Tuesday, March 23, 2021

When it comes to maintaining mobility, seniors must move it or lose it

Fridge door handle replaced. My very mild OCD is triggered.
They don't match!


Anyone of any age can fall and be unhurt, sustain a minor injury or even a serious one. We can’t predict outcomes. What we can do, as we age, is ensure that we keep our body as ‘fine tuned’ as possible, especially if we live with any sort of pre-existing condition or comorbidity. ‘Aging in place’ in the golden years can be a challenge for so many, especially those with limited resources to modify living spaces to accommodate changes to movement and mobility.


When I fell 3 times in a single day, something that has never happened in my entire life, I attribute the entire course of events and my responses to them to the absence of a  ‘touch spot’ in my kitchen; something I’ve relied upon in the thirty years I’ve lived in my home — a fridge door handle. We don’t realize how important something is until it’s gone. For me, that  fridge door handle was a transition point as I made my way around the hub of my home, touching counters as I moved along, often carrying a pot or a bowl in my other hand. I cannot carry things using both hands; never could. As a consequence, I have a very strong forearm and grip strength. We don’t often think about how important our hands are until one of them is unavailable. For me and others with mobility challenges who do walk, hands are our connection to our spaces, to  touch surfaces so we can safely move about, to live independent lives, or to function as an equal partner in a marriage or other relationship, contributing our fair share to chores. Two hands  contribute to our effective parenting, but they don’t define the success or failure of our parenting role.


Getting a handle on the fridge after the triple falls was absolutely critical. My attachment to fridge door handles began in childhood, when I was small and going through rehab at the polio clinic attached to the old Victoria Public Hospital and then as the first child patient at the Forest Hill Center for Rehabilitation. Early on, I was taught how to fall, with activities that were initially started by my father when I was a toddler. He’d stand me in front of him and push on my shoulder; front, back, left shoulder, right shoulder. The goal was for me not to topple over.  The balance testing went on for several years. If I was going down and there was no saving myself, I was conditioned to go limp, like a rag doll. It’s the twisting in effort to save oneself that a fracture often occurs. Dad  told me that bone is often broken before one hits the solid surface of floor or ground.


At 66 years of age, I still have remnants of the ‘startle reflex’ of babies, common in  those with cerebral palsy. I’m able to control it as I’ve developed the ability to filter many sounds that would normally trigger a startle. causing me to lose balance or fall. 


As example, turning the phone ringer off contributes to my upright mobility. As well, I have a ‘touch spot’ grab bar in the shower, and on either side of the therapy tub enclosure that occupies a space formerly used as a closet in my bedroom. My basement stairs have a railing on one side, with a medical grade grab bar mounted on the wall above; another bar is mounted on the opposite wall above the open space where there is no railing, positioned further along, to allow me to descend the last few steps to the den floor with that physical support. Safety always!


Stair climbing has always been a challenge,  moreso as I get older; thus, the reason for the weekly physiotherapist visits. I have very good range of motion in my legs, all things considered, attributing this to my decades-long practice of adhering to healthy eating, focusing on nutrition that contributes to maintenance of bone density. Also, purposeful stretches throughout the day allow me to continue to do things so many do with ease. I know my limitations and don’t tempt fate by going beyond my body’s range. The ‘fridge thing’ was a total fluke. I’m not a faller.


My message to seniors, whether home alone or living with others:  move/use it or lose it. Physiotherapists are like Santa. They know when you’ve been naughty or nice.


Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell


Tuesday, March 9, 2021

After three falls in one day, a lucky escape from injury



A 'touch spot' handle fell off the fridge causing 3 potentially serious falls in one day.
For those with mobility challenges, vigilance to at-home safety is critical


Several days ago, I fell, and I fell, and I fell again! Any one of those falls could have thrown me into major medical crisis; three falls in a single day is a record and one I hope not to repeat. Ever!


The last time I fell, sustaining an injury, a very serious injury, was in 1985. In a darkened hallway in my Charlotte Street apartment, I tripped over my black cat, who was lounging in the doorway to my bedroom. Down I went, part way into the room, just inches away from the edge of an antique spool bed. I was unconscious only briefly and upon coming around, recognized my predicament immediately. I was later found to have sustained a dislocation of my left/dominant elbow. Rescued by a neighbour, I was in the DECH overnight before being ensconced in the then Northern Carleton Hospital in Bath where my Dad did his doctoring thing. 


For safety and recovery, I stayed for a month. Without a sound elbow, I could neither use crutches or propel the hospital issue wheelchair. My mother was also a patient at the time and Dad was enjoying this turn of events, asking her if she wanted a roomie. Yeah, right! While trapped in the ‘germ factory’, as I called hospitals, I got pneumonia and required antibiotics. The great escape couldn’t come fast enough.

It took almost a year of weekly range of motion therapy to get full elbow function back. From that point to this, when I sustained the triple falls, I had taken a few tumbles, but was never hurt. Jarred and shaken but nothing broken or even bruised. You might be wondering how I managed to land on the floor 3 times in one day.


My home is well organized, with ‘touch spots’ available for hands to land as I move about. One such touch spot was the fridge door handle. Some time ago, the top part of the handle developed a hairline crack, which had spread. Then, it finally happened. On the day of my great falls, the first was when I touched the handle for balance and it spun forward and was no longer attached to the door. I fell, hands outstretched, head thrust back to avoid a floor strike. Both knees hit the floor - hard! I crawled to the dining room table and hoisted myself up and carried on with my walk back to the TV room to my desk; too shaky to make my coffee.. I was not hurt.  Hours later, I returned to the kitchen to make the coffee. I forgot that the handle was no longer securely attached, and when my hand automatically reached for the decades long used touch spot, I fell — again! That time, I fell to the right, wrenching my neck and right shoulder and doing a number on my full spine. Ouch! Again, I hoisted myself up. Nothing broken. No bruises forming. Mr. Malcolm, service dog in training, stayed out of the way. Good boy! I carried on with making the coffee, focusing my gaze on the handle on the freezer. That would be my touch spot. I kept looking at it until my brain set the pattern of movement. Success! 


Alas, I was a bit premature. On a third trek to the kitchen, I had the most serious of the 3 falls the day. Reaching out for the now gone fridge door handle, I landed to the left, again slamming both knees on the floor. The elbow I had dislocated decades earlier took a solid strike. Pain shot through my arm, so I was a bit slower getting up, but I did it. Over the course of the day I experienced only slight pain in the chest; muscle strain. Nothing serious.


It’s important for old gals such as I to ensure that oft-used spaces in the home are safe and free of obstacles that may cause a fall. Falls with subsequent hospitalization due to fracture is common after the age of 60, though those of us with  ongoing challenges to mobility have to be extra vigilant far earlier on. It’s said that falling once doubles the chances of falling again. Be careful out there.


Vertically mounted decorative towel bars on inside and outside walls of bathroom, bedroom or other room that are often frequented offers another layer of security. If challenges to mobility are more pronounced, medical-grade grab bars would be indicated.


Within the next few days, via an Amazon delivery, I hope to get a handle on things so that a consistent pattern of upright mobility will rule my days going forward. So far, brain training to redirect my eye and hand has been working. I know that I cannot afford another fall as it may not end well.



Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell