Another fall

paris07

Registered User
Jul 11, 2007
74
0
australia
Hi All,
Hubby and I just spent the last 6 hours in the hospital with mum, she had another fall in her bedroom at 1am(australia time) woke up to hear her calling , she has a deep cut above her left eye required 3 stiches must have hit the door I think and she is very sore and bruised in the shoulders and arms. no bones broken ,thank god.
Dont know what to do except sleeping in the same room as her ,she has to go to the GP on Thursday 23rd .August. I would like to know once and for all why she is having all these falls? Last one was on May 23rd resulting in fractured skull and 2 weeks hospital.
Rotton luck, as it was her birthday yesterday Ist August she was 87 years young and we had a lovely day, lunch at the local pub with a few friends and she
really enjoyed herself , now this..

Thank you for all your support,
paris07.
 

Amy

Registered User
Jan 4, 2006
3,454
0
Oh dear. Mum used to have unexplained falls. Think that sometimes there is nothing that you can do - as the alternative may be to use drugs that decrease mobility but also mental alertness.
Hope mum recovers quickly - let us know how she is.
Love Helen
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,444
0
Kent
My mother used to fall too, Paris. It got to the stage where her matress was put on the floor, so instead of falling, she `rolled`.

It wasn`t ideal, but it stopped her hurting herself.

Later on when she became less mobile, she was put back into a bed and was fine.

At least she was able to enjoy her birthday.

I hope she gets better soon.

Love xx
 

Ashburton

Registered User
Feb 19, 2007
99
0
So are the falls down to AD or medication?

My mum fell twice last week, she was quite sedated at the time and I put it down to this.

But then last night while I was watching tv I went to check on my mum and she was on the ground, it took ages to get her up. I am putting this down to the previous fall?Or is this another stage in AD.
 

elaineo2

Registered User
Jul 6, 2007
945
0
leigh lancashire
Medication

Hi Paris,.what meds is your mum on.what she is on can have effects and cause falling,eg diuretics,ace inhibitors,there are a few that will increase the risk of falling.please let me know.I only know this through my work and we use medicines to assess risk of falling.i am no expert but will gladly help if i can.love elainex
 

Margarita

Registered User
Feb 17, 2006
10,824
0
london
Sorry to read how many falls your mother having


I think its more to do with the spatial awareness in they mind getting worse , so coursing her to lose balance and more likely to have fall .

My mother would fall also if I did not put her bed near wall , she has something on her bed to hold on to , also door Handel on door, as bed is behind door , may sound silly to put bed like that , but door is keep open against her bed so she can't fall out also so Handel of door help mum to steady her balance as she grip door handle , it's been working so far , not sure how long it last ...
 

paris07

Registered User
Jul 11, 2007
74
0
australia
Thank youall for your support. mum meds are half a noten in the morning( which I understand are for hypertension ) and 1 serepax at night , she has been on this medication for several years now. she was taking 1 aspirin of a morning but after her last fall they took her off those. Also she was taking 1 lasix ( for fluid)in the morning when necessary but was taken off those last GP visit because of low bloodpressure.
I am thinking it may be low bloodpressure but cannot get to see her lady GP until Thursday and mum wont go to any other GP.
Mum is sleeping soundly now , Doctor at hospital could not give me any reason for the fall and when we asked mum we got several different stories of what happened also mum told him she was 61 years old yesterday and he looked at me in suprise I guess I looked about 87 at that time of the morning.
thanks again
paris07
 

Taffy

Registered User
Apr 15, 2007
1,314
0
Or is this another stage in AD.

Hi Paris,
Sorry to hear about your mum's fall. My mum recently had a fall and ended up in the A&E. Mum has had quite a few falls these past few years and I'm wondering also, if this is just another stage of this disease. Taffy.
 

Gill W

Registered User
Jan 31, 2007
190
0
Co. Durham
I would be interested to read of any theories on this one.

Gran has had several falls, some of which we know about because we have seen them, others we only know about because of various bruises we have found around her body. I found one yesterday whilst changing her pad and knickers, she has a blue bruise on her tummy, which she couldn't explain. This one must have occurred in the hospital, as she's only just left the place, yesterday was her first full day in the home.

Gran appears to have become very fragile, sometimes even the wind can apparently knock her off her feet sometimes, she's looked as though she would just blow over if she'd not had someone with her.

I have often wondered whether its something to do with their balance skills? Gran seems to constantly look down at her feet when she's walking now, she never walks with her head up looking forward. I have to wonder whether the spacial awareness/balance gets knocked off kilter with Alzheimers?

Gill
xx
 

lizzie2596

Registered User
Jul 3, 2007
91
0
Hi Paris

My Mum has had several falls in the last year, a lot of them when getting up in the dark during the night. I noticed that when she stood up and started to walk she would often stumble if she hadn't stood up totally straight first. She would fall to one side like someone who has made themselves dizzy by spinning around. The act of standing up straight for a couple of seconds first would stop the stumbling. This always made me think that it was a balance problem which would explain the falls in the dark when Mum would not necessarily be able to see to establish her balance and bearings or would simply forget to do it. Luckily she never fell out of bed as such.
I mentioned it to the GP and he thought it was a weakening of the body's balance mechanism so he prescribed betahistine which did help to reduce the stumbling. There have been falls since but less frequent.

Liz x
 

jenniferpa

Registered User
Jun 27, 2006
39,442
0
Another contributing factor I think is that when you are older your body can do unexpected things: I'm only 51 yet I have learnt that I need to hold onto the bannister going downstairs because sometimes one of my knees just gives way with no warning and no pain. If I couldn't temember that I have to hold on I would probably break my neck (and the first time it happened I ended up bump, bump, bumping down the rest of the stairs on my posterior, with an interesting collection of bruises to show for it). Also, I noticed that Mummy forgot the techniques she needed to use walking aids such as frames and sticks: before her strokes she would never have moved a step without either of them, but after she seemed to forget that they were needed, with resultant falls.
 

germain

Registered User
Jul 7, 2007
342
0
Hi

My Mum had several falls some time ago due to "postural hypotension" - where the blood pressure suddenly drops on standing. This is now partially controlled by compression stockings and medication.

A couple of very minor recent falls have been due to a) panicking that she was going to fall and then flapped so much that she did b) refusing to walk in any other way than a shuffle which causes her to trip on the carpet (not over it but actually on it as she rubs her slippers along the pile)

Once she has fallen she refuses to make any effort to get up for quite a while and is seemingly happy sitting on the floor for ages - wonder if it could be an ear /dizziness issue also - loss of balance - because if she "falls" onto the very soft settee she's just the same.
Germain
 

Skye

Registered User
Aug 29, 2006
17,000
0
SW Scotland
germain said:
Once she has fallen she refuses to make any effort to get up for quite a while and is seemingly happy sitting on the floor for ages - wonder if it could be a ear /dizziness issue also - loss of balance - because if she "falls" onto the very soft settee she's just the same.

Hi Germain, I think that's very possible. I suffer from vertigo, and sometimes faint. When I come round, if some kind person tries to get me up straight away, I simple faint again! The best thing is just to leave your mum on the floor or the chair until she is ready to get up.

There is medication for dizziness, but I don't know if it would be prescribed for someone with AD. I'd have a word with her GP.
 

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