Six Falls in Six Years

Ouch, that knee hurts

Fear of falling is a vexing problem for women my age. Like many people who fall, even if they're not injured, I have become afraid of falling. This fear causes me to cut down on my everyday activities, ironically making me weaker and increasing my chances of falling.

According to Harvard Women's Health Watch, women are at a big disadvantage when it comes to falling, especially indoors. We're 50% more likely than men to show up at an emergency room due to a fall, according to a large 2021 study in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. This disparity doesn't surprise Dr. Suzanne Salamon, clinical chief of gerontology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Regardless of sex, balance tends to become more difficult with age due to factors such as greater medication use, mounting vision and inner-ear problems, weaker muscles, and health conditions that can lead to numbness in the feet, such as diabetic neuropathy.

Women are especially vulnerable. Our bones are weaker due to bone-thinning osteoporosis. Our muscle mass is lower. This relative lack of strength can make it harder to avoid falling if we get off-balance. The loss of estrogen due to menopause makes our bones and muscles more fragile. Women take more antidepressants, twice as many as men, and the side effects can make women dizzy and less alert. Women also tend to be multi-taskers, making them more likely to stumble when they try to do too many things at once. I plead guilty to that one.

Even moving to a condo in an elevator building has not protected me from falling. There are broken or uneven steps and sidewalks everywhere. Other people’s homes and businesses lack handrails and other safety features. Recently, I went to a meeting with women my age in which the hostess had a huge first step into her home with no railing. Many women used canes or walkers and could not safely navigating getting into her house. People had to exit through the garage because they couldn’t make it down that step.

In the past six years, I’ve fallen six times. Of course, these could probably have been avoided if I focused more carefully on my environment, took my time, and was open to receiving help when I needed it.

The “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” one ­– was due to illness and stubbornness about accepting help. I was sick, running a fever, and went to an ER not closest to my home because it wasn’t crowded. The wait was very long because they were understaffed. After being hydrated and doing several tests, they wanted to hospitalize me. I declined because I wanted to be hospitalized near my home, and an attendant had to help me get into our car. Once home, I slumped to the floor and could not get up. We called the paramedics who lifted me into a chair and, after I refused transport to the hospital, said they would probably have to return for me. And they did. That led to a hospitalization and many tests until they found the cause was pseudo-gout in my knee, leading to sepsis, and sent me home with a walker after treatment.

The grandchild fall, not my fault, was caused by an overly enthusiastic hug that pushed me to the floor. Everyone rushed to pull me up, but I knew better from the PT in the hospital and the one I was working with at the time. Hands and knees, crawl to a piece of furniture, and pull myself up. Not very dignified but safe.

The fall when walking on uneven pavement – this one was definitely due to a lack of focus. I usually keep a close eye on the ever-changing sidewalk surfaces on Grove Street but I was also thinking about something and the next thing I knew, I was down. Once again, a rather undignified crawl to the wall of the viaduct and then pulled myself upright. My puffy coat likely saved me from a more painful injury.

The teapot fall – This one happened in my kitchen on a Friday, June 13. Given the date, I should have been more careful. It was quite dramatic and frightening as the glass teapot I was taking to the sink to wash slipped out of my hand and shattered, covering me and the kitchen in shards of glass. I fell trying to prevent the inevitable disaster. I only had a few minor cuts. After rinsing myself off in the shower to be sure there was no glass in my hair or on my body, a couple of Band-Aids were all I needed. The knot on the back of my head that hit the cabinet when I went down on my bottom was gone the next day, but a variety of bruises decorated my arm and my knee, and my recently-fixed right shoulder was painful again. Still, pretty lucky considering what could have happened.

The funeral fall – I started a gentle yoga class right after the shattered teapot incident to help me with my balance. I also scheduled a series of PT sessions. After assessing me, the PT recommended I try a walking stick, which was pretty helpful, and gave me pages of at-home exercises. But this time, the culprit was my emotional state while rushing out the door, worried we would be late to my friend’s funeral. I had the stick but also a heavy winter coat, my purse, and some other random things. I was definitely not thinking about what I was doing and tripped into the hall, falling on my knee and banging my shoulder into the wall. I guess the PT exercises helped because I was able to get up relativity quickly, but I ended up needing wound care for my knee that refused to heal.

The second funeral fall — I was in Detroit for my brother’s funeral. After a 5+ hour drive, we decided to take my sister-in-law out to dinner. I left my cane at home because I didn’t think I would need it. Rather than slowing down to look for the safest way to get to the car, I decided to step over a curb to enter the parking lot, and down I went. A heavy coat probably minimized the damage, but I was really sore and shaken, adding to my misery over the death of my brother.

I know. I need to slow down and focus. Hurrying to do things when I’m tired, as in the teapot fiasco, or upset as in the funeral falls, is definitely a bad idea. In my younger days, I was a great multi-tasker. At my age, I need to pay attention to one task at a time. So, go slow, focus only at the task at hand, be extra vigilant when I am upset, and limit day dreaming to when I am sitting at my computer writing.