broken femur!

[Godiv]

You be careful out there. I fell in my kitchen just walking across the kitchen floor and broke my femur. This was before Christmas.

And let me tell you something like that can really set you back. I was in the hospital twice. The second time due to high blood pressure. And rehab but boy when they tell you that the hospitals don’t know much about they are telling the truth. They had me on extra medicine at weird times. And they just refused to believe that I take Sinemet as needed (within limits). oncein a while I would get a dr that would understand and he or she would go off to the to talk to the staff about it but nothing would change.

And I know the staff is overworked and busy . It’s a shame the administration didn’t inform them about it.It’s not their fault. didn’t seem to understand that when you need Levodopa 5 o’clock you o’clock not 515 not 530 not 545. That was so frustrating and I was just rigidand miserable.

So what do I do now? I have a nurse and physical and occupational therapy. And Speech Therapy.

I can’t exercise too much because my leg hurts and spasms.I have dyskinesia suddenly and my speech is really slurred. It’s scary . I’ve felt bad before and I always think it’s curtains for me!

If you can think of any substance product that would help that be wonderful. . Stack advice and. pep talks welcome. And for some reason HU isn’t coming up in my if I’m slow to respond that’s why. Thanks so much for listening.

[Boscoejean]

Best foods for bone healing

massgeneralbrigham.org/en/a....

[Godiv in reply to Boscoejean]

thank you so much thought about that. I should have . This is really helpful thank you Bosco Jean.

[eschneid in reply to Godiv]

Just want to say so so sorry to hear this. I know all of us dread the thought of being hospitalized for just that reason- healthcare industry knows zip about our situation. Where are you, maybe someone close by could visit and sneak in something to help.

Lisa of Resolve Parkinsons, started the organization for reasons like this, to make everyone aware of how alone we feel as most, medical world included, are of little help.

Hang in and tell them to listen up to what you need and will do when you need it. Don't let them bully you.

[Godiv in reply to eschneid]

thank you so much. I’m so glad to be away from them. I spent too much time arguing about meds. Yes that it’s kind of an prevalent. Thank you for your sympathy. good words. I don’t know what the solution is. The Parkinson’s foundation has some bolts and stuff to help guide you. I think it’s maybe it’s another foundation but anyway. I’ll have to check. But you know you don’t think of those things when you’re barreling along in an ambulance. And one nurse told me tjey. The Parkinson’s foundation has some bolts and stuff to help guide you. I think it’s maybe it’s another foundation but anyway. I’ll have to check. But you know you don’t think of those things when you’re barreling along in an ambulance.

One nurse told me that they had problems with which makes it sound like our fault but I don’t think she meant it that way. But they had obviously not fixed it.

Thank you so much.

[Boscoejean in reply to Boscoejean]

If you are trying to avoid dairy sesame seeds and tahini are a good source of calcium

"Non-Dairy Sources of Calcium

Fortified foods: Many foods, such as orange juice, soy milk, tofu, and breakfast cereals, are fortified with calcium.

Dark leafy green vegetables: Kale, spinach, collard greens, and turnip greens are excellent sources of calcium.

Seeds and nuts: Almonds, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds contain significant amounts of calcium.

Beans and lentils: Black beans, kidney beans, and chickpeas provide a good amount of calcium.

Fruits: Figs, rhubarb, and apricots contain some calcium.

Whole grains: Some whole grains, such as quinoa and millet, are a source of calcium.

Canned fish with bones: Sardines, salmon, and mackerel are rich in calcium.

Note: It's important to consume a variety of these foods to meet your daily calcium requirements. Additionally, some of these foods may contain other nutrients that can interfere with calcium absorption, so it's best to consult with a healthcare professional or registered dietitian for personalized advice.

Nutrition can get complicated:

"Some foods that are high in calcium, like spinach and rhubarb, also contain substances that can reduce calcium absorption.

