My husband had to have hip replacement surgery

[gmyers]

When he fell over the fan he broke his hip. He had the ball part of it replaced and some bone . We just got out of rehab and are home. He's going to have home health care come out and give him occupational, physical and speech therapy. The reason for the speech therapy is they gave him a swallow test because he was choking on food and said it showed he could hardly swallow food and liquids without possibly choking. They were talking about a feeding tube in his stomach if it gets worse.

[jasmine]

did they find out with the pain pills related to breathing or anything?

[gmyers]

They found out that the main reason he's falling is the jerking and shaking he's doing but they don't know whats causing it. He has to go back to his neurologist and let him try to find out the cause. He jerks so hard even when he's asleep. And they noticed when he did his legs tended to want to fall on him. No its the copd.

[pepperpot]

I so feel bad how hard you've had it lately. :hug (Your hubby too.) :(

[SLance68]

I was wondering how you both were doing since you had not posted in a few days. Glad they are getting him the needed therapists. Sending you both hugs and prayers.

[Eyore]

Hope your husband gets better and they can figure out why he is jerking and shaking like he is. Hugs and prayers.

[BeanieLuvR]

I am so glad you are both ok. I have been praying for you. I hope they can find out what is causing your DH to shake. I hope with therapy he will be able to recover. Hugs! You two have been through so much.

[tareygirl]

They found out that the main reason he's falling is the jerking and shaking he's doing but they don't know whats causing it. He has to go back to his neurologist and let him try to find out the cause. He jerks so hard even when he's asleep. And they noticed when he did his legs tended to want to fall on him. No its the copd.
I want to tell you I'm so sorry you and your husband are having such a rough time. What have his oxygen levels been running? If they get too low it will cause him to shake and jerk. This is what it sounds like is happening. When he is exerting himself (walking) his oxygen level is going way down. When he is sleeping he is breathing shallower, and not getting the oxygen saturation that he needs. Do you have a hospital bed for him? The reason I ask is he needs to be sitting up pretty straight to sleep if he can, and that is very hard to do in a regular bed. Especially after hip sugery. I have had you both in my prayers since I read on here that he had fallen. I will continue to pray. I know you don't know me because I don't post offen, but I do read the forums every few days. Please take care of yourself also. Cindy

[gmyers]

I think thats a big part of it too. He can have a saturation level of 96 or 97 and still be gasping and getting out of breath. I think he can get air into his lungs but they don't process it like they should.
He had a really bad reaction to ambien while he was in there. He took it at 8 at night and an hour later he was hallucinating and got really paranoid. He kept taking his heart monitor off and kept taking the hospital gown off over and over and trying to get out of bed. They either gave him a higher dose or ambien cr which he doesn't take or it was reacting with the anesthesia or another medicine. I stayed up the whole night trying to calm him down and keep him in the bed. They were talking about tieing him down if he didn' settle down. It was definitely some medicine they gave him because he takes ambien at home and he's never reacted like that. He told me later after it was over he thought he was being held prisoner and we were all trying to kill him. He was definitely paranoid that night. He threw his water glass out the door. He told me he was trying to attract someones attention so they'd save him. I think thats the longest night I've ever been through trying to calm him down. He was embarrassed when he found out what he did. He kept telling me and everyone else we were trying to kill him.

[tareygirl]

I don't know what it is with hip surgery, especially after a break, that causes some very unusual behaviour. The hallucinations are quite common.I don't know and neither do the Dr's if it is caused by some medications or not. Very scary too... for him and you. As far as the swallowing problem, have they ruled out a stroke? Sometimes small strokes will affect only the throat, which leads to aspirating your food and causes pneumonia. Has he had a history of pneumonia lately? How many litres of oxygen is he on? We had to take my Mom and my Mother in law off of their oxygen concentrators and put them on pure oxygen to keep their saturations up with exertion. The concentrators only concentrate the air in the room, where the oxygen tank gives you pure oxygen, and keeps the levels up in some cases. The reason I ask about the pneumonia is my mother in law had pneumonia three time in seven months. She had also broke her hip and had surgery. She had copd,also. She just couldn't seem to improve no matter what we or the Dr's tried. We took her to the Cleveland Clinic, and in one day they found the problem. She did have to have a feeding tube, but that was minor compared to how sick she was getting from the pneumonia. They also said one of the small strokes could have caused her to fall to break her hip in the first place. I will continue to say prayers for you and your husband Cindy.

[gmyers]

He's on two litres of oxygen and he's had pneumonia a few times over the years but not often. I saw on the medicare site they gave him a lot of different medications during and after the surgery I believe they could have caused a reaction when he took the ambien. Thanks for the prayers he needs all he can get. He got really depressed when they talked about putting a feeding tube in. He said he's had to give up everything he likes to do and then not to be able to eat or drink on top of that was like giving up everything. He's a proud man and hates being dependent on people to do things he needs done. He said it makes you feel like you're not a man any more.

[ilovecats]

Sending good thoughts your way.I bet once this all sinks in he will be better able to cope,it must be tough to get all that thrown at him at once.