On Falling. A Continuing Story

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Tom Dinning, Jan 25, 2023.

  1. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    Hey there sister, sounds like we have the same story. I LOVE my cane. Not just because I need it to walk. I use it to get things down off of shelves, to fend off attacking chickens or other animals...I fixed the fascia in my foot bur can't fix it in my thigh. Soooooo annoying. I can lift stuff but can't walk carrying stuff as I do need the cane. But I have caught myself with jt in losing my balance a couple of times.
     
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  2. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    Yep great weapon. i once took my cane and pushed a irate violent teen-ager out the door and locked it.
    it is good for lots of things. Make sure you have plenty of tread on the rubber end. Mine was gone so replace, .now get better traction.
     
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  3. Gary O'Dan

    Gary O'Dan Well-Known Member
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    Great thread!

    I wrote something on falling a few years back;

    Falling down

    At the age of four, one falls on a regular schedule.
    No big deal
    Yer close to the ground anyway
    Get up
    Run
    Fall down
    Repeat

    When in yer late sixties, falling down is akin to plunging off the edge of the Grand Canyon
    Seems about the same space of time to mentally adjust with several choice expletives
    Once you’ve determined yer goin’ over, and have made one or more feeble attempts at grabbing (helplessly flailing) at something on the way down, like a small animal or a board with a rusty nail in it, you come to the grim reality that there’s just no stopping you, yer gonna hit.
    Hard
    Fleeting thoughts of childhood pets, Felecia Moorhead’s heaving cleavage, and health insurance premiums rush thru.

    The landing..style points

    I’ve never ever landed well.
    Even in high school football, where you practice it, forever it seems.
    Drop and roll for me was slowly crouching down and flopping over, immediately losing any location orientation.
    I was a pretty good second baseman and shortstop, with good hand/eye coordination, but range...didn’t dare stretch out for the hot liner, could topple over, those were for outfielders.

    The somersault has been an unattainable challenge, since early on in life, even though Connie Ekbert and her holey underwear showed me the main gist of the mechanics,
    in slow motion,
    several times...

    Types

    There’s the falling up
    A couple/three months ago I stubbed my toe on a curb, going in to a Goodwill Store.
    Went down
    Landing on my palms
    But that one didn’t count so much.
    I fell kinda across, not down.

    Now, coming off a curb, where the front half of the foot begins to point down, while the back half remains on the curb..heh...that one’s a beaut.
    There’s a forward thrust, like some hit man from behind just pushed you into the subway rails.
    That one doesn’t give you the grace period of fond childhood memories
    Maybe a broken expletive
    Maybe

    Then there’s the WTF one, where it seemingly takes nothing more than a pebble on the road, or twig in the forest.
    This may be attributed to the gait of a vague shuffle after a day of performing feats of long gone youthful brawn in the company of younger folk half my age.

    Pain

    I used to just wince, then find my way back up
    But I no longer experience pain....if...I land on my palms (scar tissue).
    If I happen to go down around a crowd of people, I notice they are the ones doing the wincing and grimacing.
    Now I just crawl over to an object higher than my waist, hoist myself up,
    give the concerned crowd a Nixon victory sign,
    and hobble on my way.

    So far, I’m good with it all.
    Figger it’s God’s way of keeping me humble.

    (fell on the ice yesterday...thought I better write these thoughts down while my wrists still function)
     
    #18
  4. Krystal Shay

    Krystal Shay Very Well-Known Member
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    Yep! I twisted my ankle on a small rock once, out walking. That's what I said to myself, WTF! :D
     
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  5. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    Yeah I try not to remind myself the day I slipped in gum nuts on a footpath ( sorry I’m Aussie ) I don’t call where you walk a sidewalk :):).
    My hubby also had a bad fall if you like to call it that …it was more a giant slip …on a shiny shed floor while he was rushing about with wet shoes on while changing our drinking water filters that are fitted under the kitchen sink but removable to make it easy to change the 2 filters .

    His giant slip resulted in him being flown by the flying doctors from where we live ( 2 hours drive from the nearest city ) to Adelaide SA for a complete hip replacement two years ago just last week .

    While he was in hospital I borrowed a raised toilet seat for him …..however when I returned it I took it into the home from where I’d borrowed it came out to the car that was parked at the curb ……done the splits with one leg and fractured my leg / ankle ( spiral fracture ) just 2 months after hubby had his hip replacement .

    I didn’t seek medical treatment while in the city that day but drove home…180 Km ….I eventually went to the local hospital where they made an appointment for me to see a specialists some 3 weeks latter :eek: in the meantime I was in agony so the major hospital in the city arranged for me to be seen by a out of hospital ….hospital avoidance clinic who were horrified of the look of my leg …..they eventually plastered my leg until the appointment to see the surgeon came up about a week latter
    By then it was too late fir them to attempt to repair the break by screwing it …..so here I’m now almost 2 years later with a sore leg ..,and another hubby and I attend dances and dance quite a bit ( social ballroom ) I’m no where near as confident as I was on a very slippery dance floor as I was before

    Xray of My leg 3 weeks after breaking it the fracture went right down into my ankle ….and new bone that’s growing between the cracks is pushing my break wider apart
     
    #20
  6. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    My most frequent method of falling?

    Usually involves a honeysuckle or wild grapevine on the ground in the woods. Walking at a decent clip. Build up momentum. Left, right, left, right, .... Then one foot does not show up because it's tangle in a vine behind you. You land face down with a sudden ker-plop.

    The good news? It's usually on soft ground, with lots of leaves, so you end up laughing.
     
    #21
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  7. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    My leg when I fractured it in March 2021

    CECC0466-4644-4702-91F8-987F6497DF21.jpeg
     
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  8. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    We walk down along the beach quite often, and in winter parts of the beach gets big piles of seaweed after a big storm so we have to walk through the seaweed to get to the sand parts , the Sw is often covering limestone rocks , hubs twisted his ankle slightly tripped and fell one day so far so good for me …..
     
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