Foods that contain oxalates

Spinach

A leafy green vegetable that's high in calcium but also high in oxalic acid, which reduces calcium absorption

Rhubarb

A fruit that's high in calcium but also high in oxalates, which reduces calcium absorption

Beet greens

A vegetable that contains oxalates, which reduces calcium absorption

Sweet potatoes

A root vegetable that contains oxalates, which reduces calcium absorption

Other factors that affect calcium absorption

Phytic acid: A compound found in some plants, like finger millet and teff, that can reduce calcium absorption

Caffeine and phosphorus: Can slightly reduce calcium absorption

Vitamin D status: Low levels of vitamin D can reduce calcium absorption

To improve calcium absorption, you can look for foods that contain vitamin D, like fish, milk, soy milk, and some cereals, yogurts, and juices. "

[Godiv in reply to Boscoejean]

Hey that’s great thank you! I’m finishing up a grocery order right now. Perfect timing. I didn’t know sweet potatoes reduce calcium absorption. But this also reminds me to take my vitamin D , get back into my supplements. thank you!

[MarionP in reply to Boscoejean]

Great list. I think it's really important to emphasize that last bit that you did, vitamin D.

[kaypeeoh]

Ouch! How does that happen in your kitchen. Too much Eggnog? I've had broken bones but not in my kitchen. Once a horse shattered my jaw by kicking me in the face. Once a car jack broke when I was under the car, dropping the engine on my ribs. Once while running the Pikes Peak Marathon I stepped off the track and broke my ankle.

[Godiv in reply to kaypeeoh]

nothing as exciting as what you’ve experienced! No I was just walking and I think I might have pivoted and that was my downfall up. A wonderful friend had just sent a stable and secure rolator that would actually fit in my hallway. Something to look forward to.!

so no cars or horses or anything fun just playing clumsiness lack of balance and a touch of stupidity. You made me laugh. Thank you.

[Jennyjenny2 in reply to Godiv]

I’m sorry to hear what you went through.

A retired doctor years ago told me that people don’t fall then break their hips. He said the hip breaks, then they fall. He said many years ago before TV remote controls came out, many people broke their hips when going over to turn the TV off and as they were pivoting to turn around, that’s when the fracture happened so don’t beat yourself up with ‘clumsiness lack of balance and a touch of stupidity’. Just no more turning on the spot and twisting the hips.

In Australia we have Specialist Parkinson’s Nurses. They educate the hospitals on timing of medications etc so we’re very lucky.

Your Resolve Parkinson’s needs to get out into the hospitals (if they’re not already) and educate the nursing staff. Or maybe do interviews on television to bring awareness to the situation.

Take care and look after your other hip.

[Jana86 in reply to Jennyjenny2]

Resolve Parkinson's launched about 10 days ago, so not training nurses just yet...but thanks for an excellent suggestion!

[Godiv in reply to Jana86]

Cool! I saw your solicitation of hospital stories . I can’t wait to see the site. Thank you!

[Godiv in reply to Jennyjenny2]

thank you Jenny Jenny 2 I appreciate you telling me not to worry too much about my “stupidity.” itmakes me feel a little better I’m probably a little overconfident in the house though and speed through too fast. And no more pivots! I had heard about the hip breaking before the person actually fell. My fall broke my right femur up near the hip. I think that’s why it hurt so much and of course it’s the largest building in the body so it would hurt when it breaks.

that’s wonderful about educating hospital staff.. I think it’s unfair that they’re expected to know about it off of the top of their heads. In truth, the mid schedule probably is hard on them as they run around on their duties. You never know when they’re be or vice and they don’t either. The program you’re talking about sounds good.

what’s resolve Parkinson’s?OK I see it addressed.

Thank you Jenny Jenny2.

sorry about all my editing but I’m half asleep!

[MarionP in reply to kaypeeoh]

Eggs are too valuable and scarce to be putting in eggnog these days! People are palming them right out of the store.

[MarionP]

"What do you do now?". Let me address it in the larger picture, for the future, because we all have a future where this is going to happen and maybe many more than once: prevention is valuable, learning the lesson you have given us is valuable.

That's a great thing you brought up and really we should all thank you for it.

