Column | The fall, finally

Not without genuine interest, I always listened to stories from the elderly about their falls. Could it happen to me too? No, after all, I was still fit enough. Well, I knew the figures: one in three elderly people over the age of 65 falls at least once a year. But those were probably people who already had something among the members  » – just to use a very old saying.

So early in the morning I went unsuspectingly on a little too loose sandals to the letterbox to pick up my four newspapers. I clamped them to fixed use under my right armpit and walked back to the first staircase in the stairwell. As always, I was a bit rushed because I don’t like to be caught unwashed and unkempt in a dressing gown – you give your neighbors a more pleasant start to a day that they might already look forward to.

I put my left foot on the first tree, continued to crochet – and then fell forward and hit the higher steps with my spectacle. Never realize that a fall can take place so quickly and suddenly. A fall in a flash, such a fall is A flash – a fall as a robbery. No fall training can help against that.

I was difficult to set up and looked dazed at the amount of blood that my face produced in a short time: blood on the stairs, in my hands, on my dressing gown and on the newspapers, as if these days do not contain enough bloody news. Where was my glasses? It was, strangely enough, spotless next to the stairs. And my keys, I had had them in my left hand, where did they go? I wanted to go to my house, that blood had to be washed away, like a scandal, as soon as possible. One fear dominated: nose broken.

I pounded on an adjacent door, but nobody was home there. While the blood dripped off my hands, I walked to the highest floor where young students live. Fortunately, T., an advanced student of medicines, opened. She put me on a chair without hesitation, cleaned my hands and face and looked at the damage carefully. Her diagnosis: no broken nose, stitches not necessary, plasters were enough.

She searched and found my keys, removed the blood traces in the stairwell with soapy water and brought me back home. On her advice, I visited my doctor later in the day who confirmed the findings of her colleague in SPE. She said anything else: « You have a slight concussion, take it easy, avoid busy meetings, do not drink alcohol. » A slight concussion, how could she know? « Because everyone has a slight concussion after such a blow. »

Learned something again. I like clear doctors, such as the other doctor who did not find prostate cancer with me, but did add it dryly: « All men ever get prostate cancer. »

What else had I learned? From now on washed and ironed and on good sandals unhelled to the letterbox. A little fear of falling doesn’t hurt, I have more traps of trap than falling. That is annoying: that from now on I have to pass that first step several times every day, it has become an enemy that I will never trust again, but that I have to do in kind. Otherwise it will be war again.

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