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My daughter is in a hip spica cast for a broken femur and tibia

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brittany94532
brittany94532

My daughter recently suffered a major injury and I'm trying to help her through her recovery.

She's 16 and fell off a retaining wall a few feet high on to concrete. Her left femur and tibia were broken and she had surgery immediately. After just over a week in the hospital, she was released wearing a hip spica cast.

It's the biggest cast I've ever seen on anybody. It's hard to explain but it comes all the way from her toes on her left leg all the way up to above her belly button and then down her right leg to just above the knee. She's got a bar between her legs. She has a wheelchair and a hosptial bed set up in our house.

She wants to be very independent but obviously can't do much on her own including using the bathroom which is very embarrassing for her. Also, it's summer and her cast is already getting itchy. I guess the hardest thing for me is that she cries a lot and fights a lot with me which is not at all like her. I think she's just really upset and embarrassed.

She gets her spica cast off July 25th and will start physical therapy right away. But I don't know how we're going to make it there. Any tips would be great. Thanks.

0 likes, 2 replies

2 Replies

  • AlexandriaGizmo
    AlexandriaGizmo brittany94532

    Posted

    Hi, I can totally understand where your coming from but I do empathize with your daughter, I fell off of a fence about 2.5 feet high and also landed on concrete, I fractured my hip and pelvis, for lots of reasons I was undiagnosed and told just soft tissue, anyway I had three months of being imobile and incapable of doing anything for myself, being older I could take it in mystride but at 16 it must be even worse, the only thing you can do is what you are already doing, be their for her and help her as much as possible to help herself, it will pass faster than you think, are you USA
  • Vhoxz
    Vhoxz brittany94532

    Posted

    Hi,

    I crushed my foot about three years ago. 

    Tho I'm a bit older than your daughter, and living alone at the time, I had to move back in with my parents because I was unable to take care of myself. I didn't have any issues going to the toilet but I needed help washing myself every morning, either with help of a nurse or my mom.

    I think that was the hardest part, the pain goes away after a while (with or without painkillers) but what doesn't go away is the anger. Not anger towards people trying to help you (tho it might seem like that sometimes) but anger because you're no longer able to live your live independently from others. You need help with the smallest things, thing you used to be able to do by yourself. 

    On top of that your daughter needs help with going to the bathroom at a difficult age. Dealing with this as an adult is one thing dealing with it as a teen in puberty is something else entirely.

    It's going to require a lot of patience from both you and your daughter.

    Something I like to do in my line of work is to put myself in the position of "the patient".

    Think how I would respond/react if I was in their position. How could my feeling of anger helplessness and embarrassment be taken away or be easier to handle. What could nurses, caretakers, ... do to make these feelings go away. This way I can come up with quick solutions I didn't think of before>

    The most important thing to know is that your daughter isn't angry at you but at the situation. And I can't blame her.

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