falls in older people

Fennel, I think lawyers use those shopping buggies for court paperwork, so maybe you will just look venerable, busy and clever

A wee update for anyone interested in the online, free Aging Well:Falls course on Futurelearn.

www.futurelearn.com

They've told me there is no date yet for the next course, though there is usually one a year. They advise registering and putting the name of the course on your wish list in the profile, so then you will be among the first to know. I'll keep an eye on it as well.

Thanks Caladonail4 just signed up.

My H falls regularly, he is very doddery.
On August 30th he was referred to a Falls Team by our GP.
As I hadn't heard anything I rang this morning to be told there is a very long waiting time, so it is acommon problem.
He fell on Thurs, Fri and Saturday.
We have now been referred to a different agency , this may get him seen sooner.

NanKate you are very welcome.

Annsixty I do hope your DH gets an appointment with the Falls Clinic soon. There is so much they can do and it may be a very simple solution. Try to encourage him to use a stick/aid if he has one and to have appropriate lighting at all times. The only other pieces of advice I remember which might be easy to follow are to ask the GP to check his long-standing medication and to encourage him (your DH, not your doctor) to sit down when he goes to the toilet for a wee, especially at night. Apparently many men are reluctant to do this, but it prevents a lot of falls.

Sending you a hug.

Grannyknot & others, I so agree with you. There is a certain age when you stop falling over and start having falls as if you were some passive object like a Joey that rolls over at the slightest push.

An 80 year old friend courteously stepped back on a pavement to let a mother and push chair get by, didn't realise how high the kerb was, misplaced his foot, fell over and broke his ankle. He got really p****d of having doctors keep referring to his accident in a passive sense and advising attending a fall prevention seminar. As he said, he could have had his accident at any age, his age was irrelevant to the accident.

Of course for disabled people (of any age) who are prone to fall easily, especially in the home, then there are strategies they can implement to reduce the risk. But most of them are common sense anyway.

We live in an old farmhouse with narrow steep twisty staircases and we have inflexible rules about not going up or down them bare foot or in socks/tights, all slippers and house shoes have rigid rubber soles, no slipper socks, or felt soled slippers. The only person to slip on them, in 22 years, was DGD, quite recently, when she tried to come down them in socks. Fortunately ground floor ceilings are low so the stairs are shorter than most and because they twist, it is very difficult to fall all the way down, she slipped three steps and then bumped into a wall.

I also invariably hold the bannister coming down any stairs and that applies to DGC if I am in charge - and I started to do that decades ago as the result of a safety talk at work. Nothing to do with age.

I first fell down stairs when I was about 19; they were an old flight of wooden stairs in an Elizabethan house and very hard indeed.
The bruises were spectacular.

I know falling is not funny at all, but we have stairs like MOnica's and have had to take the same precautions. I cringe when the DGC come skipping down in stocking soles. Some years back I lost footing at the bend in the stairs and did a kind of luge thing to the bottom, badly bruising my own bottom in the process. In the first few minutes I stayed absolutely stock still in plank formation, assessing bit by bit what hurt and whether I could chance moving. DH and my lovely dog appeared and the dog put her paws on my chest and began to lick my face. Through clenched teeth I mumbled "Get the flaming (or something to that effect) dog off my chest." DH obliged and then stated - with what sounded suspiciously more like amusement than sympathy - "Oh good. Ye're nae deid then!"

Not funny at the time but the re-telling is funny

I think I was probably wearing very high heels when I came bumping down the wooden stairs

(both.)
I managed to login to futurelearn but the course on falls isn't on offer at the moment.

Bob Dylan joins the club:
www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1913292/Video-Bob-Dylan-trips-speaker-Vienna-gig-rant.html
He's 77.

I have always had a habit of going base over apex. I am mildly dyspraxic and have a weak right ankle.

MY most recent fall was in January, I was walking briskly down a steep hill in Marseille with my sister. My ankle gave and because of the slope and speed, I went flat on my face. I lay there for a few seconds, then I got up and we walked on with me slightly shaken. I definitely fell over. I did not have a fall.

I fell flat on my face a few months ago and ended up with two black eyes. The fall didn't cause pain at the time or later.

I tripped over an uneven paving stone but I don't think it was my age that caused me to fall - it was the uneven paving stone and I feel that a child or 20 year old could have fallen in the same way.

