"Benchmark" Fall

[Cat Mom]

I've fallen lots due to MS, in public too, but no fall will ever equal THE EPIC fall that my non MS husband took in a packed movie theatre on Sat. I was seated near the top and he was carrying fries, drinks, hot dogs and popcorn up to our seats, just being a gentleman. He tripped and the food went airborne as did he. He's 6'4" and I don't even know where he landed.

Food was everywhere, people for at least 10 rows of seats were soaked with pop, food and ketchup (makes a good argument to NOT have those fill-yourself condiments).

In the distance, far from the mess, all I hear is this "B" yelling, "Who's gonna clean this up!" in her witchiest voice. After thanking random strangers for their assistance I turned around and my husband was GONE! I found him, not injured but looking sheepish coming out of the men's room. Needless to say we left but not before spending $28 for 2 admissions, $25 on New York Fries and $17 on popcorn and chocolate.

It's what I call a 'benchmark fall'. One of those falls that every other fall I have or see will be measured against that one. As the previous holder of this esteemed title, I know what it takes to achieve! I currently have 2 tailbone fractures, on 2 different parts of the tailbone, done 7 months apart so you can just imagine what kind of fall beats that!

I just wanted to share this and hopefully make someone, who might be having a tough day, smile.
Jen

[techie]

I hope I never set any benchmarks
techie

[kelly2145]

it worked Jen

Thanks for the smile. So sorry for your husband and hope he is OK. But you painted a great picture!

[gomer]

Thanks for the LoL .

I know it was NOT funny (very embarrassing actually) at the time, but I can just imagine the whole scene in my mind, in full technicolor & surround sound of course. While you may not remember much if any of the movie, you will NEVER ever forget the movie experience. BTW did you (or anyone) happen to catch this on video? I bet it could catch a $10k prize, at least!

Until this past Jan, my personal benchmark fall was back in after Christmas in late 06. I fell on the front porch, flat smooth and level. I was near the steps and ended up going down them. I laid there wondering if I was going to be able to get up, envision the "help I've fallen and can't get up" TV ad replaying in your mind, it was mine!

Now what topped that?
I fell back in mid Jan, in the drive by my car. I could NOT get up, no question. MY wife called 911. They went right past us, with their headlights in my eyes as they went around the corner. My we had to call 911 back to tell them they went right past us.

Then they get me to the ER. First thing was off to X-ray and the crew from HELL. They took a few Xrays, then wanted me to go from the gurney to a table. I could not do that either. So back to ER. I am told no broken bones and just muscle issue, given pain pills and muscle relaxer and sent home.

Two days later, unable to get our of my la-z-boy since got in it, my liquid output turned brown instead of yeller. My son came over to get me up to ER again. He could not get me out of my la-z-boy and had to call 911, again.

This time they KNEW where to find us.....ha ha. They got me up to ER along with my pee jar of brown liquid in tow.

One look at my p-jar and the doc sends me back to Xray, this time with a better, nicer, kinder, gentler crew. They used a wall mounted Xray propping me up on the gurney.

Verdict: Five broken ribs, acute kidney failure, so put on morphine, plus IVs for my kidneys and admitted for a few days on, you guessed it Nurse Ratchet training ward!

Gomer Sir Falls-a-lot

[pb909]

I've had my share of falls around the house and haven't broken anything (yet) and I'm always worried about falling when out in public.

My wife always says: so what if you do, people without MS fall too. Guess she is right! Thanks for sharing.

[Seasha]

Thanks for sharing Jen and gomer - Sorry about the misfortunes, but really I had to LOL

I have nothing to top your stories! I have fallen into thorny blackberry bushes, into my empty dishwasher, in front of teenagers during a lesson, to name just a few of many, but the one that made me hurt the most was falling onto my couch where my knitting needles were sticking up from a ball of yarn. So, here's a needle sticking onto my behind and I can't get it out!! My dh had to yank HARD to release it. He was laughing his head off. (thanks, dear) I had a puncture wound about 3/8" and it took a painful week to heal. (I called the dr to make sure my tetnus shot was current)

[gomer]

That fall in late 06 bought me shoulder surgery. Having a history of being GOMERd,( ie going to doc and nothing gained), I put off going to a doc till after I landed in ER, w/BP & BG not in good control.

