Is Fall Ubiquitous!!! Yes It Is!!!! Don't Fall, But if you still FALL.......

Is Fall UBIQUITOUS

Yes it is

I can fall

You can fall

We can all fall

Anywhere, Anyhow, Anytime

How to prevent fall?

When I was young, I have heard every elder telling me, look down and walk, don’t fall.

തറയിൽ നോക്കി നടക്കൂ, മറിഞ്ഞു വീഴല്ലേ

I truly believed cast in stone, only toddlers and little kids can fall.

Then when I started growing up, me and my friends, we started falling on the field while playing, in the school slipping on the wet steps, in the class rooms while chasing each other.

Then again I believed that’s part of growing up and once I am older and when I get a job the fall will definitely stop. It cannot continue when I am more matured, more stable, stronger…

But then I started falling now at the age of 58, right from the steps, in the bathroom, just outside in the yard on green grass walking out, I went sliding down and somehow balanced, but the jerk has shaken a few of my vertebrae for sure. I believe I still have some left to be strong and keep writing hahaha!!!

Then every time I step inside the room from outside, I get a jerk so bad, it’s a sudden impact which shakes my lower hip, I blame my rubber sandals/chappal which would have caught some moisture from outside, .

Let me tell you when you fall, you are totally out of control.

അടി തെറ്റിയാൽ ആനയും വീഴും

There is nothing one can do when you fall, but there is a lot we can all do to prevent a fall and avoid a fall.

Still if we are destined to fall !!!! its beyond control

Let me put down certain things I do and I practice after my falls!! Mostly my own experience and some are researched by experts.

• I keep moving around all the time, I stay active, I keep working so I don’t let the fear of fall affect my lifestyle
• I am extremely careful when I climb steps: when I am wearing, flowing clothes like housecoats, kaftans, nighties, long pants even saree. I have tripped a thousand times on my own dress.
• In winter we have to use snuggly warm slippers in the house and if that is lose, especially when we don’t strap it properly and run up or down the steps, it’s inviting trouble and a free fall.
• I have this habit of being extremely thrifty and walking in the dark, its fine if I am alone I know the position of every single object in my house, however if there is any visitor and if they have moved anything I am inviting a free fall
• Brooms, dustpans, waste bucket, mop, Plastic, SHOES near the door are the biggest threat to anyone – asking for a free fall!!!!!
• If you have fallen then it’s important to know how to get up on your own, especially when you are all alone. if you take help you still need to know pretty well how someone should help you.

How to lower the risk?

• At my age, we have to take regular eye and ear tests, that’s vision and hearing.
• Physical examination to check mobility, balance, strength, senses. I will ever forget the advice given by late Dr. Ninan Kuruvilla, brilliant Doctor, Top Ranker from Vellore resting by the side of my parents at Kollam, passed away the same day as my Appa. Never jump up from bed, go to your side sit up slowly, wait and then get up slowly and walk. If you want to depict “to spring up from bed” that’s what I do all the time, and most of the time I am fine, but when I am tired, sleepless and unhealthy, it’s the most dangerous way to start the day..
• Watch out how you get up from bed
• I used to have vertigo and that was pretty dangerous, another issue was low BP, so low which makes me get black outs, and keep falling out of the blue.
• Check on transferring, how you move from one place to the other, moving from a bed to a chair or on or off a chair.
• This particular one I am too bad!! Hence I have taken expert advice: Be sure of good nutrition: Healthy body and healthy bones.. Please , Please check this with your doctor
• Medication: your right medication at the right time: Please, Please check this with your doctor : Heart Disease, Diabetes, Leg and Foot Disorders, Osteoporosis, Lung Disease, Bladder Conditions, Neurological and Psychological Conditions, Pregnancy, Gait and Balance Problems etc.
• Avoid Alcohol, this is an advice from an expert. My falls have nothing to do with alcohol as I don’t consume alcohol ever.
• Remembering the walking stick of our grandfathers, never seen one with grandmothers.. generally. If we really need to, its advisable to use a good one.
• Exercise, this is the magic word, walk, walk, walk if we don’t walk we will forget to walk and how to coordinate ourselves while walking and that will be another cause for frequent falls. If you don’t walk it’s easy to trip and fall all the time, do water exercise as much as you can, Yoga, Pilates, Tai-Chi, Muscle Strengthening exercise, Progressive balance-retaining exercises are all good for us.
• I have not done this but I have been asked to improve my sense of balance by standing on one leg. I am going to try that with enough support near me to hold in case I lose balance…. I have been asked to hold a chair and do this. ( my plight is I have been balancing my life all the time standing on one leg Ha Ha!!)

Progressive interiors could be a terminology we can use in our homes as we grow older.

Do a safety check in your homes:

• Keep charger chords, electrical wires out of the way
• Keep your furniture in place, so you can walk around freely in your room
• If you have raised doorways in your homes, especially ancestral homes, please lower them
• Remove lose carpets which gets folded and pleated which can make you trip, make sure you put them even all the time especially after cleaning the room
• Make sure your couches and chairs are truly not making you couch potatoes where you need a JCB to lift you back from the seat
• Use zero watt lights/night lights in the rooms, corridors and bathrooms
• Keep a torch in every room or make sure you know how to use the torch in your phone and they are charged
• Do not try and change bulb on your own once you are my age, make sure there is someone to assist to hold the stool etc. etc. ( I do this but with enough protection )
• Don’t rush to phones when you hear it ring, pause for a moment before you crash on something, look down for any obstruction on the ground, switch on the light if you are in the dark.
• Keep the cupboard doors closed all the time, if you open close it before you leave.
• Do not leave toys and shoes and bags and books on the floor unnoticed.
• Newspaper and banana skin are dangerous to make you slip

For a lot of us who are in the kitchen

• Try to keep things at reachable height
• Do not climb on a chair in the kitchen, that’s invitation to fall, use proper safe step stools
• Make sure the floor is non-skid and not waxed or polished
• If you spill – wipe it, if you drop anything pick it up immediately, especially rice flour etc. a sure free fall aid

In the bathroom

• Use nonskid mats
• Use proper shower chair if you need to sit and bathe

Steps, where I have had most of my falls

• Keep stairway free of any clutter; keep the lights ON while using the stair
• Move slowly and carefully
• Use handrails all the time, keep one hand for the handrail and hold while you are on the step
• Use safety strips or bright colored tape to make the steps visible
• Broken and loose steps should be repaired then and there
• Can use gates to block steps for the safety of kids
• Never use the phone for text, or to read messages or to talk while on the step. My first fall was reading a text and here I came down a flight of 14 steps a freeeeee fall!!! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall !!!

Outdoors

• Make sure you don’t step on black ice where there is snow
• Make sure your garden and walkways are even, and watch out for the pathways and roads for uneven surface, if you walk without looking down you are sure to end up in a gutter or kiss the ground!!
• Watch out for objects outside that can make you trip and fall

Now if you really fall which I don’t want you to, but in case you fall

DO NOT TRY TO GET UP YOURSELF

IF YOU ARE NOT SURE YOU CAN GET UP YOURSELF OR YOU ARE IN LOT OF PAIN

If you find someone fallen, and not hurt you can help them to get up, if hurt please don’t move call the ambulance.

These instructions are available in plenty which you can get from the internet; these are all lessons to be included in the curriculum for our children as part of Social Ethics teaching