FALLING DOWN IS HELL

FALLING DOWN IS HELL

The old rusty Nail

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

I had a bad fall a short time back.  No I didn’t trip and fall like I have done in the past I fell from a standing position turning around in my backyard.  I was working on my rock garden when I turned to do something unimportant.  For some reason, I began to lose my balance.  I started to regain some posture control when I lost it all falling forward.  With the ground coming at my face rapidly I did what is a natural reaction to save my head.

Of course, I threw my right hand out in front of me using my arm to stop my head from hitting the hard ground and where there were some rocks.  Well, that drove the weight of most of body up my right arm to my shoulder where it abruptly stopped because the energy couldn’t go any further.

I immediately looked at my wrist and moved it to see if it was broken but luckily it was sound and has not given me any pain.  Nor does my right elbow hurt.  But, my shoulder surely hurts and it is noticeably larger than my left shoulder.  Yes, it is swollen so that tells a person that sometime not good has happened inside it.

After using a few choice words, I began to try to lift myself up to some kind of sitting position which was not easy for there was nothing for me to hold onto.  Eventually, I was able to sit.  Then I worked my way up to a standing position.

Brushing myself clean of the dirt that was covering my shirt and short pants, I moved my right shoulder which had already beginning to give me serious pain.  Being a veterinarian I do have some anatomical sense about what the shoulder area looks like.  The shoulder blade is attached to the main upper body with ligaments, muscles and if I remember correctly a couple of bursae.  The ligaments I am sure took most of the energy of my fall so they must be strained with some muscle damage.  My arm is attached to my shoulder with a round ball socket like many joints which contains a rotator cuff.  I moved my arm to find that it was not out of joint, nor was there any crunching noise.  A rotator cuff injury is possible and does worry me for I know nothing about those things.

My self diagnosis was that I had not broken anything nor had it inflicted any major injury to my body.  But, there was no doubt that I had strained some ligaments big time and perhaps even bruised a couple of muscles.  And yes, it could have been much worse.

This is my third day after my accident and the right shoulder is letting me know that it was abused and will not let me forget that for quite some time.  I am trying not to use my right arm but being right handed that is not easy.  And to make matters worse I sleep on my right side mostly because of back problems, so during the night I apparently aggravate it because in the morning it hurts more than when I go to bed.


In addition, I have a two inch circular black and blue mark on the inside of my left thigh where I apparently hit something hard – probably a rock for in a rock garden there are lots of them.  Yes, a bruise hurts but only when you push on it, so don’t push on it stupid!

Of course, after something like this happens I try to sort out what went wrong to be sure I can hopefully prevent a reoccurrence of a similar accident.  Certainly, falling because I tripped over something like the toe end of my shoe is understandable and I try hard to prevent that from happening to me again.  But, this time I do not really know what happened.  I simply lost my balance and I fell and I fell very hard.  Yes, loss of balance is a problem with old people.

Now, I could have hit my head against the hard stucco wall which would have been much more serious for the head is full of lots more important stuff than a few ligaments and muscles.  And, I did not break my wrist.  I understand that a broken wrist is common with these types of accident, so I was fortunate in that regard.

I say fortunate and not lucky because luck would imply that I should have broken something and by chance I didn’t.  Well, I think there are several reasons why I did not break anything and luck is not one of them.  Certainly the main reasons are that I am physically fit as I workout at my gym twice a week keeping my shoulders and wrists strong.  I also walk a few miles three times each week.  My bone density is within normal range because I do maintain a healthy diet and I take a daily vitamin and mineral supplement.

Yes, no doubt my good genes helped and I am thankful for that because genes are those things a person can not fix.  Well, medical science is beginning to fix some of them but generally at this time in the life of science, genes remain to be pretty much out of the reach of medical clinicians.

So, what am I going to do to try to work at not letting this type of accident happen again, like I do with tripping?  I am not sure and that scares me.  Now, I could decide not go outside to my backyard anymore.  That is a sure fire way of stopping any accidents from happening back there.  But, there are two problems with that solution.  Since I do not know why it could happen inside my house!  Now, that is scary

The other problem with that idea is that my quality of life would be reduced to a level that I will not accept.  A positive quality of life is more important to me than life itself.  I write ‘positive’ quality of life not knowing how to quantify it.  Perhaps a ‘high level’ might be a better adjective or perhaps simply ‘standard’ or ‘normal’.  In any event, my quality of life must be at a level where my life is worth living and that means I must be able to get about (I wouldn’t mind mechanical help) and my mind must be capable of routine thought – you know without serious dementia.

So, I will preserver as best as I can not knowing how it all happened.  Yes, I will return to my backyard – well I already have done that but I did walk very carefully where my accident occurred and I looked at that rock garden with a certain amount of disdain.

Sorry about this downer article still I must write about some of the bad things that happen with old age.  And, falling is one of those things that happen regardless of how careful an old person is.  Still, it is important for us old people to remain vigilant when doing all physical activities.  But, the key here is to keep doing physical activities and not let old age win.

Now a gadget is advertized that you wear around your neck that you press a button for help if you fall and can’t get up.  I guess they work alright and are probably a good idea, but I just don’t feel the need for one of those things right now.  In a sense, it is kind of like taking one more step down the road of old age and I don’t want to do that right now.

With that philosophical note, the Ole Rusty Nail closes another article.  As always I do hope I have added some pleasure to you, my reader’s lives along with a little humor and sound advice. Please keep in mind I can be reached via email at burton.russell@att.net