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.

Before I go...

@Mum2Fergus I'm so very sorry. That must have been so traumatic for you all. Its a cliche but its real and happens and just awful

@EmeraldRoulette That's brilliant to hear! You are aware and cautious. I'm 54 and had my 'near death experience' with a shower over the bath and a shower curtain when I was 48.

I've recently replaced mine with a walk in, not finished yet, but I've got grab rails. And a little seat! Please get grab rails fitted in and around your bath. Be careful with a curtain because, if you slip, you'll reach the nearest thing and you don't want to end up with a rail bashing you on the noodle and being wrapped up in plastic. *Speaks from experience!

Get banisters fitted. Can you have a room converted to a bathroom upstairs? Keep landing light on to help you. Or can you move your bedroom downstairs?

@Whocares63 Oh you're welcome! I just think we all bumble about and suddenly...!

These are the worst injuries I've had at home recently, three weeks apart. We need to look after ourselves.

I'm glad you have grab rails. You don't know how brilliant they are until you have them, especially in a shower and bathroom where it's slippy. Do you have a towel on a hook nearby? I've found wet hands and a grab rail are challenging if you rely on it to step out. I dry off in the shower first.

Anyway, I'm pot and kettle - handrails on my stairs are incoming!!

Good night all. Turn the lights on, wear proper slippers, hold onto rails, don't trip over dogs or cats, have your phone on a lanyard - we'll be immortal!

@BellissimoGeckoLast post for now!

Thank you, yes, I did look at having a bathroom upstairs but it was stupidly expensive and I could only just afford to swap the bath out and a walk in put in.

Yes, I could have my bedroom downstairs. That's what my neighbours have done. I am seriously thinking about it.

Right, crampons on...

No I don't but good advice. I'll have a towel handy from now on

Our bedroom is downstairs. Been a godsend after my hip issues then operation. I can't use the shower over the bath so am using the piddly en suite one. It's a lot safer our bathroom tiled floor is slippery after a shower.

I fell down the narrow stairs to my basement 3 months ago. Broke my ankle (the break has mended well) and did a lot of ligament damage which is still sore. It has been horrible and really affected my mental health being on crutches. As I lay at the bottom of the stairs I has a horrible depressing image that I had turned into my mother!

Haven’t read the full thread but it always amazes me when people who are buying a place in the sun or the country always want a house! None of them seem to think ahead at all.

Be aware that occ health may decline the referral. They are stretched very thin (isn’t every service?) and may deem that as you are young and fit (for their service) this is something you can do yourself.

Treat them like steps on a boat. Face the wall so you are sideways on and go down one foot to the back, the other to the front of a step, one at a time. This way your whole foot fits on the step. Hold on to your (soon to be installed) handrail as you go. It also means that you don't get that weird unbalancing thing when you look down the staircase.

We had a rope bannister in one of my childhood homes as the staircase wasn't wide enough for a fixed bannister. Current house has lovely 1970s open tread staircase. Bloody terrifying.

It's kind of shocking to hear this because my mum didn't have grab rails put in the shower until she was 82! And she has a friend in her 90s who is still getting in and out of a shower that's just like mine.

I suppose I should consider getting a rail because it has been at the back of my mind since I moved in here. With the partition being glass, there wouldn't actually be anything to grab onto.

There are those narrow rails in the bath that most baths have if you know what I mean - but you can't grab onto them if you slip. I have a very long bathmat as well.

it seems bizarre I have to consider this when I'm not even 50 but I think the injury left me very unsteady on my feet. (It could've left me not walking so I'm very lucky). I always assumed that some steadiness would come back but it hasn't.

I live alone and have significant mobility issues and HATE the stairs. There is a handrail on one side but not the other. Lately Ive had an arthritic flare up in my knee and have to use a stick even inside. I take each step slowly and carefully especially coming down. The pain when I put weight on it is shocking. I have very little confidence that I could get up and attract help if I fell.

