I fall on ice every winter, despite my efforts to reduce my risk with cleats. I fell in the basement the other day, but landed on my laundry basket so I didn't get hurt. Aging certainly has not improved my balance! There are things to do to remedy that, I think, so I should work on that.

Glad you're okay!

OH YES I have fallen, trip over things, loss balance by over reaching, slipped on ice. Falling for me is VERY scary since I had both knees replaced six years ago and live alone. Being very over weight I have had problems getting up for years. Keep telling myself to carry my cell phone at all times, but NEVER remember too.

Sue

Sorry, you fell. You will probably be more sore tomorrow. Take it easy if you can.

Now you have to wear one of those orange arm bands and go hem those pants before you kill yourself.

Linda

Yes, I have. With morning stiffness because of my RA, I have to be careful when I walk, then bend down the driveway to get my morning paper. I fell a couple of weeks ago, on the morning of the first frost of the year.
About 2 months ago, I fell getting out of the bathtub...because of my weak wrists. Got a nasty ribcage bruise on that one.

I guess what i'm saying is that people who have non-obvious problems get used to falling....but, as I found out with late DH...it's very important that hospital personnel recognize those who are prone.

I have, but not lately. A few years ago, I fell while we were picking up trash along the highway, I wasn't looking and stepped into a depression, turned my ankle and just went down so fast! I was able to turn and kind of do a somersault though, so I didn't get hurt, but it freaked me out to find myself lying in the road!

Then I fell in the driveway, overbalanced picking up a cat and getting up from a squat, landed on my chin and snapped my neck really hard, I was lucky I didn't break it.

I fell once running back to the house from feeding the deer. Again, tripped over something and turned my ankle. So mostly it's my own fault, the only time I fell for no reason, I fell out of bed, getting up, while I was really sleepy and landed so hard on my knees (high bed) that I abraded them and rattled the house. That scared me.

I'm glad you're OK, Kath! Be careful, you know what they say about accidents in the home.

Three major falls come to mind.

One in the 80's, when I tripped and fell on the stairs, going down. Fell hard on my tail bone. Hurt like heck for a few weeks.

Then in the 90's, fell when I miss stepped from a curb, and hurt my wrist. Had it bandaged for a couple of weeks before it quit hurting.

Late 90's I fell when I attempted to step off my built in bench in my dining room. Twisted my ankle bad. Again, hurt for a while, but had it wrapped and kept going.

I fell while riding my bike since, but it was minor, and I had miss judged a curb like area by some rail road tracks.

Nothing major, nor often.

Moni

I've fallen a couple times the past year - down the carpeted stairs while wearing socks. I just get in too big of a hurry.

There are no stairs around wherever I lived, I have not been able to fall up or down at one time or the other. Main reason, I always am on the run. So busy? No, but my mother used to say I ran while still in the womb. Knock on wood, I never hurt myself, except for blue bruises. Having been a skier before I moved to KY, I learned to fall. Last fall was yesterday, I ought to know by now that wet grass on a steep hill is slippery, LOL.
Hope you are not sore today.

Last fall(or should I say autum) I got my foot caught in a rug and just went flat.

This year I stepped in a hole (both feet..lol) couldn't get at least one of them out quick enough...so I went down...

And a couple days ago...in the cold...I was mad because I had to carry the groceries in by myself...Had my arms loaded....Denny stepped out the door..."Ah....do you need some help?"....."NO"......trip....Arrrrrggghhh
He always seems to wait until I'm nearly to the door.

Why do I always have to trip or something when I'm mad then feel like a fool....

The fall I took last "autum" ,tripping in folded up rug. was a hard fall...both my arms still hurt (I'm sure I messed up my rotater cuffs (sp?) on both arms...and my neck still gets stiff all the time.

I was chasing the cat food stealing neighbor cat. He is not a stray and he is not skinny....just a thief.

So...I'm sure I'd get a hugh flag...

patti

Huge....LOL...not hugh.....

Huge....LOL...not hugh.....

I fell a couple weeks before the wedding. It was the night of the bachlorette party. I had 4 beers and walked home from a bar where they were, it was raining hard and I was trying to hurry. I missed the last step coming into our front door and fell on my hands and knees on the concrete. Tore a hole in my brand new jeans! I was so PO'd at myself! My knee is still tender when I am crawling around on the floor and this was mid October.