Also: if you are in the position of being able to choose whether hospital or not hospital, choose not if you can, that is, if you can get by with something else. You control nothing in a hospital and all they ever do is cut corners cut corners cut corners cut corners, and do things by their way and habit, not yours. There's very little accommodating and adjusting they do on the individuals basis. I found this out in a hospital myself a couple times lately. Today it is vitally important to stay out of hospitals. The best way to do that is to actively try to avoid having something happen that is going to put you in the hospital. So you are right, the emphasis of responsibility shifts to us, you must actively assume the "locus of control.". We do that by forcing ourselves to focus on "what am I doing right now actively this very second when the next thing I do or do not do could send me to the hospital, and I can choose which direction by thinking ahead before it happens."

Answer: live your physical life and movement as continually aware and careful as you possibly can so as to PREVENT needing to go to the f---ing hospitals, because they will kill you. We are in a post capitalist-concentrated era now and lack of positively intentional awareness in the moment of "where you are" on a nearly continuous basis can kill you. Think of going to the hospital as a trip to the gulag. Self-aware self-aware self-aware. For your survival. Seriously, literally. Losing your conscious awareness can kill you.

.

No more time for bad intellectual habits or multitasking or daydreaming, or so called absent-mindedness. If it helps, think of these as transactions, you purchase the freedom to fool around and trip or bump something that you know can't take bumps, you can have that freedom but you purchase it at a certain price, comes with a cost, comes with a price, and you have to decide on which side of the transaction brings the greater value, would you rather be able to drowsily walk the floor and have the luxury of letting your mind wander, have that freedom let's say instead of feeling constantly "on duty", versus the actual price you will pay for that freedom when you bump something and break bone. Sober thinking about it brings this to the fore of your awareness. Deciding as a conscious act which you would rather have, and pay the cost of it, also brings it to awareness, brings you to the reality. That is a good thing because the more you can do that the less you are demented (and therefore at risk) in the moment. Think of it as real life exercising and self-management, which is very good for your brain, it fights and approaching dementia by giving your brain cells something to do and the skill to improve upon. Just like exercise and muscles and they're connecting nerves: use them or lose them.

Yes it is very sad now and seemingly unreasonable that we must now become hypervigilant, and seem excessively self-critical and self-blaming, because that is compulsive and kind of "mental" and paranoid and painful and mentally costly... but it is also a habit and we can learn habits and then if we do it by habit it's not as tough. Physical things like this that used to be little now are vital to us, and so I think they are worth it.

.

It is a very good thing that you brought this up and we all owe you a bit of thanks on that.

[DogsWoode in reply to MarionP]

Oh Marion, that just made me laugh out loud, Thank you for the creatively fun, but sombre, wisdom.

[ForViolet in reply to MarionP]

Thank you. Copied and sent to friends. Exactly the advice I needed.

[rebtar in reply to MarionP]

Thanks Marion. Great post.

[Godiv in reply to MarionP]

Spot on, Marion, thank you! and we live in a crazy world that encourages multitasking and not being conscious of moment.. But I’m going to little more conscious, definitely.

And hospitals seem like gulags. Red tape abounds and everyone is faceless.Of course there were nice people there: many of them. It’s a little sad that one usually remembers only the shining stars you got to know. . Some of the people seem likeautomatons. But I should be fair and say I wasn’t feeling well and I was kind of panicked so my judgment was a little skewed being very critical. But I don’t think it was me totally for sure.

Thank you , Marion, all true and good advice too. And yes it’s a very important topic that we shrug off and shouldn’t.

[marmaduke123]

I have the same exactly to a tee except I broke my c7….but it was also horrific in hospital. So much so I have need my husband in earshot it ha made me so anxious

[Godiv in reply to marmaduke123]

i’m so sorry. It’s awful I begged people to stay with me don’t leave me alone here lol kind of thing so I know exactly what you mean it’s not really funny it’s just terrible. They offered me rehab the second time but I didn’t take it because I couldn’t the hospital part. dreaded more days of arguing over medication and my state of being. I’m glad you’re out of there Marmaduke 123!

