Wednesday 15 December 2010

Another fall...

Okaasan fell down again last night on the front door steps.
She's ok. Probably will have a bump and a bruise on her head...which thankfully was cms away from the cement top step as she lay face down on the softer non-slip mat on Step 2.

Oh! But it was scary!
Happened right in front of me.

I'd just got home from work in the car, and as I opened the car door I realized Okaasan was tottering up the street in the first flurries of snow.
She veered across the lawn and kind of staggered against the garden tap metal stand. I closed the car door again and waved her through the gap between the car and the house - and as she staggered off to the front door I started gathering my bags from the passenger seat.
Looked up - and WHAM!
Okaasan got to the bottom of the steps - rocked to both sides off balance - and fell flat on her face up the steps.

Major panic. Me jumping from the car. Okaasan groaning: "I was late, I was hurrying!", I rang the door bell, Yujiro comes running out, he manages to hoist her upright and after a few minutes she is standing again - apparently not injured. But very shaken.

And then she decided she shouldn't have any dinner...so we had to eat our way through ramen made for three while she retreated to the heated table and the TV.

Aghhh.!  (that "aghh!" is just for Usui-san, Tamiko and Takako who say I use this phrase a lot...).

By coincidence Yujiro was only saying to me yesterday morning that Okaasan recently has no power at all in her arms etc. And I was saying we MUST make sure she gets out and walks at least every 3 days - even if we drive her to a shopping mall and let her run around inside.

The weather was bad recently and she has stayed home more. She didn't want to go to hula dance on Monday, despite Yujiro offering her a ride in the car as he headed to a movie theater.
So she has sat around at home and her leg muscles are probably weaker.

Yikes. That fall was scary, but hopefully ok.
Our front door steps are set at a strange angle and end abruptly in a  flower bed and rough ground. Really you have to go up two steps and then slightly turn...but I think Okaasan doesn't do that. She kind of launches herself from the flowerbed side.

Apart from that: all is well, but busy time. Last classes, end of year parties, Yujiro getting ready for ski season start, helping a friend start packing for her return to the UK.....
Onwards to Christmas!

2 comments:

  1. Falls are scary.. glad everything is ok. We've had a number of people fall at our nursing home too... sometimes there's just nothing you can do..they always seem to choose a time to fall when no one's around..

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  2. all seems to be ok thanks - she ate a bit of lunch and looks a bit sorry for herself. But by late afternoon she was hunting for food in the fridge and ate a full dinner tonite.
    We changed the light outside the door so it is brighter too....

    Our biggest fear is that this will happen when we are NOT here and she won't be able to get up, and our road is very quiet and the steps set back a bit...nobody would see her laying there...

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