Hope you don't need an orange arm band Kath! LOL

I was going to take our golden retriever for a walk. I going down the deck stairs when he knocked me off balance running behind me. ( He was sooooo excited!)
Somehow I ended up in one of his doggie holes with my foot facing backwards, and my leg broken in 2 places as well! I now am held together from ankle to knee with metal plates, and screws! I wish I had a more exciting story about it, like landing wrong from a bungee jump instead of falling about 8" LOL! The winter before, I slipped on ice on our front sidewalk, went down 3 stairs, bounced off the Bronco in the driveway and broke my tailbone when I finally landed. Not a good year! This May I fell on the same stairs and had to have knee surgery to repair torn menisus. So do you have one of those extra wrist bands in my size? Kathy

Oh, I forgot that I tripped over my friend's sleeping dog last summer.. almost went through the glass patio window. Not a bruise from that amazingly. The dog was okay too.

I fell a couple of weeks ago, when I was running to get to the subway. My leg/knee went out from under me, and I fell face forward on the sidewalk. I put my hand out so I wouldn't land on my face; I ended up hurting my right side, and had bad bruises on my knees.

I have osteoporosis, and always worry about a fall.

I've fallen many times. Often it is because I am trying to finish up chores and it is already dark and has been raining and I will slip and fall. However, I ruined my right knee by a bad fall on concrete when I went to pick my foot up over a water hose that was stretched across it, and didn't go high enough and fell very hard. I've been more or less crippled since then.

When I was young and perky....one thing I said I would never do is "walk like an old woman". Boy, did I get my smart talk back! I creep around and I am extra careful now because I am here alone for many days at a time, and if something happened to me, no one to take care of all the stuff here. I used to walk so fast and just fly through everything. Now I think of just about every step before I make it. If I don't, I am apt to fall again.

I've taken a couple of good spills. Raked hide off my arms once and broke a bone in my ankle once. I hate falling. It's such an abrupt trauma to the body. Anymore I tend to hurt myself almost worse by trying to catch myself in a stumble or fall. The old back doesn't like that quick jolts at all.

So glad you weren't hurt Kath.

I know what can help you keep from falling! Walk in town if you can. I had much better balance when I was walking for exercise.

BTW the worst fall I ever had was when I was standing on a pile of rocks (picking small ones up for a rock wall). I lost my balance and fell backward. Talk about ugly. I looked like a wifebeating victim.

yep, a few days after Thanksgiving I twisted my ankle at the top of two steps into our breezeway. I fell down the steps onto my arms and landed face down. Omg, I heard my ankle snap sooo loud, it had to be broke! It wasn't but I did have to wear an ankle brace for a few days.
My girls heard me scream out and came to my rescue. I told my oldest my high heeled clogs didn't help matters. She said "mom do you want some different shoes?" as I lay spread out on the floor. I really didn't like her sense of humor at the time. Truthfully, it hurt so bad I don't think they could have helped me anyway. Poor kids, it was kinda like watching a beached whale flailing around the floor. Nothing could be done. lol

Upstairs..downstairs several times...tripped over cats and dogs who try to ambush me every chance they get,but my worse falls have been on ice.i haven't broken anything YET!
Have had my share of bumps and bruises though.

LOL at Marilyn's comment because I also vowed never to walk like an old woman. Ha! In the last five years, I've broken both ankles and four pelvic bones, and that was from just three falls. I should just sit on a skateboard and scoot around on my big old rear. Nah, I'd just break my tailbone and I did that already when I was younger.

I haven't fallen but I've taken a couple pretty good stumbles and caught myself.

Kath, shorten the pj's, even if you just do it with scissors. Everyone has a good explanation of why they fell, but nevertheless, it's a fall, and we don't want any broken bones.