[RonB1]

Take magnesium for the spasms. B1 for extra energy. Try doing seated exercise with your arms, just to keep exercising.

[Godiv in reply to RonB1]

thank you very much Ron. Excellent advice!

[DogsWoode]

Oh, hell. That sounds utterly terrible. And I appreciate you sharing this mournful tale as a heads up to the rest of us PD affiliates. Now, I've been wondering.....if you had a list with precise meds and timing on a big board by your bedside, would that help guide the troops? I'm assuming you're not allowed to medicate yourself once you are through the unconscious or sedated bit?

[Godiv in reply to DogsWoode]

I don’t no if other hospitals allow that or not. Probably not self medication I mean I think it’s good to me have a big chart by the bed somehow that can be read and looks official. Maybe from your doctor. Is that what they thought could be done. And they liked idea of a letter from the stating that this is how the medication‘s work. I suppose you have a copy of the letter with you and at the desk.

[MarionP in reply to Godiv]

No for liability purposes and control purposes they do not allow you to self medicate, and in fact virtually every hospital requires that you walk in without your medications or give them up to them at the door... And family are not allowed I don't believe either to transport them, it's considered contraband. Also, just as important, they get to sell you medication , pharmacy and delivery services, all at minimum 25 times their cost, and of course the fee for the hospitalist who does the prescribing. As I said, "post-capitalist concentration," which means that the hospital companies and the medical care companies and the drug companies and the pharmacy benefit managers, pharmacies and all intermediaries are all now run by (if not out right owned by) specialist accounting and financial experts operating investment conglomerates who also hire billion dollar lobby efforts, not people who are health care professionals or nursing care professionals, that is what has happened over the last 30 odd years. The bottom line trumps all other priorities and values of any kind in such organizations, and it is a forced cutthroat monetary priority system (formally and intentionally designed to operate as such) overriding all other concerns and influencing all other concerns' decision making... The focus of the Enterprise is now maximum profit for investors rather than being a service... service is just simply the vehicle for making those maximum profits.

My way of referring to it is that it is another version and example of "knowing where you are."

[Marcia123]

Hang in there

[Godiv in reply to Marcia123]

thank you, Marcia! I’m trying!

[Kenekekiane]

I am soo sorry.. The thought of falling terrifies me. I'm 84 and other than PD in good shape but balance is getting bad. We have stairs both in and outside, don't want to give up privacy and home we love. I wish I had good advice, but please take are and know someone cares.

[Godiv in reply to Kenekekiane]

Thank you, K. I know I had good advice for you. Just be careful. Marion said above to remain conscious of what you’re doing especially on the steps I don’t remember what exactly I did so my mind was tuned put when I fell. I know exactly what you mean about leaving your home. You’ve done really well to have stayed age 84 so you’re doing something right!

I appreciate the kind thoughts just as well as the advice :-).

[Waxbeans]

Ditto, I broke my femur trying to comply with the ongoing recommendations to exercise this PD AWAY? I fell off my treadmill when I fainted. Luckily I had the safety lanyard connected because the belt would have sanded me down. This was my first bone brake and the recovery was complicated!

[Godiv in reply to Waxbeans]

oh my gosh that’s awful! I know that 45 minutes5% heart rate is a tough one. We’re not capable of it. I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s certainly not fun. Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of? And does the pain ever stop? Feel free to message me. Thanks very much.

[MarionP in reply to Waxbeans]

Wow! I always like to say even extremism should be taken in moderation.

[Jana86]

I had the exact same experience after heart surgery in October 2023 and again after DBS in September 2024. I was warned, so printed up a schedule in multiple copies and had my daughter hand it out once I was in recovery. She even posted it at the end of my bed! Brought small suitcase of meds as back up the second time as the pharmacy at Mass General never got it right...even with written instructions.

Resolve Parkinsons will soon launch its blog and will be looking for PWP who are willing to share their hospital experiences. If you have a story to tell, sign up on the website resolveparkinsons.org, or drop me a note a [e-mail]. There are some countries who are good at this......would love to hear positive experiences as well not so great!