Walking in Winter

This post about winter and falls will be shorter than I anticipated, but I want to just deal with the snow fall we had yesterday, about 4-5 inches in my area.

Here is my drive and the walk I have to my mailbox down at the end of the drive.

Now that the sun is out the snow left on the drive will melt and, hopefully, the cement will dry off. But if it is wet and the snow or water refreezes, I have any icy trek.

I've been known to drive my garbage down to the street for pick-up rather than risk falling on ice. Last night I shoveled a path to the mailbox at 11 PM to get my mail.  Sometimes I have just left it in the box and then driven down the next day.  Did I say I have a fear of falling?

Last year I hired someone to clear the drive, but they did such a poor job that I will just go back to doing it myself.  I replaced my old 2-cycle snowblower with a new 4-cycle snow thrower last year and my drive was done in about 20 minutes.  Since I am holding onto the machine, I don't have too many concerns about falling when I am out there.

I bought new boots this year with more traction on  the soles.  Plus they are waterproof.  A friend of mine invested in cleats that attach to her boots.  As I well know, walking can be dangerous no matter what your age is.

I have to run out this afternoon to pick up the fresh turkey I ordered.  And I also have to bake my chiffon cakes for my Pumpkin Mousse Trifle.

I'll try to blog about dinner and being safe in winter, but who knows how much time I will have to sit at a computer.  Unless of course we all get snowed in.

Fall into Winter - Part Two

It was late February, 2007.  Nearly 39 years after I broke my leg walking to the bus stop.  It was a Thursday morning.  We were coming to the end of tax collection season (March 1) and I was really busy.  I had a noon meeting away from the office that day and I was scheduled to chair a meeting in Lansing on Friday morning.  I was rushing to get my investments done and make sure everyone would survive without my being there until Monday.

I had a corner office with a wide  hallway separating it from the front clerical offices.  Offices were all carpeted, but the hall was tiled with runners running down the center.  I was walking back into my office when it happened.

Before I knew it, my left leg (I previously broke the right one) just went out from under me.  I landed on my rear.  When I looked down I saw the bone sticking out of my leg.

I yelled.  Then I yelled again for help.  My Deputy came running and the first thing I told her to do was to take my boot off before my foot started swelling.  Here is a photo of the boots I had on that day.  (I donated them a few years ago since I never again put them on my feet.)

My friends from the fire station arrived to transport me to the local hospital.  I broke both my fibula and tibia and my ankle.  Instead of spending my afternoon at a meeting, I spent it in surgery.

The surgeon re-constructed my leg with a steel plate and nine screws.  I spent the night in the hospital and came home to see all my family here the next day, Friday.  Saturday night, my son had to call EMS to come take me back to the hospital.

I was deathly sick.  I had no idea what was going on and being immobile and knocked out by anesthesia after effects along with the pain medication that was pumping into my leg really freaked me out.  I was diagnosed with norovirus at the hospital.   Hey, when it rains, it pours.

Back home at last, I was non-weight bearing for eight weeks.  I had this ridiculous scooter that I rested my left knee on and propelled myself with my right leg.  My previous experience with crutches was a disaster, so the scooter seemed the right choice.  Even so, I fell off the scooter one day right onto the ceramic tile floor.  Luckily it happened when my son was here (he moved back in when this happened).

The original cast was so heavy I could not sleep in bed and had to use a chair and ottoman.  Not great for my back issues, either.  After two weeks they put me in a removable cast, though I wasn't allowed to remove it.  It was just lighter.  And eventually I got rid of the scooter and propelled myself with a walker, still putting no weight on my left leg.

I had to have a friend help me into the shower with a garbage bag over my cast.  I sat on a stool.  It was impossible to ever feel really clean.  The same friend came everyday to look in on me.

The IT department from work came and hooked me up to their computers so that I could work from home.  I kept up with all my office work, but I never once paid attention to what was happening at the Board table.  Oh, what a relief it was.  Since I live just a mile from the town offices, we just shuttled papers back and forth a couple of times a week.

After six weeks in the lighter cast I was actually able to remove it at night and really walk around in it.  But by that time I had managed to get a stress fracture in my right foot from pushing myself around in that damn scooter and then using the walker.  So, now I had a cast and a boot.  And a cane.  And it wasn't over yet.

Once the leg was completely healed, I had innumerable hours of physical therapy.  The calf muscle in my left leg was gone.  I almost cried when I saw what my leg looked like after 13 weeks.  I was still using a cane to walk around, too.

My surgeon told me in the emergency room that if I had hit my head instead of breaking my fall as I did with my hands and rear-end, that I would be in the morgue, not the ER.  It was a sobering thought.  As I went through my recovery, I knew that my working days would end the following year and I would not run for re-election.  Life is just too short.

In April, 2008 I re-entered the hospital to have all the hardware removed from my leg.  I knew two people who had issues with their screws coming loose, literally, and having to have surgery, so I decided to just get it over with.  Four weeks in a walking cast was a piece of cake after what I had been through, though I did have to go back for more physical therapy.

My two legs look different, especially the ankles.  My left leg is much stronger than my right.  It also has some ugly scars.  And if I turn my ankle the wrong way, the scar tissue is very painful.  Want to know if the barometer is dropping?  Just ask me.  In the cold winters here I have to keep socks on over that ankle to relieve the pain.

Up next, what I've learned about falls and my balance after this experience.

Fall into Winter

Batten down the hatches.  Stock up on food and drinks.  It's coming.  ONE TO TWO INCHES OF SNOW!!!  Are you prepared?

I had to turn off the radio this morning as this first snowfall of the year, which is still a day away, is all anyone can seem to talk about.  This is Michigan.  It is nearing the end of November.  Guess what folks.  We get snow!

All the hype drives me up the wall.  What is more important to me is knowing how to deal with the snow and ice once it gets here.

I have not blogged much about my falls.  Two of them to be precise.  Both falls resulted in broken legs.  And because this is the time of year when falls are more likely to occur because of the weather and because this is supposed to be a blog about retirement, i.e. older folks might read it, I thought I would reminisce about the falls.  In winter.

(BTW.  Speaking of 'falls' in winter, if you want to see something astonishing, go to Niagara Falls in winter.  Among all my old photos is one of me back in January 1970 standing in front of the Falls.)

Back to the task at hand.  My first fall was in March, 1968.  I was walking to the bus stop to change buses on my way to my internship at the old Detroit General Hospital.  I managed to step on one of the last pieces of ice in the entire city and fell down.  I got up, waited for the bus, got on and rode downtown.

When I tried to stand to get off the bus, the pain was incredible.  I finally disembarked and proceeded to immediately hail a taxi.  When I told the driver where I wanted to go he looked at me and said 'Miss, it is two blocks away'.

I told him that I knew that but that I thought that I may have broken my leg.  When we arrived at the emergency entrance, I told him to go inside, make a right into the Blood Bank, and tell them Denise was outside and needed a wheelchair.

I actually worked from the wheelchair until an ER doctor was able to see me.  They were able to get the boot off easily enough.  The x-ray showed a clean break of the fibula.  I was in a cast for four weeks, but was horrible on crutches.  It's a wonder I didn't fall and break something else.  Near the end of the recovery I even managed to be a bridesmaid.  Thank goodness for long dresses.

Ever since that fall I have been terrified of walking on slippery surfaces.  Ice, wet floors, waxed floors.  Gives me the creeps.

But this was the 'easy' fall in winter.  Stay tuned for part two and the fall that prompted me to decide to retire.

UPDATE:  Now they are saying 5 to 8 inches of snow.  It will be interesting to see what we actually get.