Commentary by Wayne Lee
For me, getting old sucks. There is just no other way to put it. The older I get, the more my body begins to break down and cause me issues I never previously had to deal with. The list of medications continues to grow as do the doctor’s appointments for the variety of injuries and ailments I’m attempting to keep under control.
The list of medical professionals continues to grow and my calendar fills with more and more appointments I need to make time for. In the meantime, I continue to struggle with the day-to-day effects of aging. Primarily simple balance and lifting loads such as trash and laundry and my housing situation has only complicated my efforts.
My medical records list me as a “fall risk.” As I’ve aged, my balance has deteriorated to the point that I just tell them I’m “gravitationally challenged.” It wasn’t so long ago I climbed to the top of Pilot Rock to enjoy the view and avoid the steep drop-off where one misstep could have killed me. Now I’m struggling just to navigate uneven sidewalks and carry heavy loads. I can’t pull a shirt up over my head without losing my balance because I become disoriented. I dress and undress sitting down to avoid falling.
I have a new ramp outside my front door built for wheelchairs. Management put it in after throwing my little wooden ramp in the trash (without telling me they did it) because it was considered a “fire hazard” although it had been there for nearly 15 years without a problem. Unfortunately, these ramps, many of which exist throughout the complex, are designed for straight sidewalks. Unfortunately, my unit is the only one with a sidewalk with an immediate left turn.
Theis means it leads me directly down a path to loose gravel and I don’t do well on loose surfaces. Additionally. It has solid edges designed to prevent wheelchairs from rolling off the edge. What it doesn’t prevent is someone from tripping over that edge and falling to the ground. I stumbled over it many times before I took the ultimate spill.
I had just settled down for the day when I decided to check the mail. I stepped out the front door and attempted that left turn to the sidewalk when that left rail caught my foot and since I was already heading downhill, sent me stumbling forward inro the loose gravel.
I looked like one of those inflatable advertising dummies with my arms flailing around, trying to keep from going face first into the rocks. I invented dance moves I never knew I was capable of as I struggled to stay upright. Somehow, I recovered and turned left back towards the sidewalk only to come face-to-face with a three-foot bush,
Wanting not to topple over the bush, I did a little spin move to the right and headed for the sidewalk that was my original destination, only to catch my foot on the edge of the concrete which sent me to the ground.
I put my hands out to break my fall, but it was too little, too late. I went face first into the concrete…hard. So hard, it knocked me unconscious. It wasn’t long before I came to in a pool of my own blood. I sat up and was still dripping blood, so I struggled to my feet and went inside to get cleaned up.
In my concussed state, I went outside and saw all the blood on the sidewalk and my first thought was to draw a chalk line around it to make it look like a crime scene, but I thought that might upset the children who live here and rejected that idea. In fact, it looked so bad that management had my neighbor come by the next day to check on me to make sure I was still alive.
They eventually came out with a pressure washer to remove the blood, and we reviewed the problems of having a straight ramp on a curved sidewalk that leads me into loose gravel. In the meantime, I lost two days in the process. I cleaned up and went to bed. I woke up on a Sunday thinking it was Friday. I had no memory of the two days that had passed.
I can now say I am almost completely healed, and management is rethinking the idea of the ramp that leads me into a hazardous area instead of safely down to the sidewalk. We’ll see what alternatives, if any, come to fruition. In the meantime, I’m avoiding that ramp as if it was out to get me, because it already did.
