November 11, 2002 - 2:26 p.m.
Granddaddy�s broken his hip.
Late one evening last week, he fell in the hallway of the nursing home where he lives and banged himself up rather badly. They took him to the emergency room to be bandaged and x-rayed but the staff there didn�t notice anything and sent him back. The next day my parents and grandmother went to visit him and remarked that he was walking strangely, but it might have been just because he was bruised and sore from the fall. A nurse who came on shift after lunch disagreed and had him returned to the hospital for further examination.
More x-rays, a bone scan and a CAT scan were done but it was still a day or two before the hairline fracture in his hip was detected. For good or ill, Granddaddy�s Alzheimer�s has progressed to the point where he no longer registers pain, so he hasn�t been in any discomfort. The down side is, of course, that he has no physical cues to warn him about walking around on a broken hip. But his doctor�s surprise that he could walk at all � broken hip or no � makes me wonder if surgery to repair it might be a waste and an unnecessary risk.
Granddaddy had a CAT scan two years ago when he was in the hospital, just before he moved into the home. His doctor has compared that one with the one taken last week and told my family that the deterioration of his brain has progressed quite a bit. (There�s an animation here that demonstrates the progression of Alzheimer�s) Though we have enjoyed a year or so of relative stability with my grandfather, it�s clear now that we must prepare for the inevitable slide when the last sparks of recognition die in his eyes and he loses what remains of his ability to communicate, gesture, or even rise from his bed.
I�m going to go play with my boys and get my mind off of it for now.
