By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or
[email protected] to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
I expect you already know about:
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/hospital-emergency-departments
This page also has numbers to call for advice. I think probably the things to concentrate on are a) pain relief that won't upset her and b) the best way to immobilise the arm/shoulder, and whether it's practical for you to do that yourself. Do you have district nurses or the equivalent, to show you how to do it?
Looking at your profile, that's quite a list of "complex co-morbidities"! I can't believe her GP goes swanning off on holiday without leaving proper cover for his patients. Or I wish I couldn't believe it, anyway. What sort of Australia are you in, a rural bit or an urban bit?
Sorry about the dates: my mind is so scrambled. Yes, it is in dd/mm format.
Panamax is paracetamol. https://www.nps.org.au/medicine-finder/panamax-tablets
The other doctor refuses to take phone calls or emails or anything except 'you come to the clinic' but that is too hard and there is a wait of between 1 hour to 2 hours which is too much. No specialist can see us without referral from doctor. I asked a geriatric nurse (acquaintance) to phone but he has not yet. Probably too busy with corona.
Where do I get reliable info on 'figure of eight' bandage for broken clavicle ?
I think she needs an xray. When my sister had a broken collarbone (and it been 67 years ago when she was born) they did a figure 8 on her back with bandaging to keep the bone immobile.
I don't think Mom had a seizure I just think she passed out. If Mom had a good #2, the blood pressure can lower. Happened to my Mom and she had to sit in her chair for a while before it came back up. This is not unusual.
We (UK/Australia) do: day-month-year. DD/MM/YY = today is 12/12/20 (oh. Bad example!) You would say it, 12th December, 2020.
I know it's the other way about in the US: month-day-year, MM/DD/YY, so you'd read the OP's dates as the 12th August, 12th September, and 12th December.
But "next day" - so I'm reasonably confident it's the 8th, 9th and now the 12th December that the OP means.
In general clavicles heal themselves, but only an xray interpretation can guess at what this will take in terms of time, and with the complication of aging. It will be PAINFUL as there is almost no move she can make that won't hurt. If the Panamax is a pain medication she cannot take it may need replacing.
You are right to keep the weight of arm on that side off the injury.
The worst danger you have right now in my opinion as a retired RN is PNEUMONIA. Because of pain your Mom is going to be taking teeny tiny short little breathes in, and not inflating her lungs. This can give her pneumonia. Also the tendency not to move at all is a danger.
Keep in contact with your own medical personnel and remember that they are the ones to guide you. They will understand if she cannot tolerate a medication and may try one similar.
Remember, Accidents DO happen. It is an age old adage in our country.
Broken collarbones are very miserable. You are doing the right thing immobilising the arm as far as possible; but the reality is that your mother will need to move her arm (or have it moved) sometimes, and when she does it will hurt, and the rest of the time it will ache, and it is rotten for her.
There are soft fabric slings and braces available: you could have a look online - Googling "slings and braces for broken collarbone" gets plenty of results.
You and she will also need patience. It will gradually improve.
Pain relief: call the doctor, because even a doctor who won't come to the house can still advise you about alternatives to the Panamax. It could be that some kind of topical anti-inflammatory gel might be helpful for her but DO NOT try this without her doctor's agreement.
You also need medical advice because the next thing is to think about what caused her to fall. It was NOT your neglect! I expect the doctor who visited considered a number of possibilities, but I also expect that he did not think it right to subject a lady of 96, in pain after a nasty shock from her fall, to a load of stressful questions and tests. The other doctor, a few days later when she's settled down a bit, might agree that it's worth a review.
How is your mother overall? Bear in mind that it's only four days since this happened and she will have had a shock to her system. Keep encouraging her to eat and drink but don't force it - she won't drop dead from missing square meals for a day or two. Offer her small amounts of whatever you know she likes best.
Don't prevent her from getting up and moving around as much as she is able to. Mobility is really, really important, so unless the doctor - again - advises against it, you should encourage her to stand and walk a little and often, with her arm well supported.
I've just been looking up YouTube videos to show you how to help your mother stand and walk, but it would really be better if a trained aide, nurse or therapist could *show* you. Do you have any of those professionals in your area?
Question 1: Please can you send me link to a YouTube video how to help her get up from lying-down-in-bed to sitting-on-sofa safely ? Transfers really hurts.
Question 2: Should I do a figure-of-eight AND a sling ? Would that help her recover ? Or should I leave her sling alone ? Because it hurts whenever the sling is disturbed even slightly ?
Question 3: Please can you send me link to a YouTube video how to do a figure-of-eight safely ?
Question 4: Please can you send me link to a YouTube video how to pick her up safely from the floor ?
She again fell off the sofa trying to get up unaided. Luckily she did not hurt herself. My husband picked her up like a baby but could have injured his back. We tried to hoist her up from the floor onto the sofa using a sheet underneath her but she was too frightened to cooperate.
She had 2 pain-free days off PANAMAX. On day 1 she slept whole day. On day 2, she ate, prayed, lightly exercized for 1 hour (not on her left side) and played computer solitaire. Normal day.
Today day 3 she is in great pain so I changed PANAMAX dose to 2mL 4 times daily instead of 7mL 4 times daily.
There is no doctor and no nurse (district nurse or any other type).
Last time (years ago) I took her to ED for severe chest pain, the nurse HIT her whilst taking her BP because she complained he was hurting her. Lucky no broken bone. We left after waiting 6 hours. The doctor wanted to do a rectal examination (for chest pain ???) and she refused.
I am in Sydney city suburb not the rural area. Australia only has 'leading-edge medical research'. Ordinary problems that ordinary people face are too boring for super-smart Oz medicos.
It is NOT her doctor's fault that no doctor wants to help her even for a few days. They only worry about legal rubbish.
May God Bless you and all other people who answered and helped me with info. We rely on God, Internet and good-hearted folks !