I came into the living room to find her face down in the sofa, bad arm trapped beneath her, one knee on the floor and the other leg stretched out behind her. An ambulance would take at least an hour as it wasn’t a ‘priority’… and so we had to wrestle for almost 20 minutes before we could get her in a position whereby we could get her sitting back on the sofa.
I hurt my shoulder (pulled something), and it was an illustration of how Karen thinks she can do everything (which is great and i love her for it), but occasionally she overreaches and forgets that her body isn’t as it used to be, and that her balance isn’t that great.
Her bad arm is causing her no end of issues with pain. She’s having what I call ‘electro-stimulation’ on it, but is finding it hard to tolerate, and her two 15 minute sessions a day are closer to two, three to five minute sessions, if that. The issue is, or as I’ve found it to be, that she forgets about the arm and concentrates on the one that is fine, rather than trying to use the other one, and I spend half my time saying to her, ‘Try it with the other hand’.. so she keeps her hand in (Sorry, awful but apt pun)
Let us hope this week passes without any similar incidents…
Well done for the way you coped; I remember having a similar fall and it’s no fun. If you can find an old-fashioned physio trained in deep massage instead of just giving exercises, this will help as much as the electro-stim and is less challenging. Good that you keep on trying with the other hand. It’s one of my issues too and is soooo frustrating.
I am sorry to hear about Karen but if you look just as far as one or two minutes in you will see me getting up (a technique that you can copy if you don’t already know it.) It’s imperative for your muscle spindles to have gravity acting in a different way on your FASCIA (the connective tissue that wraps around your body).. Being able to get on and off the floor was the doorway to a lot of healing for me, and I knew it in my heart at the time, so I recorded the date of my first success in my journal.
@2weevils Sorry to hear that Karen has had a fall and your subsequent struggles to get her up. But well done you achieved it. I remember the first time I landed on the floor after my stroke. It took an age to get up. I then determined
that I was going to find a way to get myself up if it happened again and started practising. It will be different for everyone and won’t be very pretty for a long while I am sure but having some strategically placed furniture usually helps. I was taught
to lead with my good side. There may be a few falls during her recovery a lot of us find there is. Definitely have a watch of @Pando’s video it will help I am sure.
I was constantly being told to use my affected hand to do things. I don’t think we do it deliberately it is just easier to use the hand that works especially as for me the working hand was my dominant hand so would have been used naturally
anyway. She will get there in time. She has an awful lot to work on and too much in one can be overwhelming.
I have hadnumerous falls outside,in ounblic, in the garden and inside too. Mostly if you are in public,kind people want to lift you.i have found getting over the shock of being on the ground isparamou t and rhenium you work out how best to do it yourself! If you’re stuck that is difficult. Each time is different!
Falling? I think we’ve all been there, especially in the first few months! It’s embarrassing and frustrating and learning how to get up again was one of the first things I mastered, especially because a lot of exercises I did were on a floor mat. There are a lot of videos online about how to get back up again and they are all basically the same method. Once learned, things get a lot easier (relatively speaking).
We’re all guilty of not using our affected hand. It’s so much easier and quicker. I’m guilty as charged! I’m still doing it 12 years later!
