By: Cia Huston Dreves
This time of year, we naturally associate “fall” with the season, with cooler air and warmer colors. But that’s not the direction of this message at all. I’d like to walk us through a rather serious topic: falling.
As tiny humans, falling is a natural part of learning to stand and to walk. Our little minds don’t give it a thought at all. We are down as often as we are up until, almost miraculously, one day we find ourselves up and expect that will be the norm for the remainder of our lives. Of course, there are those great life-expanding experiments—like skating and skiing and riding a bike—that occasionally threaten the status quo, but they are part of the “great adventure.” Those are the occasions that plunge us into our teenage years with a sense of fearlessness on one hand and a subconscious gratitude for the older person who kissed our boo-boos along the way on the other.
Of course, not every toddler is organically imbued with a sense of invincibility. In some, curiosity gives way to caution. I suppose an overly anxious and protective parent might contribute to timidity, but the majority of us bumble headlong through life with little thought to the subject of falling.
A great many years ago, I took a tumble from a two-story roof which landed me in a wheel chair for many months and gave me a renewed appreciation for caution. The experience actually caused me to be a bit fearful of climbing ladders for quite some time. Having developed a relatively bold and plucky personality through the course of my years, I not only found fear to be somewhat unfamiliar but alien and extremely uncomfortable.
Fear is something we either face or we don’t; we either conquer it, or it conquers us. I won’t bore you with a recounting of my lengthy struggle to overcome my personal fear of falling. It is sufficient to note that, in time, fear gave way to caution and caution to practicality.
Now, as I reach a time in my life when words like frail and brittle worm their way into medical conversations, I find that long-subdued fear of falling threatening to surface. More often than I would ever have imagined, I’m hearing of someone with a broken hip. Just a week ago a friend, not much my elder, reported with a sense of alarm approaching terror that he had fallen out of bed and tried unsuccessfully for two hours to lift himself from the floor. In time, he managed to reach his phone and call for help. This is horrifying!
The National Council on Aging reports, “One in four Americans aged 65+ falls each year. Every eleven seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every nineteen minutes, an older adult dies from a fall. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of not fatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults.”
I don’t know why the elders in my life never spoke of this. Actually, I don’t remember anyone addressing the issue of aging at all. Good grief, this is serious. Retirement should have come with a warning label. Perhaps, to some extent, it did. I do remember mammograms coming on the scene at a certain age, soon to be followed by bone density scans. I do remember when I first began to hold reading material at a distance to better focus my aging vision, and I’m sure there must have been a date when generalized aches and pains escaped my notice and became an accepted part of my existence. Unfortunately, we tend to view these things as “just a part of getting older.” Perhaps they are, but perhaps we would be better served if we viewed them as flashing lights above a huge “DANGER” sign that additionally notes “DETOUR.”
Is there another route that we can take? Can we prevent a fall or a fall injury? Can we, in some way, be prepared enough to minimize the danger or the damage? Or as my mother would have said, “If I must fall, may I, at least, do it gracefully?”
Well, certainly, maintaining our health, strength and balance as we age is critically important but circumstances can overtake even the best of us. Consequently, it is most often prudent to be prepared for all eventualities.
Here are some of the things I have researched and some that I have put into practice:
MEDICALLY – Regular bone density scans, medicines to help prevent bone loss or Hormone Replacement Therapy (if breast cancer is not a likely issue). Maintain optimal levels of Vitamin-D, Calcium, and Magnesium. Increase protein in diet. Have ears and neck examined annually as a part of maintaining equilibrium. Take issues of dizziness seriously. Report changes in vision.
PERSONALLY – Maintain muscle mass and strength by using them, particularly leg muscles. Improve balance through any number of exercise programs like Tai Chi or Tai Cheng or simply practice standing first on one leg then on the other. Wear an alert button device or keep a cell phone on hand at all times. There are pockets and pouches for carrying cell phone hands-free.
ENVIRONMENTALLY – Remove/resolve all trip hazards, from clutter or a pocketbook commonly kept on the floor to throw rugs to broken concrete sidewalks. Secure the corners of area rugs with removable adhesive.
Kitchen: Rearrange contents of upper cabinets to have easy access to most-used items and eliminate need for a step stool. If a step stool is required, be certain it has non-slip feet and a handle.
Bathroom: Convert bathroom floor to a non-slip surface. If tile replacement is prohibitive, an easily applied product called “Liquid Traction” might provide the solution. Resign yourself to a seat in the shower. Have grab bars installed to assist in getting out of the tub or shower as well as for toilet assistance. Always take a phone or alert button device to the bathroom with you.
Bedroom: Make the bed lower to the floor by having the legs cut shorter. Have a carpet with padding beside the bed. Have a footstool or ottoman near the side of the bed to help with getting off the floor should there be a fall. Keep a phone beside the bed.
I don’t know about you, but for me the season of fall is always tinged with a bit of melancholy. As cool breezes brush my cheeks and crisp fallen leaves crunch under foot and cinnamon smells stir in the fresh Autumn air, memories of childhood, parenthood, and life in general seem to wander into my consciousness and out again. There is a bit of wistfulness, a lovely anticipation and a somewhat sad sense of loss. This year I have realized more than any other that the seasons are not just markers in time, but they are ticking off the years. They are ticking off my years. And, at one point, as my friend spoke of falling out of bed, I felt my own long-ago fear of falling threaten to return. But, now as then, fear resolved itself into caution and caution into practicality… which is what I have shared with you here.
The information is not just for me or for you, but to be acted on with family and friends and neighbors. Perhaps you can secure someone’s area rug or see that a sidewalk crack is repaired. Perhaps, as winter ices the landscape, you will be the one who salts or sands some elderly person’s porch steps. Perhaps, next year, fall will only be a season, and perhaps we will all greet it gracefully.
Cia Huston Dreves enjoyed a 37 year career in Advertising as artist and writer before retiring. She has also written, directed and produced documentaries, published the How-To book “Find Cash in Your Kitchen” and maintains the blog, “StillFindingCash.blogspot.com