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Things to look forward to no.24 - and Jill came tumbling after

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    Things to look forward to no.24 - and Jill came tumbling after

    What is it that makes old people fall down stairs? We had a phone call at 6 this morning from my very shaken and upset mum-in-law (67) who's done just that. She was clearly in shock and saying she's hurt her shoulder and couldn't get up. Signora Rogin's rung an ambulance and gone round. My Dad fell down the stairs too last year, broke his ankle. Does your balance go as you get older or something?
    Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 17-01-2019, 07:50.

    #2
    Ouch, best wishes to your MiL.

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      #3
      She's in hospital - fractured her shoulder. Could have been worse (no neck or back injury).

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        #4
        Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
        Does your balance go as you get older or something?
        I'm pretty sure that it does. My great-grandad never recovered from falling out of bed and hurting his head.

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          #5
          A fair number of the consultants we use are in their 70s, as it's a line of work where knowledge, experience and taking your time really helps. Sadly one of them who is due to come in for a meeting next week had a fall recently and has hurt his back, poor guy.

          And another I was chatting to was wondering why the terminology changes - when you're young you trip or fall over or fall off things. When you're old you 'have a fall'. When does that change?

          Anyway, this NHS page has some info, if it helps?
          https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/falls/

          Best wishes to your MiL, Rogin.

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            #6
            Turns out on a scan she's punctured a lung so more serious than they thought. Still, she's getting ripped to the tits on ketamine, which will take her back to her youth.

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              #7
              Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
              What is it that makes old people fall down stairs? We had a phone call at 6 this morning from my very shaken and upset mum-in-law (67) who's done just that. She was clearly in shock and saying she's hurt her shoulder and couldn't get up. Signora Rogin's rung an ambulance and gone round. My Dad fell down the stairs too last year, broke his ankle. Does your balance go as you get older or something?
              Hope your MIL's ok Rogin - as someone who has slipped down the stairs 4 times in 2 and half years at my home (as recently a two Sundays ago as well) I consider myself lucky that the last time was by far the worst and resulted in a minor strain in my upper right arm due to trying to grab the bannister.

              Regarding what causes me to slip down them, the first 3 times was the fact that my stairs are u-shape and narrow markedly in the middle. As I tend to run down stairs, I simply misjudge the size of the step and will slip. The most recent though came from the fact that I was wearing football socks and my foot simply slipped on the stairs carpet as I was trying to drape a jacket over the stair gate at the bottom whilst standing 4 steps up.

              I certainly hope it isn't to do with balance as such, because I'm only 34 and if I'm this bad now, imagine what I'll be like when I'm 70.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                What is it that makes old people fall down stairs? We had a phone call at 6 this morning from my very shaken and upset mum-in-law (67) who's done just that. She was clearly in shock and saying she's hurt her shoulder and couldn't get up. Signora Rogin's rung an ambulance and gone round. My Dad fell down the stairs too last year, broke his ankle. Does your balance go as you get older or something?
                Possibly balance but in combination with, or in addition to, a loss of muscle strength and joint pain that hinder an older person's ability to correct themselves when they falter on stairs or indeed sometimes on the flat.

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                  #9
                  My paternal grandfather used to take the odd tumble or two once he hit his mid-seventies - not because his muscles or his balance had gone, but because he was too vain to wear glasses, i.e. he couldn't see where he was going.

                  This vanity was the death of him. At the age of 79, he slipped off the kerb in front of his local and got run over by a motorcycle.

                  This was a bit of a family tradition, as his father, who was also too vain to wear glasses, also died beneath the wheels of a motorcycle, also at the age of 79, also outside his local (although it wasn't the same local as his son's).

                  My father, who is also too vain to wear glasses, has shat all over this family tradition, as he turned 80 earlier this month. I'd spent the previous twelve months reminding him to remember his Green Cross Code when outside any pub he'd been to more than once.

