepsis. Neither of the moms had the required understanding or memory needed to participate in any pulmonary rehab. We put them both on DNR (do not resuscitate), DNI (do not intubate/ventilate), and eventually Do Not Hospitalize. (MIL died of non-COVID issues 2-ish years ago, my mom is still chugging along at 96, watching game shows and the Golf Channel, and wondering why she can't go be with my dad, who died in 1980.)
. She appreciates you guys though, not just for praying for her momma, but she knows you do her, and you've been there for me to vent.
. Her mom's heart rate got a little wacky today, and they did an EKG (I guess it was). Tiffany thinks maybe she had a light attack, and trying to figure this out. Do you understand any of this?
