| My mother will celebrate her eighty-ninth birthday this | | | | disease. |
| year. I feel fortunate that she is in good health and able | | | | After surgery to repair the fracture, the bone healed in |
| to live independently and enjoy her life. | | | | about six months. I visited her daily throughout this |
| As I watch her doing housework, playing with her | | | | period, at first helping her from the bed to the bedside |
| great grandchildren and taking walks, I am reminded of | | | | commode and back. After the doctor and physical |
| how four years ago my father called to tell me that | | | | therapist instructed her to begin bearing weight on the |
| my mother was in the hospital. I cannot recall ever | | | | bone, I encouraged her to stand upright and put weight |
| hearing his voice sound so broken and sad. At first I | | | | on the leg, even if only for ten seconds. |
| could not grasp the significance of what he was | | | | At first my mother was understandably afraid to "test" |
| saying - something about, "If only I had fixed the | | | | whether her leg could bear weight again. In fact, she |
| hallway carpet." | | | | felt depressed and talked about wanting to die. |
| He was trying to tell me that my mother had slipped | | | | Without the doctor, physical therapist and our whole |
| and fallen in the hallway just before going to bed. | | | | family encouraging her, she might never have regained |
| Despite terrible pain, she did not grasp the severity of | | | | her ability to walk. |
| her predicament. She stayed on the floor where she | | | | In my yoga classes for both active seniors and the frail |
| fell and asked my father to prop her leg up with a | | | | elderly, weight-bearing standing poses (with the help of |
| pillow - not yet realizing that her thigh bone was | | | | support like a wall and a chair, if necessary) is critical |
| fractured like an egg shell in twenty places! She waited | | | | for strengthening the bones. I made a game out of |
| and hoped the pain would subside. Two hours later, | | | | getting her to stand upright by counting to ten... next |
| my father finally called the ambulance. | | | | day fifteen... then twenty... thirty... until she could stand |
| Fortunately I live nearby and the hospital was just | | | | for a full minute. |
| minutes away. It gave me a shock to see my mother | | | | Standing itself was the first milestone. It gave us all a |
| in a hospital bed. Without her dentures, in her gown, | | | | boost of confidence to see our mother stand again, |
| she suddenly looked about a hundred years old. She | | | | with my sister and I assisting her. Next she began |
| had a morphine drip in one arm and a urine bag hung | | | | taking two steps from her bed to the bedside |
| by the bed. A machine was monitoring her vital signs. | | | | commode. Progress was in small increments - two |
| She had surgery the next day. | | | | steps, five, ten. For several weeks she walked around |
| A fall that causes a bump on the bottom for someone | | | | a table (holding on to the table as needed, with me |
| with strong bones can result in a broken bone for a | | | | close behind her). |
| person with osteoporosis. But, as I saw while taking | | | | During the weeks that my mother cautiously walked |
| care of my mother, the broken bone itself was not the | | | | around the house, we installed ramps and railings by |
| biggest problem. My mother's fractured thigh triggered | | | | the front and back door so she could safely go out in |
| a whole series of events related to the aging process | | | | her wheelchair. It was a happy day when she made it |
| - a downward spiral that could have resulted in | | | | all the way to the back yard with a walker. Gradually |
| spending the rest of her life in a wheel chair. | | | | she began to get around without a walker, except for |
| Already thin before she broke her leg, she lost her | | | | walking long distances on uneven terrain. |
| appetite and began to look as if she was wasting | | | | Seeing my mother walk again after a fall that landed |
| away. When you are bedridden, all the systems of the | | | | her in the hospital and in a wheelchair, has given me |
| body become weaker and more susceptible to | | | | new appreciation for the body's healing power. |
| infection and illness. With less exercise, your arteries | | | | Weight-bearing exercise, combined with plenty of love |
| become less elastic and more prone to injury. | | | | and moral support, can make the difference between |
| Consequently, your immune system is compromised | | | | walking and living independently, or spending the last |
| and you are even more vulnerable to infections and | | | | years of life in a wheelchair. |