                  Incidentally, as a result of this ribbing, I discovered my father can do a near-perfect impersonation of Dave Prowse.

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                    #10
                    Our next door neighbour, 96 years old I think, fell down in her house back in November and never recovered, she died in December. The fall itself was not fatal but at that age, the body simply can't mend anymore.

                    My mum had long spells in hospital when she fell a couple of times, hurting herself nastily (my sister never managed to clean completely the blood stains in her flat when she fell in the toilet. Those long stays in hospital resulted her in caching pneumonia which eventually killed her, she was 86.

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                      #11
                      Depressing stuff about loss of balance as one ages. I'm hopefully a decade or two off falling down stairs still (aged 55), but I've noticed that I'm struggling more with going down steep paths when I do Lake District fell walking, and that may not be entirely due to the fact that I'm having to balance a lot more weight due to my expanding midriff that I was carrying in my youth. Combined with my wife's cardiac issues which impede our joint progress uphill (and our speed on the flat), that's putting a real kaibosh on our chances of ever repeating some of our more ambitious Lake District routes.

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                        #12
                        Falling was the beginning of the end of L's 97 year old grandmother. That fall gave her a bump on the head which led to a subsequent fall where she broke her hip, which saw her put into a home which saw her get progressively sicker and weaker over a year or two.

                        My dad tumbled down the last couple of steps to the basement when he was about 70, and this upset him no end. Mainly because it made him feel like an old fart, but also because he had no idea how it happened.

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                          #13
                          Stairs are nasty. My uncle (then in his 60s) fell down the stairs shortly after moving to their new house about five years ago. The house, fortunately, was a lot nearer my parents. As a result he is quadraplegic. Fortunately over time he has very much managed to deal with the mental side of this.

                          When I am old I am going to move to a single level home real fast.
                          Last edited by caja-dglh; 17-01-2019, 20:14.

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                            #14
                            I sometimes meet friends on a Sunday night in a place that has an old folks sing along, in the last two years 5 of them have ended up on walking sticks, all through falls.

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                              #15
                              A couple of years ago, there was knocking at our front door at 3am. Put on a pair of tracksuit bottoms to go and invesigate and as I got to the top of the stairs, my toe from one foot got wrapped in the bottom of the material on the other leg. I remember swaying and knowing that I couldn't save my balance, thinking that this was going to be serious. Went head over heel from top to bottom and was petrified I'd break my neck but was lucky to get away with minor bumps and bruises. When you hear what can happen, I was proper lucky.

                              Hope your MiL makes a ful recovery Rogin.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by treibeis View Post
                                Incidentally, as a result of this ribbing, I discovered my father can do a near-perfect impersonation of Dave Prowse.
                                'Treibeis, I am your father'?

                                Hope the mother in law recovers well, Rogin. She's a similar age to my parents, and I'm not going to be a lot of use if one of them has a fall.

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                                  #17
                                  I've started falling up stairs, just missing a step and pitching forward. I seem to be a whole lot more clumsy of late, forever catching my sleeves on door handles, hitting doors because I started to go through them before they're fully open, ramming my toes into chair legs and the like.

                                  Hope your mother gets back on her feet, Rogin.

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                                    #18
                                    Best wishes to your MiL Rogin.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Eggchaser View Post
                                      I've started falling up stairs, just missing a step and pitching forward. I seem to be a whole lot more clumsy of late, forever catching my sleeves on door handles, hitting doors because I started to go through them before they're fully open, ramming my toes into chair legs and the like.

                                      Hope your mother gets back on her feet, Rogin.
                                      (Serious question, Egg) How's your hearing?

                                      This is one of the subjects I have most been dreading. So far 'Im indoors is relatively unscathed, but we live one flight up, and it's going to happen when I'm not there. But if I dwell on it, I would never leave the house. So...

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                                        #20
                                        Oh, and sorry, of course best wishes etc Rogin. A punctured lung is a tiny bit more serious than a cracked rib.

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