In the lead up to New Year’s Eve we have been getting our new house organised. We had just moved in on 21/12, so 10 days in and we are still surrounded by boxes in many areas. We were having our three grand-daughters to stay and had purchased a new Queen/King-Single bunk set. My husband had put it together and my job was to make the bed up for the girls. I won’t lie, it was a challenge to do so and after an already busy day I was getting tired.
I had just finished making up the top bunk and had been standing on the ladder to do so. I started to descend and thought I was being very careful. Somehow, that’s when it all unravelled! Suddenly, I missed a rung on the ladder and crashed down on the floor from about 1 metre high. I screamed several times and my husband came running. I was scared to move and in pain and crying and kept apologising to my husband for causing a fuss. My back was immediately very sore and I was scared to get up from the floor at first. However, my husband carefully helped me up and thank goodness I was able to walk.
I am still in a lot of pain three days later. The thing that I keep saying is ‘It’s nothing to do with my Parkies! Everyone has accidents. Anyone could have a fall doing the same thing.’ I hate to think that my husband – or anyone else – might blame my Parkies for this fall. I am not ready to be wrapped in cotton wool and not allowed to do anything because I am seen as ‘a falls risk’. I am in the early stages of this journey and can’t bear the thought that anyone might think – at this early stage – that I am any more prone than anyone else to having such mishaps as the one I had three days ago.
Perhaps I was tired. Perhaps I was rushing. Perhaps I lost concentration for a second or two, just long enough to miss a rung on the ladder and fall.
But, most importantly, don’t blame Parkies! I will not accept it had anything to do with the fall. I absolutely refuse to. It is too soon and I will not be labelled as someone who cannot do things that involve ladders and potential risk just because of one fall. I won’t let Parkies take that ability from me just yet!
My journey with Parkinsons 