Falling down stairs

[DinoLil]

I hope this isn't considered a TAAT but there was a post where the OP had fallen down the stairs recently, I commented that I'd done similar around the same time (again 🙄) and bust my foot.

Well, just as my foot was starting to get better, what did I do? Yep. Fell again 10 days ago. Four stairs around a corner. Broken ribs, sprained knee and ankles, cracked tailbone. Many a bruise. Two huge lumps on my head. Both legs and left arm are very colourful. Can't lift up my right arm because I've pulled something. The pain is really ridiculous.

Anyway, just to say, it is sooooo easy to slip. My stairs are steep and not very 'user friendly'. Even my dog falls up and down them. I've got onto my GP and they've sent a referral to occupational health to check out my house. I own it, it's not rented, but it's clearly not safe for a 54yr old!

I think I'm trying to say, please be careful when you live alone. Try and put safety things in place. I am a complete accident waiting to happen all the time, you'll see from previous posts involving shower curtains and dogs! Ask for a referral, get support, don't wait for Netflix to come and film a climber to ascend and descend your 10 tread stairs, no ropes, solo!

Please, be careful.

How have you managed to get a referral for an occupational therapist to come and look at your stairs??!

Gosh OP, that's awful! Hope you'll be better soon. If you haven't already, get banisters on both sides. So stabilising and confidence boosting if you have any concerns about stairs. That's my no.1 advice. Oh and if you have double banisters, FGS use both, especially coming down.

I drag things behind me going up (if they are bulky and heavy) in a bin bag or similar, and if going down where it's possible I throw it to the bottom or slide it down. I always pack my suitcase for hols downstairs, that way I only have to bring the clothes down bit by bit.

OK I have balance issues due to irregular heart beat, so I'm wary. But still.

@Popthebubble My GP said I need occ health to assess my house. Not a therapist. It's all new to me, only going on what I've been told.

Ah, actually, I've reread the message, it says community rehab to engage and assess me and my home with occ health.

Anyway, besides the point. Just wanted to say to everyone to be careful. It's so easy to be bobbing along one day and have a mishap the next. Lots of us live alone and independently, easy to get complacent.

I've slipped down my stairs is three times since I moved in nine months ago, the last time on Saturday. Luckily I managed to grab the bannister before I slipped on the third stair otherwise I'd have taken out my friend walking in front of me. I have also fallen up them, as has my dog. In my case, the stairs are narrower than what would be built now as the house is 1960s.

Ouch sounds nasty, hope you are on the mend. I have MS and terrible balance, i fall all the time. Thankfully not gone down the stairs yet!

@oscilla Thank you! I am determined to be!

Part of the problem is that my stupid stairs have no handrails. They're very steep, only ten treads, tight four on a corner at the bottom which lie in wait as you can't even put a foot on them properly. I crawl up, plaster myself against the wall bracing the other side coming down. My bathroom is downstairs and, when you're in a rush at 1am, the bracing is less effective 😵‍💫

I now have a guzunder!

And I do all of that! Great minds! Laundry gets hurled down, in fact I've discovered a pair of knickers or an odd sock in strange places after said hurling. Normally when someone is round 😆

I know someone who lost his wife falling down stairs - she caught her foot on a rug at the top and was dead by the time she hit the bottom. My mother fell on the stairs and her back was permanently damaged.
My son lives in a 1860s fisherman’s cottage and his stairs are lethal. Narrow, steep and twist. He’s a young 22 year old but I tend to crawl up them and very cautiously go down them. Hate them.

Stairs are evil!

I fell down just the bottom few two years ago and shattered my shoulder, my elbow and my wrist. I've had multiple surgeries to try and put me back together again but I'll never recover 100%.

Now every step in my house has a handrail on both sides.

@Popthebubble No, not twice. Twice in three weeks.

Kindly, you are missing the point.

Got the wrong end of the stick.

Again, misunderstood the post.

Can I ask why he hadn't put up banisters? They're not very expensive and easy to do

Sending healing sympathies your way and a speedy recovery.

I have nearly slipped down my stairs twice since moving in, they have carpet and a twist in the middle which means the treads are very narrow on one side which when wearing socks makes them a death trap.

I try to be cautious and not wear socks but it’s only takes a moment distracted, running late and grabbing a last min item upstairs and its heart stopping as i free fall as my feet have slipped.
Like you I live alone, and panic at how i could get help.

Not long after being widowed, I slipped in the bath with both legs going in opposite directions, blooming agony trying to get up from that and made me ponder at how long it would be for the neighbours to notice a swarm of flies hitting the window 3 stories up before they sent help.

@Rockfordpeach Please keep it that way! Be really careful.

I have all sorts of dodgy things including centralised pain syndrome, herniated disc, arthritis, yadda yadda, I'm not too straight on my trotters either! I have been doing stair Olympics for 30yrs, even when I was pregnant but, when you're living alone, we have to take care.

My stairs are daft and I've been taking them for granted when on a dash for a wee (bathroom is downstairs). I hope you and everyone else is more sensible!

My ex husband died falling down the stairs in his digs while working away from home in 2021. He was 53. Our kids were then aged 24, 17 and 14. No reason found...Just a thing that happened. 10 inch skull fracture and goodbye world just like that! And it can happen quite easily.
DinoLil they think he was possibly going to the downstairs loo!
Be careful out there people!

So sorry to hear of your nasty fall OP! I had a fall down mine 2 years ago, fortunately only suffered a badly sprained foot, but it really spooked me, so now I never walk down without holding the bannister. If you don't have that then you really do need something installed or it's an even worse accident waiting to happen. You may even need to consider moving to a safer house.

@MrTiddlesTheCat Funnily enough, I've been having a new bathroom in and have got grab rails put everywhere.

Not the stairs.

I'm so sorry that has happened to you. Did you have that 'oh fck' moment when everything goes in slow motion as it happens? You know it's going to be bad. It's so ridiculously easy and can be catastrophic.

You have great advice and I think that's what I'm trying to say here, have safety rails, handrails, take care, don't rush.

Our stairs have two banisters luckily

@HopSpringsEternal Because the guy was just doing the bathroom (still not finished after 4m, another story but I have rails!).

Why haven’t you had a handrail or bannister fitted in the previous 30 years?

This isnt a stairs one but last year I was going round the front room with a long handled duster doing the cornice (old house) and I fell backwards over a footstool and cracked the back of my head right on the corner of the coffee table . I think if it have been an inch lower on my neck Iwould have been badly injured . For days afterwards I thought Iwould have some sort of reaction but Iwas ok , its scary how easily these things can happen

Sympathies op - I’m the same age and slipped down the stairs for the first time a few weeks ago. Luckily just a few bruises but I was on my own at the time and found it quite scary.

I binned the socks I was wearing which I think were the problem.

@mondaytosunday Mine is 1829! Say no more...!

That's just heartbreaking about your friend's wife. But, as I say, far too easy and can happen in a moment. And your poor mother, her life changed just from doing an everyday thing.

This is what I'm trying to say. Please be careful. I've always been blasé, always been accident prone, but when you're living alone, whatever age, it takes just a second.