I had an arm band last October! LOL. I went to take the dog out the back door and at that moment , the neighbors cat flew up their fence. That made the dog lunge and he pulled me down the 7 deck steps! My hubby had just taken ambien and was in bed. He heard me scream "oh no" and then thumping. ( That was me hitting every step and railing on the way down) I smacked my face on the pavers at the bottom of the steps and broke my glasses. I hurt so bad, when I got up there was blood everywhere and it was on my clean jammies..... ya know how your Mom always told you to make sure you have clean underwear on to go out....So i came in the house and tried to clean myself up and see if we needed to go to the hospital. Held a rag to head. Change clothes, just in case. Might point out that I was scheduled to have knee surgery the following week - so I look myself over and the good knee is just the prettiest color blue and has a huge bulge out the side ! Wrist is pretty too ! Hmm. Ok.

Well- we get in car, I can't see-remember broken glasses- I am holding a bag of frozen peas to my forehead in a washcloth...Hubby say's he will drive even though he just took ambien because ds doesn't know how to get to hospital. Hubby drives, I close eyes and he says, 'Hey am I going the right way?' ARRGH. He slows down so I can try to read the road signs...
Get to hospital and I ditch the peas, now no longer frozen- and walk in with clean white washcloth to forehead and triage nuurse asks me if I have a migraine. 'No'. I pull wash cloth down and she yells ~"head trauma" ! Geeze. Hubby by this time looks like he is on drugs and when she asks how it happens and I say that the dog pulled me down the deck steps she goes' Yeeaaah'...They gave me an armband and a paper about how to avoid falls in the home.....

So we sat there -they x-rayed the whole left side of body . Didn't want to stich the forehead because I'm diabetic, so they left it to heal from the inside out.
Everybody in each department we went to asked how it happened. I told them and they exchanged knowing glances. As we waited for the results it finally hit me that they thought that hubby beat me!!
Hubby took cell phone pictures of me in the hospital gown with my eyes swollen and this huge hole in my forehead.He sent them to all my friends. I have to see if I still have it to post.

We laugh about this now but it was scary and accidents happen so fast. Glad you aren't hurt any worse. I am only 5 ft tall so everything has to be shortened or I trip on it too. They call me klutzy klara !

When I fell and cut my arm badly last summer, I had a purple arm band on in the hospital. It said FALL PRECAUTIONS. On my room door there was a sign with a big purple diamond, which was their symbol for fall precautions. They had IVs running in my arm so every hour when they came in to take my vitals, I had to pee and the nurse had to walk me to the bathroom and wait for me.

I've told the story before about how my late DH almost died due a fall because a nurse in the hospital didn't follow procedures for a patient who is identified and posted as susceptible to falling, and the lawsuit he won.

Wow, lots of people just like me. Monica, we used to have patients fall quite a bit, although, not so many lately. We have bed alarms on fairly new beds that don't always work or someone turns them off, like family members or CNAs after they get the patients up for something. A lot of our patients are stubborn and will get up without asking for help even though we repeatedly tell them to call for help. No one wants to be that dependent on someone else.

We have a lot of dementia patients, that and the fact that they are mostly elderly makes it even harder to keep everyone safe. Most of our patients are fall risks due to surgery, anesthesia/pain meds or just being older and not having good gait due to aging. They recently revised the fall criteria so that not everyone would be considered a fall risk, but a lot of nurses designate them fall risk even if they don't fall under the criteria because we are afraid of getting sued.

I've fallen badly a couple of times in the last few years. Once because a BP med I was taking had depleted the potassium in my system and I just plain passed out! Flat on my nose..blood everywhere. DH cleaned me up, kicked the cats out, and took me to the Dr.

I've had balance problems ever since my aneurism five years ago, and am very careful going from sitting to upright..or from upright to bent over. Nevertheless, one evening I bent over to feed one of the cats..felt myself go..said "Oh Sh**" and hit the corner of my pantry. Scalped myself. 52 stitches. I now have a Bozo the Clown scar, and make sure the pantry doors are closed in case I take a header again.

But, as late as this stage of life is, I still have never broken even a single bone. Not even a toe.

I came to about 1/2 inch of knocking myself out by falling backward into a kitchen counter. I felt my hair move as I went down. I had been cleaning out an upper cupboard and was standing on a kitchen chair with the back of the chair behind my legs. (should have been in FRONT of my legs). I went to step down and couldn't, so the whole chair went backwards and so did I. I landed flat on my back, just missing the counter. I was stunned and laid there for a minute,to see if anything was broken, etc.
I seemed to be OK, but.....a week later after urinating blood, the Dr. said I may have had bruising of my kidneys.
All was well after a few weeks. I didn't feel anything wrong after the fall. Surprise!

