Step one to resuming my life is to get out of this house.
I've actually enjoyed being home and I don't have any feelings of cabin fever, but until I can get from here, out the door, down those treacherous front steps, into the car, on the road, to the office, up that long, straight flight of steps, and to my desk, I'm SOL.
I have no choice but to chance it, so this weekend I'm gonna practice. The plan is to eventually install a wrought iron railing on the the steps where I fell (and maybe even on the ones above that), looking something like this... 
...so there's something to hold on to as I hobble my way up and down, but that won't happen right away (and I must get back to work right away), so my plan is to negotiate both flights of steps inside the house and go through the garage, bypassing those hard, cold, slippery, scary steps outside.
I think it's doable (I think working from home is even more do-able, but alas...) and I'm bound and determined to get to my desk in the next week or so. So wish me luck!
Good luck and be careful!
ReplyDeleteI hope it goes well. I think you're being your usual smart self by negotiating the stairs indoors.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, you've got crutches, which make navigating the outside world easier than the knee walker you've got. If you haven't learned to do stairs with crutches yet, it's easiest to scoot up and down stairs on your butt. Wear pants.
ReplyDeleteYou definitely need railings next to those slate stairs at your front house entrance. They are a lawsuit waiting to happen anyway.
Railings are an excellent idea! How about keeping some rock salt on hand too? I keep a canister of rock salt by both sets of stairs to our house--and also at the door that leads to the cedar deck. I fell on the frozen deck last winter--I didn't even see the ice on it. I know it may not be the "greenest" thing to do, but it doesn't have to be used constantly--usually just for a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteLynnB
Hope you get to the office without mishap.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have a question... I've known a few people now who have broken their hip or ankle doing something simple, like walking down stairs. Why do you think you fell? ...was it ice or did you just step at an odd angle?
Hi Lilly,
ReplyDeleteMy doctor predicted that I've had foot problems for a long time... and he's right! He said most fractures like this that he sees and preceded by foot problems. But also, my bone density isn't great, I discovered since the accident. And yes, it was slippery/icy, and I was wearing those awful Ugg boots.
Carol
Carol - I slipped on black ice in my company's parking lot 4 years ago (feet: flew into air, and I made a 2-point landing, first on my tailbone then on my head; both hurt for weeks afterward). Afterward my doc had me do a balance test and said that I didn't slip so much due to the ice but due to really bad balance. So now I try to do various yoga and rolley-board exercises to improve that. I hate it though, because I always fall. But better to fall in the living room than on the ice again. I imagine you'll be doing a lot of balance training work during your rehab!
ReplyDeleteAll of my falls (and there have been many over the years) were caused by foot problems and poor balance. Poor balance, of course, is mostly because I don't use my feet correctly. I'm now (once again) in physical therapy to correct my gait and posture. God, I hate to even make this statement, I have been lucky that I have never broken anything, but I have arthritis in both knees from the terrible falls I took way back when I was a child.
ReplyDeleteI hope you manage to get to work OK, although I would strongly recommend to wait a while longer to try. And, for myself, I couldn't even imagine managing crutches.
You would not have had this accident in Germany probably, because here it is against the law to have a stairway like that WITHOUT a railing!
ReplyDelete(I realize this doesn't help you much, but I thought I would throw it in)
How's your staircase training going this weekend? Is it working out to go up and down???
ReplyDeleteThose iron railings really would look ok though! Just paint it in the same blue as the house and it'll fit right in! Not only you will benefit but also visitors.
What a task! You are going to feel so light and free when this is all over.
ReplyDelete