My First Fall

I fell in my own front yard and broke my wrist and had to have a plate put in. Fell in my tub and fractured my ankle. My brother told me that I needed to get better stories, had to at least make it more intertesting. So each time someone asked how I broke said bone he’d come up with something like I was racing at the indie 500 and crashed or I did it while busting broncs just to see what kind of reaction he’d get. I’m more careful now and haven’t had a good spill in a while. The joys of CIDP! Happy Birthday and may your year be fallness.

Happy Birthday Flower. What did you get for your birthday?

Hi, Flower.

Happy birthday!

My first fall was some six years ago. My son, who was 15 at the time, and I were at a craft fayre. My son says that I fell in slow motion, grasping at the air. After picking me up, he commented that, although London air is smoggy, it’s not thick enough to support my weight.

My current walking stick was a Christmas 2005 present from my husband. Here’s hoping you get one as nice as it is. 😀

Deb
London

Happy Birthday Flower.

A cane can come in handy for other things. You can use it to knock things off high shelves. You can use it as a pool cue if you are ever caught without one. You can use it to knock some sense into patiences. You can use it as a fishing pole if you go shark fishing.

I’ve found out that it works wonder to wake up students that fall asleep in my class.

I have had about six falls over the past three years. The fifth one caused the most damage (large subdural hematoma discovered 1-2 months later) but the sixth one caused the most pain. With number six I went to the ER too, had an xray and was told nothing was broken in my knee. Unfortunately, the pain continued.

It took an MRI to reveal that I had multiple hairline fractures on my tibia (the big bone of the lower leg). I was told not to put weight on the leg, so was confined to a wheel chair for six weeks. Now, xrays show bone regrowth and I’m back to using a rollator. So, my point being: an xray doesn’t always show a bone break. Hope you are mending well! If you got that cane for your birthday, consider putting a bell on it to get you through crowds 😀

Happy Birthday Flower.
I can really sympathize with both your fall and feelings about needing a cane. During a bad relapse in December, while at a 2-day business meeting, after a dinner that I hosted I fell on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. As if that’s not bad enough, I was too weak to get myself up and some of the people I work with had to muscle me up from the ground and get me into a cab and back to my hotel room. I was really upset and very sore — I barely made it to day 2 of the meeting.

Last summer my husband, with all good intentions, bought me a cane. I was 46 and too stubborn to use it — it was an ugly black thing with the 4 “feet” at the bottom — definitely not for me. My mom just got a really cool colorful regular cane. I told my hubby that I would have used it if he had bought me a fun cane! 😎

Take care,
Caryn

Hi Flower – my first fall was in the parking lot of a grocery store, and needed 3 people to get me up. My second was in my back yard (left my phone inside) and it took me 45 minutes to get up. I started using a cane then. My third fall (the one where I broke my ankle) was in another grocery store parking lot – hmmmm, a pattern? Because it was a 3 month non-weightbearing break, I started using forearm crutches. I LOVE THEM! Even now, months after my ankle has healed, I use the crutches when I feel unsteady or when I start symptoms (my first symptoms are now leg weakness). I love Herself’s creative reasons – I’ll hafta use them now! Hang in there. Good luck and good health! 🙂

First let me add to that HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I am almost 19 months since my onset and I just took my 4 legged cane with me to the races to help me climb to my high post in the stadium to watch the races. I used it for a coat rack. I used it to lean my chin on when I was bored. I wanted to use it to come down out of the stadium since I don’t do well coming down steps without alot of help. Hubby offered me his arm and down we floated with the cane off the ground. I am glad I took it! When I got tired I used it to rest one hip and then the other. Also hung my purse on it with the stadium seats and my coat when I went into the restroom. Hubby said he like it as a little butler!

I use my other canes to reach the dog’s toys they lay too far from reach. I use the cane as a golf club to wack the toys farther than I can throw! I can reach out and tap a butt when they are barking and think I can not reach that far! Or when they have selective hearing! I can even reach out with the hook and drag them back by their collars when they think they can push past me when I drop something on the floor. I have even reached over and opened a locked car door for a friend. That is what happens when you keep a car too long the electric door locks stop working!

I have fallen twice, learned not to be stubborn. I consider it an honor to have a handicapped sticker for my car mirror and get those closer places to the door and if you give me a hard time about not being handicapped I willl HIT YOU WITH MY CANE! I earned both of those honors and then some! Today, Walmart had my electric cart all charged up for me! What a service that I truely appreciate! 🙂 Now if they would only stop leaving boxes of stock in the isles!

Carry that cane with pride. Decorate it with some special stickers! OWN IT! Decorate it for your Birthday with some ribbon and a balloon! I found a holder that is really for bikes and it holds a bottle of water and it fit on my cane. I can not tell you how handy that has been!

I have had too many falls to mention, many of them coming years before I had CIDP! I am not clumsy, just more of a risk taker type of personality. But since CIDP I have had 4 falls onto my feet, breaking bones in them each time. But my worst fall came back in March of 2005 when I hit a pressure ridge while snowmobiling on a lake & have a permanent broken collarbone on my right side. Kind of hard to explain to people who knew how sick I was & how after spending 3 years strictly in a wheelchair I was out snowmobiling. I was barely walking at that time!