I have one of those seats for the bath and use it by sitting down and then sliding my legs over one at a time. If I fell in the bath I could probably use it to raise myself but Im hoping never to find out.

Oh wow, that sounds awful 😣 Broken ribs, sprains, a cracked tailbone… no wonder it’s painful. I’m glad you’ve contacted your GP and occupational health—hope they can make your home safer. Take it slow and let people help—you’ve been through a lot!

Morning, I hope were safe overnight!

This is similar to the lanyard I use, I wear it crossbody. Great for out and about too, saves rooting in a bag. I had to get into the habit of putting it on every morning, and it stays there until I go to bed! My phone detects falls also, so if I don't tell it that I'm OK, it rings emergency services and presumably there's some way of identifying my location. I'm not really sure how that feature works, but it's there!

www.amazon.co.uk/takyu-Adjustable-Universal-Compatible-Smartphone/dp/B0D5H78QHZ/ref=sr_1_17?sr=8-17

Older people who live on their own need to join one of the schemes where you wear an emergency button round your neck. It took me ages to convince a relative of this and I was getting nowhere with a friend till her DiL signed her up and presented her with one. An Apple Watch will dial a named contact for help if you fall. Alternatively, wear your phone round your neck at all times, but of course, we never do.

I just ordered a cross-body phone bag so I can wear it when my DP is away. I did consider it before after falling but then, you know, time passes and it doesn't seem urgent. Found a pretty one on Etsy!

We had a real issue with my MIL trying to get her to wear one after she had a stroke, and still living on her own. We'd find it left on a table instead of round her neck! Eventually she did start wearing it (after a couple more falls!). They're a great idea, though.

Watch the lanyard doesn't swing your phone round and get you in the face! I tripped the other day with a bag of dog poo in my hand, reflex made me grip on to it so of course it swung round and hit me in the face....

There's danger EVERYWHERE! 😊

If you use it cross body it lessens the "swing" into your face.

Sorry for everyone’s losses and injuries on the thread. Just posting to say from experience a phone in anything that “dangles” can break or screen crack very easily in a fall (or fall out of reach). A griffin type case reduces risk but I’ve found an Apple Watch in proper tough unbreakable casing safer and you have the one button press alert thing. Sorry I’m not very articulate atm.

Currently nursing broken ribs too @DinoLil just from convulsions in bed this week (epilepsy) plus assorted other older injuries from seizures. ribs though are bastards. My tip (sorry if sucking eggs) is hold a folded towel gently against them if you need to move or cough or god forbid sneeze! Have the hospital will have given you all the advice about breathing? Really important, I learnt that the hard way.

Incidentally I have been referred to OT, have been waiting 8mths for house assessment and another year to go apparently. We have done what we can but some stuff is out of our reach. I’m at the stage where I can’t be alone now and it is fucking shit. If I have brain surgery I’ll have to stay longer in rehab. Sorry that was a bit self centred but it’s terrifying how life can go downhill (no pun intended) so quickly. Please get someone in just to do the handrails and any grab rails if you can afford it. Although your OT/falls team may be better than mine! Unbroken fingers are crossed for you,

Good wishes for everyone healing.

As well as it being almost guaranteed to hit you in the face you can also get friction burns from bag straps (thank you Kipling) , it can pull on a shoulder, or fall across your airway if it swivels behind you…

My friend who is on her own always has her phone with her. You can get socks with rubber bits on which are much better on stairs, we have several pairs as they have bee handed out by hospital after admission.

@DinoLilthat reminds me I fell out of a shower and took the curtain with me early 20s because the idiot live in landlord had removed the grab rail! I went for the rail it wasn’t there overbalanced and fell out and hurt myself.
many more to add too…take care everyone
(also scrolling on, about the “danger everywhere” I had a bad accident when I was still at school and it took me a few days to calm down from panicking about danger everywhere you will start feeling better)