A chilly Forward Ambulation GOOD MORNING!!! Yup, a bit nippy this morning on the Forward Ambulation. Then, it rained on the drive in. A bit of Pac NW AWESOME SAUCE for ya! UGGGHHHH!
Free For All Friday Ed-vise today. Cause it’s FRIDAY! OPEN MAT; PIZZA NIGHT! Even in 2024!
Got to spend the holiday with mom. It was, shall we say, waves of joy with troughs of my “Fun Meter” getting pegged out.
Now days, whenever I walk with Mom, I have to stand closer to her because she appears, to me, very unstable on her feet.
The mind thing is something else. I think she is declining in mental acuity but I cannot be 100% on that because she doesn’t hear very well.
Still, the way she stands and the way she walks she looks very much like a “Drunken Sailor.”
During the visit, I know of two times that she fell. Once in front of Newbie at Hobby Lobby. Another time at the start of a low intensity (very low intensity) hike.
Then, there were the many times where she would stumble and I would catch her or she would stumble and catch herself. None of which were good.
She would say “I don’t know why I am so off balanced” or “I don’t know why I keep falling.” I would ask her if she felt dizzy prior to the falls and stumbles. She would always say “no.”
You can tell when someone is dizzy and falls. Their face color changes as the blood rushes around. For Mom, these falls were not dizzy related.
They were related to practice.
Wait…WHAT?
Yes, PRACTICE.
See, the action of walking, is really just stumbling. Literally. Coordinated stumbling. With each step, we are literally starting the action of falling on our face. However, our brain recognizes this. It then takes action by extending out our lower leg and foot to stop the fall and continue moving. If the brain didn’t extend the lower leg, it would extend the hands and arms to catch the fall, unless it has been trained as I have been. Thus, I would take an expert fall and avoid any and all damage to myself and earn additional “Cool Points” for a perfect fall.
Without the “Practice” of walking the mind/body connection deteriorates. The end result being a softening of muscles and a delay in response to the “fall.” That delay results in the lower leg not extending in a timely manner. This results in a stumble and a subsequent fall.
Mom, literally needs to walk more. That is she needs to “Practice” more. Otherwise, the falls will become worse.
Yes, I did tell her this. Whether or not she takes it to heart, don’t know. More likely than not she won’t and soon, she will be in the ER with something broken. Because she is a stubborn West Virginia born BRAT!
I’m just saying
That’s it for today. Be the person your dog thinks you are. Check in on each other and remember the thing a Ginger misses about a party…THE INVITATION!!! BWAHAHAHAHHAHA…SOB!
Peace
Ed-vise 