Days alter I barely waddled into my (then) new docs office. My left leg was weak, vestibular a mess, shoulder torn, and sent to ENT, surgeon etc. ENT had ADD, (Arrogant Dismissive Disorder) and ignored the brain MRI showing many classic Dawson's fingers as "CNS issue, investigate if warranted".

Even yet another fall requiring surgery in' 07 still did warrant checking it out.

A couple years ago I had a wild minor fall. I was out in the garage and my legs became tangled. I though to myself I am going to FALL if I don't get these legs untangled... Well I just could not untangle my legs and as expected fell. Lots of scrapes and bruises, but no damage requiring a doc.

One thing is consistent (so Far) is I fall to my left, my weak side. Should I change my handle to "Sir Falls-left-a-lot"?

I love this thread, would love to read others FALL stories. I know not funny at the time, but in hindsight many have funny aspects. Heck, we gotta be able to LOL sometimes, even if its at ourselves.

Gomer Sir Falls-a-lot

[alishape]

Benchmark

Around 87 there was a terrible ice storm in the northeast. I was 12 and clumsy so I had fallen many times much to my mothers eternal enjoyment. I mean she would laugh at odd times for no reason and then say remember that time you fell when you had on the polka dot shorts, ha ha ha. Any ways this ice storm was the stuff of legends. I was trying to cross the street carefully when suddenly my mom fell down in the middle of the street flat on her bottom with her legs spread out like a cartoon character, lol. This was almost her exact facial expression !I almosted peed my pants laughing at her. Come to find out she broke her tailbone, which is not funny, except she had to wear this whole body brace. It was like a visual reminder of the comical way she fell down in the first place.

Man, that was good times! Thanks for reminding me.

[Toomnyhats]

Wow, my falls are lacking in degree of difficulty & general performance!

I will say though, my last fall my friends thought I fainted b/c I was so graceful - thankfully nothing broken.

[Mynamegoeshere1]

How to pick the benchmark

It is so hard to pick which one would be the "benchmark" fall.

The one that injured me the most was one where I went to Austin with one of my girlfriends. The guy I was dating at the time happened to have a job in the area and called and surprised us out there and took us to dinner. After hanging out for awhile, we walked him to his truck. We were walking down a slight decline and the curb magically moved on me (I am still not sure how this happened ) and I ended up on the parking lot and heard a lot of snaps and cracks.

I sat there laughing for about 5 minutes. Luckily for me I think falling is hilarious. Then came time to try to get up. That didn't happen to easily. I could put no weight on my left foot and hardly any on my right either. So they had to walk me back to the room because I refused to go to the ER in Austin. The next day, I could not even get out of bed and had to crawl onto one of those roller things for your luggage to the car. We drove back to Houston and I had my friend just drop me off at the ER by my house.

I sprained my right ankle and had a liz frank fracture in my left foot. They usually only see this fracture in extreme athletes and were shocked to see this in someone who so gracefully just fell off of a curb. Every single bone in my left foot was broken and hurt so miserably bad and was so swollen. It is swollen still to this day.................

My other more recent one was at work right before my diagnosis. I was walking down the stairs and my legs got weak all of the sudden and I just started rolling down them (and yes, there was a witness). I was unable to do anything but get up after a minute or two and say I will be performing again next week same time. The witness didn't even help and just laughed. I ended up on workers comp because my neck got so swollen and I had huge lumps poking out where it had sprained. It was horrible. Those are both my benchmarks. Luckily I think laughing is funny because after the laughter came great tears of pain!

** Moderator's note - Post broken into paragraphs for easier reading. Many people with MS have visual difficulties that prevent them from reading large blocks of print. **

[Cat Mom]

Wow! These falls sound horrendous and I'm sorry for everyone that got hurt! The only injury my husband is suffering from is to his ego!

Your falls are quite a bunch of benchmarks, you set the bar high... especially Gomer! I can now see how your "Sir Falls Alot" came to be, you've earned it by out-benchmarking yourself! You have the correct visual of my DH's fall only the movie hadn't even started, the theatre was fully lit. We left before the movie began. Funny you mentioned catching it on video, I went to YouTube and looked to see if anyone did.

Thanks for sharing your fall stories, I have plenty of my own too but none as amusing as my DH's. I think most people's first reaction after falling is the same... look around to see who else saw it!