Post-Fracture Recovery with Home Care

Experiencing a fracture can be a life-changing experience, especially if your age or health contributes to a longer, more difficult recovery. Whether it’s a broken arm, hip, leg or any other bone, a fracture can have a huge impact on your independence and daily routine. You may require significant adjustments to your life while you recover from your injury.

Post-fracture recovery care aims to support you with the correct strategies relevant to your recovery. A carer will be able to manage your pain, rehabilitation and recovery, while supporting daily activities to interfere with your routine as minimally as possible.

Today, we’ll explore what a fracture is and who’s most at risk, as well as everything you need to know about post-fracture recovery from the comfort of your own home.

Understanding fractures

Bone fractures are very common, with anyone being at risk of breaking a bone should they experience a traumatic accident, injury or fall. Certain repetitive forces, like running, can increase the risk of experiencing certain types of fractures.

Fractures may need surgery as part of their treatment plan, but this isn’t always the case. You may need a splint, cast or brace to keep the bone steady while it heals instead. The time it takes to recover from your injury depends on the type of fracture and where in your body it’s located.

Types of fractures

There are several types of fractures, often named by certain criteria like their pattern or cause. Here are the most common types:

• Straight-line break fractures: Oblique and transverse fractures feature one clean break that is often quicker to heal than others.
• Fracture patterns: Greenstick, comminuted, segmental and spiral fractures are all named after the shape they resemble along your bone.
• Fractures diagnosed by cause: Stress fractures, avulsion fractures, and buckle fractures are all named after the cause of the break.
• Location-based fractures: If your fracture doesn’t fit into the categories above, it might be named after its location, e.g. shoulder, pelvic, and facial fractures.

Symptoms of a fracture

If you think you’ve fractured a bone, getting help as soon as possible is essential for a quick and efficient recovery. To do this, know the symptoms to look out for:

• Pain and tenderness
• Localised swelling
• Difficulty moving the affected part of your body like normal
• Bruising or discolouration
• A bump or deformity that’s not usually there

Who’s more at risk of a fracture?

Bone fractures can affect anyone. Even the healthiest people can fall the wrong way and fracture a bone, so no one is completely exempt from risk. As fractures are often caused by sudden trauma like car accidents, sports injuries and falls, it’s difficult to know when someone will break a bone.

However, there are certain risk factors that make someone more likely to experience a fracture:

• Osteoporosis: A condition that weakens bones and makes them more susceptible to sudden fractures.
• Age: Older adults are most at risk of osteoporosis, leading to more brittle and weaker bones.
• Sedentary lifestyle: A lack of physical activity can reduce muscle size and strength, giving bones less protection.
• Medications: Certain medications can weaken bones, such as steroids.
• Chronic conditions: Conditions like arthritis limit mobility, reducing activity levels and leading to weaker muscles and bones.
• Poor balance: Finding yourself off-balance more frequently increases your risk of falls.
• Vision impairments: Poor eyesight can increase the risk of getting into dangerous situations that can lead to fractures.
• Previous fractures: Past fractures increase the risk of re-injury, potentially leading to further injuries in the future.
• Frailty: Symptoms of frailty lead to an increased risk of falls and low-energy trauma.

Common treatments for fractures

How your fracture is treated depends on where it is, what caused it, and how severe it is. Some fractures, such as compound fractures, break the skin, often requiring surgery to fix. Others, such as a toe fracture, require no exceptional treatments aside from rest.

The treatment for your fracture will affect how long and strenuous your recovery at home is. The most common treatments for fractures include:

• Immobilisation: Splints or casts keep your bone in place so it can’t move out of place while healing. Splints usually take three to five weeks, while casts can take slightly longer, at six to eight weeks.
• Surgery: There are many ways to fix a broken bone with surgery, including internally fixing it with rods, plates, pins and wires, or externally fixing it with a temporary brace outside the body.
• Closed reduction: A severe break may need a closed reduction to realign the bones, which is where doctors will push and pull your body to line up the broken bones. The bone will then be put in a splint or cast. You’ll be given medication to prevent you from feeling any pain during this non-surgical procedure, but you’ll most likely feel sore afterwards.
• Joint replacement: If you badly fracture a joint, your doctor might have to surgically replace it with an artificial alternative.
• Bone grafting: Fractures that are severely displaced or failing to heal properly may require a bone graft. This inserts extra bone tissue into the bone to re-join the fractured pieces, usually taken from the top of your hip bone or an external donor.

How home care can support your post-fracture recovery

No matter what treatment you’ve been given, post-fracture recovery is no joke. Having the right support around you can make a big difference in recovery time, pain management and boosting your confidence. You may not think you require home care for a fracture, but short-term support can alleviate pressure from your daily requirements to allow you to put more energy into healing.

A professional visiting or live-in carer can help support your recovery through several practical solutions, including:

Creating a safe and accessible home environment

Safety is incredibly important when it comes to post-fracture recovery – especially if your injury occurred at home. A Trinity Homecare carer will modify your home to reduce your risk of falls and make sure you can continue to move around independently.