Last winter I fell on the lawn whilst trying to put compost round my trees.

The lawn was like a lake due to days of torrential rain and I had to crawl on hands and knees right across the muddy morass to the fence to pull myself up - laughing all the way.
What a site I must have looked but fortunately none of my neighbours saw me.

maybe even a sight {grin]

I have to be extra careful wherever I go now as I can't see what's at or near my feet and use my stick to tap forward and feel for kerbs etc.

I'm 64 and sometimes wonder what the future holds, having had a few falls over the years - icy pavements, wet leaves, uneven surfaces.
The most spectacular was almost a year ago to the day. Going upstairs, I changed direction to fetch something, took my hand off the banisters and managed to pitch myself downstairs, planting my face on the hall floor.
Seven hours in A&E - dislocated finger, broken wrist and nose, front tooth knocked out with two others fractured. I was in plaster overnight, then strapped up. Three cheers for the NHS.
My advice is to take extra care on stairs. These accidents don't just happen to other people. I approach all stairs more carefully now. Never let go of the banister. And don't change direction - it was literally my downfall.

Two years ago I had two falls while out, no particular reason, not wet pavement, no tripping up etc. Being me I started worrying why it was happening, but I changed my shoes and it didn't happen again. So from then on it has been sturdy shoes with straps for me!

I find myself reaching for (funky) trainers more and more if I know I am going to be walking more than the shortest distances such as car to the door. I have heels-none very high, all very comfortable, but my confidence has just gone.
Fortunately there are some great trainers out there!

I fell and broke my wrist very badly a few years ago. It got me and friends talking about the language we use ...
From ‘fell over’, to ‘had a fall’ to (ugh!) ‘had one of her falls’ as we get older and wobblier!

The video seems to have been removed from the report of Dylan's 'trip'.
It's a pity because you could see how he tried to regain his balance by moving his right arm, which helps to understand how our sense of balance gets worse in old age.
One of the reasons for falling.

“Our sense of balance gets worse” - you can say that again (so to speak), Fennel!

I used to do ballet, for heaven’s sake, and I could keep my balance standing in swaying, bumpy buses when everyone around me was on the verge of falling. It’s all gone. I did pretty much get over the fall I reported here in October, and can now walk with a small folding walker, and look after myself. I didn’t move back to my big old house, though. My son found me a nice flat that needs little maintenance and has help available if needed.

Even so, three weeks ago I managed to fall flat on my face in the bathroom. I think I was very lucky. No broken bones, no broken teeth, wasn’t wearing my glasses so didn’t break those, no permanent damage. Just two very spectacular black eyes (almost better), a bruised forehead and bruised jaw. I didn’t go to A&E because I hadn’t lost consciousness, and didn’t fancy sitting around for hours in the middle of the night. I got away with it.

I was bemused to see,after a night in hospital,that my discharge note said "risk of falling"("confirmed").I asked my GP about it but he couldn't shed any light. He said it was just one of the things they write along with "moderate frailty".I have had several falls but nothing that has needed medical aid so there is nothing in my notes.I told him that my risk of falling was directly due to the uneven pavements in the local town

I had a frightning and shocking near miss a few weeks ago , got up one morning and going downstairs, one cat darted right in front of me and I missed my footing and went forward head first, knowing that he does this (in fact they all do, but he is particularly bad) I had the forethought to hold onto the bannister, I wrenchd my arm and shoulder but I dread to think what would have happened had I not been holding on

As I see it , the main risk of falling at our age (apart from lacking confidence), is broken bones.
Especially hips.
I wonder if it would help to take calcium supplements, to keep up bone strength? Does anyone do this?

I recently completed the FREE course run by Future Learn called something like Ageing well- Avoiding Falls. It's bound to be run again and I felt was useful.

To sum up its advice was Keep Moving, only use walking aids especially for you not what others have lent you, leave nothing on the stairs that you could trip over, always hold the handrail. Wear good fitting slippers. Make sure rugs are in places you can't trip over them. Avoid tripping over animals. Don't climb steps to get things out of cupboards.

It said it you took 4 or more tablets a day you are more likely to fall. Well I have been prescribed about 6 different tablets a day so I can't do anything about that.

If you go to the loo in the night sit on the side of bed for a moment so that you don't keel over for getting up too quickly. Make sure you have low lighting to see you way to the loo.

The course showed how to get up when you fall over.

Hope that helps.