I fell when Tatum (my son's dog) pulled me head first into a tree. I've always been very careful because I used to have the same dream over and over where I fell down and busted my chin. That dream was in the back of my mind and I was extra careful whenever there was ice on the ground or when I was going up or down stairs.
I did lose my balance and fell a couple of months ago and it scared Jammer so much! I think I fell because my feet are numb from the chemo and it makes me a little off balance.

When i was a kid, I fell all the time. Going down the stairs, going up the stairs, in the bathtub, in the kitchen, outdoors running for the schoolbus, on the ice, lots of falls. Now that I'm old and have osteopenia,I'm very careful not to fall. Recently I have tripped over my dog. Once I fell on the ice just outside where I worked. Ripped my pantyhose.

Never was one to fall a lot. But lately, when I do it, I do it with some vigor. About 5 years ago I fell going down a snow covered icy hill. I knew I was in pain but it took a while to realize I needed to go to the hospital. My buddy wanted to take me to a hospital but I said no. Well, what, a day or two later when my shoulder dislocated, I figured it was time. They found a broken shoulder, broken arm, 2 cracked ribs and my back was messed up. Put me in an "immobilizer", a glorified sling and not to use the arm for a few months. Well, a few days later, maybe a week my other shoulder was bothering me and I tried to rub and massage it a bit and felt some movement and went, uh, those aren't supposed to be separate! No way was I going to be tying up both arms so I didn't say anything about it. I healed. Good boy.

Then last February I went out to get the newspaper on an icy morning. Feet went out from under me and I went flat down on my backside. Lower back right against the top step and elbows on top of the step. I panicked for a second thinking I really might have screwed up my back, shoulders, arms and everything, but I composed myself and realized uh, that feels fine. Tried to stand up and my foot said NO WAY! Somehow I slammed it down and it hurt. No swelling or anything but after seeing how it would go the rest of the day I decided to go in and get an x-ray. What a waste. They didn't find anything. But I guess I felt better getting the x-ray.

I really walk carefully on ice. In fact I avoid it whenever possible. I'll even get in the car to go get the mail out of the mailbox on an icy day or wait until I'm out and can drive up to it. And I try to always carry my cell phone on me, just in case. But guess what I didn't have on me when I fell on the steps!

I am not prone to falling. The question as written is rather confusing. Some people fall due to poor balance and clumsiness,others fall due to unforeseen obstacles such as broken sidewalks or potholes in the dark. Then there are people who regularly fall because of activities that pretty much require one to fall in order to learn.

There's a huge difference in a reply of "yes" to the question.
The person who simply loses their balance and can't correct without falling all the way down is a fall risk. The one who constantly falls due to inattentiveness is a fall risk.

However the occasional fall due to an unseen or expected obstacle hardly qualifies one as a fall risk. When I am skating and learning a new move I fall many times during one session. Does that mean I have to wear an orange band?

I hope the question is stated as how rather than just if one fell.

Both DH and my GF fall over like trees. They simply cannot abort a fall. Once they start to go they crash. I cannot imagine how that must feel. Hope I never have to know.

I fall lots--my ankles just give out on me sometimes. I also fell a couple of weeks ago going down my garage steps. The steps are brick--when I stepped out of the house, I started blacking out--I grabbed the door and down I went--I got scraped up somewhat but not as bad as I could have. That was a very scary moment--I could just see broken bones from landing on the cement floor.

I have fallen several times and because of replaced knees ,i couldn't get up myself. We had to call for help.
Just Tuesday Vince was telling Donna OH about a fall a couple years ago. My chair rolled out from under me and I couldn't get up. I remembered his mechanics creeper and he brought it in. I rolled over on my side,he pushed creeper
Under me. Then he put a big plastic band around me, Pulled me through the living room,out through the kitchen and into the breezeway. Over to the steps. There I put my legs down a few steps. There I could get a hold of the railings and pulled myself up.
Really funny now but it wasn't then.