They may do this by:

• Removing clutter from walkways
• Securing loose rugs or removing them temporarily
• Rearranging low-level furniture to avoid it becoming a trip hazard
• Ensuring the home is well-lit with bright bulbs and night lights

Adapting your recovery space

Some fractures may require limited mobility for the first few weeks to limit the risk of your bone becoming unstable and unable to heal. If this applies to you, your carer will help make this possible by fetching things you need from upstairs, adapting your downstairs level into a comfortable sleeping environment and installing things like grab bars to ensure you can continue using the toilet safely.

At Trinity, our carers always promote independence first. We’ll get things ready for you and optimise your recovery space before stepping back and encouraging you to do things for yourself. However, we’ll still be there should you need support or extra guidance during your initial recovery.

Recommending assistive devices

If you’re struggling with your recovery, our carers can recommend a number of assistive devices to make day-to-day living easier and more enjoyable. These include:

• Mobility aids, such as crutches or a walker
• Reacher tools, to help pick things up off the floor or retrieve things from high shelves
• Elevated furniture, which can be useful if you’re recovering from a lower limb fracture

Managing pain and discomfort

Pain management is one of the most important aspects of post-fracture recovery. Keeping on top of your pain can help you stay mobile and motivated as you continue your recovery journey. A Trinity Homecare carer will ensure your comfort and pain management by:

• Managing your medication and making sure you never miss a dose or forget to request another prescription
• Encouraging doctor-approved therapies by making sure ice and heat packs are always available and replenished
• Looking out for symptoms and ensuring that they’re getting better instead of worse
• Promoting relaxation techniques, such as breathing, meditation and gentle stretching
• If you’ve had surgery, a carer will be able to check the wound for signs of infection or slow healing

Liaising with your healthcare team for the best recovery practices

As part of your wider healthcare team, Trinity carers are able to liaise with your doctors, surgeons and healthcare specialists to ensure you’re on the best care plan possible. They’ll keep track of your symptoms, pain management and recovery time to feed back to your healthcare team, and recommend if they think something isn’t working or needs adjusting.

Having round-the-clock care from a professionally trained carer ensures you’re in the best hands possible. If something goes wrong or you’re worried about your recovery, you’ll have someone to talk to instead of having to wait for your next appointment with your doctor. Alleviating this worry can also reduce pain, further aiding your recovery.

Encouraging you to maintain mobility and stick to your rehabilitation plan

Trinity Homecare carers understand the importance of maintaining mobility throughout recovery, especially when it’s been prescribed as part of your rehabilitation plan. While reset is essential for healing, a certain level of mobility is required to avoid stiffness and muscle atrophy from becoming serious complications.

Most physiotherapists will give you some simple exercises to do at home, and a carer will encourage you to do these as often as is necessary. These may be to improve the range of motion, circulation or strength. A professional carer will also be able to notice signs of overexertion to ensure you don’t indirectly worsen your injury.

Strengthening your support system

Along with professional support, it’s important that you have other people around you to help with your emotional and mental well-being after a fracture. A carer can help you reach out to friends and family members and explain what’s going on, along with any support you may need from them.

At Trinity Homecare, we aim to extend our support to the loved ones of our clients, as we know how taxing an injury can be on the whole family.

Looking after your mental health

Recovering from a fracture can be mentally and emotionally challenging, especially when it was a result of a traumatic injury. Feelings of frustration, anxiety, depression and loss of confidence can greatly impact your recovery. You may struggle with your temporary loss of independence.

At Trinity, our carers support all of our clients by setting realistic goals in recovery and keeping them engaged with hobbies and activities they enjoy. We’ll aim to foster independence wherever possible instead of doing things for you, so you don’t feel such a strong loss of freedom. Where possible, we can also encourage and support you in finding professional mental health assistance.

How Trinity Homecare can help

Whether your recovery takes a few weeks or months, Trinity Homecare’s hospital discharge care services can help. We’ll carefully match you with a carer fully trained and experienced in convalescent care to ensure you get the right support and assistance you need. Choose between short-term live-in care or daily visits throughout your recovery period.

The care we provide includes:

• One-to-one support at home
• Completely bespoke live-in care that has been tailored to you
• Specialist care for a number of different circumstances
• Home carers carefully matched to your needs
• CQC rated ‘Outstanding’ live-in care services

During your post-fracture recovery, our carers will uphold dignity and respect before all else while fostering independence wherever possible. During your short-term assistance, your carer will also assess your home and take necessary action to prevent fractures in the future.

Talk to us today

If your loved one requires home care, chat with one of our friendly care team today. We offer a free, no-obligation enquiry and assessment service and are happy to offer information and advice to help you find the perfect home care solution.

Call us on 020 4572 5583 in confidence for a free no obligation quotation. If enquiring outside of our opening hours, please complete our online form and we will contact you the next day.