Also suffers from severe back pain. She needed support to walk even earlier; but the acute pain and inabilty to stand up or support herself is abrupt. She had a hip fracture 5 years ago; but recovered. Memory is avaerage, recognizes close relatives, but has occasional memory lapse. General health is reasonably satisfactory.
It's a good reminder for me as well; it's easy to associate intense pain with a fracture from a fall, but your update reminded me that as we age compression fractures can occur, w/o any fall or accident.
It's also rewarding to know that the advice provided helped resolve the question about what was happening.
I hope your friend has a nice relaxing, restful summer and feels so much better. And thanks for providing an update.
Go to an urgent care facility. ER if indicated.
Outside intervention is required.
Sometimes we also use the parallel bars (or something else you can find that is sturdy enough), where the client/patient can hold onto something to pull themselves up into standing position (if this is possible and doesn't hurt too much) We time this activity with the client's/patient's pain medications so they can manage the activity better. It is not recommended that they pull up from their walker however, as it can fall back on them, and are usually not a sturdy enough support.
I hope everything works out for you, keep us informed.
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