APRES LE DELUGE
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Did you know that one in four older adults fall each year? Not on staircases or in dimly-lit bathrooms at 3 AM either. More than 80% of falls for people 65 and over occur DURING THE DAY and on FLAT SURFACES. Falls are also the leading cause — ahead of cancer et al — of injury and death for senior citizens.
You readers know that I like to keep things positive and happy here on Wandering. Next week I’ll get back to important topics like Mr. Wonderful’s latest golf swing. (Lots to tell! He’s now on his third NEW set of clubs since our Florida arrival in early January. Is it helping his game? All to be revealed!)
But since the cement sidewalk rose up and slapped me in the face with a full-force head-on last week, I’ve done a little research and am realizing how lucky I was, and am.
ONE IN FIVE FALLS CAUSES BROKEN BONES
AND/OR HEAD INJURIES. MORE THAN 3 MILLION
OLDER ADULTS ARE TREATED IN THE EMERGENCY
ROOM EACH YEAR DUE TO A FALL. (CDC statistics)
Okay, I’m wearing metal braces to stabilize upper teeth that got knocked out of their sockets, and I’ll be sporting these tinsel teeth for a while. Plus, my swollen lips guarantee total Kardashian approval. But otherwise, no pain, bruises and abrasions gone, life is returning to normal.
An unexpected side-effect for me, however, has been a touch of PTSD. I’m absolutely panicked I’m going to fall again. Mr. W. decided the best cure for that was for us to use canes. Off he went to Walmart on a Saturday afternoon and returned instead with two sets of nifty walking sticks. They’re called “trekking poles” but, believe me, we don’t trek.
We take daily strolls around the ‘hood, careening happily along under a canopy of live oaks, flailing our poles and looking like we’re in serious training for an Olympic 30K race. I do feel steadier and less vulnerable, and won’t leave home without them.
An unexpected gift this past week has been reading the wonderful blog comments and private emails you sent encouraging a quick recovery. Many mentioned a fall they’d had — tripping over those cement barriers in super market parking lots and fracturing a femur or tibia, falling on a slick tile floor in Florida and breaking a hip, cascading down the staircase and receiving a concussion, stumbling over the dog or cat and breaking an elbow.
Friend Sandi in Kport wrote, “I took a bad fall on ice a week ago and ended up in ER in Portland. I was the 60th person to fall and there was no room at Southern Maine Med. I am lucky, nothing broken, but a real bump on my head, and I’m planning on wearing crampons until May.”
My pal Pat in Jacksonville wrote, “Jack had a terrible fall last Wednesday on the road during a walk. Landscaping crew found him on the ground and came to get me. Six hours in the ER, two brain scans and lots of glue to put his right arm back together. His face is just plain purple.”
It’s like an epidemic. Please: be careful out there in the naked city.
And for the record, last night, nine days after “my deluge,” I enjoyed my first meal without using a straw!