I love my cane, & laugh inside when people comment that I am too young for a cane. They have no idea where I have been & how proud I am to be walking instead of in a wheelchair…

KIT you are hillarious 😀 😀 😀 😀 I can relate to all of that. I have three dogs (because with all the meds I have been on going to the pet store and bringing another furry friend home is easy). And as far as the handicap plackard is concerned I agree….it has WELL been earned and I have learned to never pass judgment on people who have them because we “look” normal but that doesnt mean we feel that way all of the time.

Hello Flower,
I too, have had falls. For me, they lasted about two years, off and on and I have gone five or six years now without a fall. I have no fear anymore of them happening. The cane was a great idea, I hope you have one now! Lean how to handle the falls, rather then fear them!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

[IMG]http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8282/birthdayballoonseq4.gif[/IMG]

I’ve been away from the board since before the holiday, so this is a belated Birthday wish for you Flower. Hope you are getting along since your fall. I had 2 falls in the onset and in the rehab center, but fortunately none in the past 4 years. When I get too weak I use those wonderful electric chairs in Wal-Mart or where ever. After my first fall I had a borrowed four prong cane and loved it. I drove myself to the emergency room and hobbled in by using it.
Mary Ann

Hi Happy belated Birthday.
I have been away from the Forum foa a while. As for falls my 1st came before I knew what I had and happened on a public street with about a jillion people watching, most of them knew me which made it even worse. Since I have so many falls I can only remeber the ones when I got hurt.

I use 2 canes when I trry to walk, which is not very much, they work better than a walker because they are easier to use in the halls and bathrooms.

Hope you never have anothe fall.
Larry

DO on their birthday?

But I appreciate falls, they teach me to keep my mind on all the functions of walking I used to do with out thinking about it! I’ve had four falls in the last 2 years, two weren’t a problem…the others were real ‘classics’! Hospitalization and extensive ‘rest’ followed by PT…and all that.. It gets boring when the therapists don’t have to tell you what to do next? You change places, or machines or what ever and just do it on your own… Keep exercising, after you are declared well, get a home program and DO it!

Thing most important is to get and keep that mobility… It is soo important to keep that aspect of SELF. I don’t know how else to put it…

Hope this helps…

…I have fallen so many times I can’t remember them all. The most spectacular was walking down a main shopping street with business suit, files, handbag, etc…tripping…and you can imagine the rest. It is rather bemusing to have to be “picked up” by someone half your age….”are you all right ma’am?” EEK!!!

I have tried to use a walking stick and in fact have one in the trunk of my car…but when I use it, I feel it draws too much attention. Maybe it is a question of acceptance. At least it is still in the car, I see it every day.:confused:

I am covered with numerous black, blue, green and yellow egg size bruises from running into everything. I sometimes look down at my legs and see a world of color. My nurses comment on how many I have now that it is summer time-I wear shorts or capris so they are evident.Let’s not forget my arms””’
When I am wearing sandals I usually break a toe or two-I forget to raise up my foot when entering a front door.
My cane doesn’t help with my balance like the forearm crutches did.The cane jus reminds me to be more careful and walk slower.
I have a bath shower full of safety bars/bench and they are wonderful. I got them after I bounced off the side of the tub landing on my hip.

Hi Flower, sorry to hear about your fall.
I have fallen a few times over the past 3 years, the worst being this past winter.
I was walking my dog Sheba at night after a heavy snowfall, and I slipped and fell on the ice.
A visit to the ER showed that I had broken 3 ribs…this was probably the worst pain I have experienced since the onset of my illness.
I have learned to be very careful in certain situations…wet floors, ice, uneven terrain. I am determined not to use a cane if I can avoid it.
Best of luck to you Flower…. Barry

I Have Fallen So Many Times I Can’t Count. I’ve Sprained Ankles, Toes And Wrists. The Worst Fall Was When I Was In The Middle Of Giving A Massage To A Client And I Went Down So Hard You Could Hear The Thud. The Carpet Didn’t Even Mute It. I Started Using A Walking Stick This Winter And Now I Use A Regular Cane For Long Distances And Uncertain Terrain. I Was Hesitant At First But Since I Named My Cane I’ve Viewed It More As A Pal. My Friends And I Call Her Leana. 😉

Hi Flower, I fell twice in my house in 2004 and hit the back of my head, one day before I got paralized, my first fall was in the garden and I fell in slow motion too the bad part was when my head hit the ground made of rocks, my head hurt me for a month, the second fall was in my way to the bathroom my husband wanted to carry me, but i told him to let me try to walk and I will hold him by the shoulders, bad mistake, because my knees bend and I fell again, hitting the back of my head with the floor. I started to cry and I couldn´t move and I felt so weak, that day he took me to the ER, the Doctors didn´t know what was going on, they thougt that I had an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, because I had bronquitis, they let me go home, and the next day I woke up and I couldn´t move anything, after a month I was diagnosed with MF and took me 13 months to walk again, I had to use a wheelchair all the time, when I could try to walk again I had to use first a walker and after a month I used a cane, I couldn´t gave up my cane, but I had to. because I didn´t need it anymore.

I hope you get a beautiful cane for your birthday. 😀 and if you don´t, try to use stickers on them to cheer you up.
best of luck to you from Mexico Winnie.