Let’s double down on our fall prevention….but first a confession…
It’s confession time. If you are walking along with me and you take a tumble and fall, the split second that I find out that you’re okay and not hurt, I’m going to be in stitches on the ground laughing. I make no excuses because I think it is a genetic property in which I cannot help. Now, if you’re hurt, it’s not that way at all. Nothing funny about that. But if you’re OK, I’m sorry. the way your rear end went over the top of your head and your knees ended up in the middle of your backside. That was funny. Ask my wife. Ask my kids. I’ve always been that way. Watching good fall videos on YouTube is a great past time. But no, I do not want anyone to get hurt. That is not good…at all. So, maybe it’s time for a Fall Prevention plan.
I could have used a fall prevention plan recently. So, I’m trying on a pair of pants in a local clothing store. It was the typical small room with a couple of pegs to hang clothes on and a mirror. Minding my own business, I put one leg in the pair of pants and all of the sudden the other leg said: “Nope, Houston, we’re not going in.”
Well, you may have experienced the ensuing hop and dance with one leg safely in a pair of pants and the other one hung up at the top of the pants refusing to go in. This presents a problem with Mean Ole Mr. Gravity. So, Mr. Gravity was only temporarily willing to tolerate my hopping and jumping and my attempts to stay upright. However, eventually, he had his way with me. I went down hard to the floor landing on my baby boomer buttocks with a demonstrative thud.
Well, I was ok, but I found myself laughing out loud so hard, but hoping no one was violating my privacy by any audio or video recording of this thundering event.
Fast forward to a few months ago where we had two staff members at our church fall. One fell down the stairs and…. one fell up the stairs in our office area. Yeah, remember you can fall up stairs also! We will let some physics majors talk about how Mr. Gravity accomplishes that. But, other than some bruises neither person was badly hurt. After the appropriate amount of healing time, the jokes and laughter started ….and I was the worst one.
More Falls
Fast forward another few days to the ungodly hour of 2:30 am. My wife is out of town and her dog starts barking, needing to go outside. I’m asleep, or I was! Not having the presence of mind to simply flip on the front porch light switch I proceeded to carry this elderly, pocket-size poodle down the brick steps…stepping on each one….well, most of them, that is. But, yep, somehow there was an extra step at the bottom that had not been there for the last 20 years and I took an amazingly inglorious tumble onto the cement walkway, managing somehow to pitch the 119-year-old pooch (in dog years) into the soft sod in the front yard.
I didn’t laugh. No amusement there. This one hurt. Along with a strawberry on my knee the size of Rhode Island, the likes of which I haven’t seen since 3rd-grade recess, the next day my entire body was aching. Just not funny. Time for some fall prevention??
The National Council on Aging says that one in three older adults fall in the U.S. every year. Ok, a couple of bruises or a skinned knee is one thing, but many are breaking arms, legs, hips, and having all kinds of other injuries as a result of Mr. Gravity’s sneak attacks.
So, are we going to take this falling down? NO WAY! There are mindset changes and proactive fall prevention steps that you can take to keep from being the next Mr. Tumbler. First of all, let’s use our eyes to watch for what sometimes can be a harsh or fatal half inch. See the video below.
According to our friends down under at HealthDirect.gov in Australia lists several preventable causes of falls:
- wet or recently polished floors, such as in a bathroom
- dim light
- rugs or carpets that are not properly secured
- reaching for storage areas, such as cupboards
- stairs
Another one that shows up high on the list is men that might quite possibly shouldn’t be up high on a ladder any more insisting on doing the job himself. (That’s why I married a much younger wife…).
Smokey says we can prevent forest fires, and the same goes for a lot of falls. We can intentionally be proactive about fall prevention. Some falls are inevitable, but the evidence suggests something helpful. If we become more mindful of this topic and be aware that there is literally a fall prevention mindset that we should keep on our front burner, we might be able to save several rides to the emergency room as we grow older.
- Be aware of your surroundings.
- watch the surfaces on which you are walking.
- Be aware of wet surfaces.
- Hold any available handrails on stairs
- Keep your mind stay in the “fall prevention” mode.
So, yeah some of us are going to take some spills, but with these few cautions, we may be able to lessen or altogether avoid those life-changing ones.
But, don’t fall in front of me. If you do, at least act like you are hurt, and I will be nice.