Are you a 'furniture hugger/toucher'-Use for Balance?-No dessert for you

WhatInThe

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Rant alert.

Are you a furniture hugger or toucher using furniture for balance instead of a cane or walker? Have you or friends even tried general conditioning and balance exercises, especially if no preexisting conditions are prohibiting exercise? Using furniture, objects and/or walls is considered bad especially if one can use a cane or walker. It's too easy to misjudge or over estimate the strength of furniture or it will simply break, especially when weight and/or force is put on it from an angle or position it wasn't designed for.

I know someone who resents being scolded for furniture touching and the physical therapy that has been prescribed for them. Several ambulance trips to hospital in less than a year that involved strength related issues. Part of the problem is that they can't handle instruction from the therapists let alone doctors. They simply don't want to be told what to do. A yet they complain about costs and medical care in the US. Got news patients like them are part of the reason for high cost because they are the patient that wants a pill or procedure for everything. They can't handle the fact they will have to actually work at their health beyond a prescription drug or surgery. Got them to the point where they'll walk a little more but they can't stand the simplest of exercises they should incorporate into their daily life/routine.

As someone who has worked out their entire life and did things like vitamins I have no sympathy or pitty for someone that refuses to take vitamins or will not do some very basic fitness exercises & routines on a regular basis. They won't even take their prescribed drugs all the time-without reason, it's a personal "choice" so they feel like they have some 'control. But they cannot tell why they think the drug or exercise is bad.

Point being if you can still workout/work on your fitness-do it. Especially if you can't stand hospitals, questions and more questions. And of course use a cane or walker rather than an object or wall. At least a cane or walker one can control where they go. If one relies on furniture, walls and/or avoids open spaces they will be restricted.
 

I always use my cane when out of the house. Less often when at home. I was at my doctor this morning and we were discussing my balance issues. She gave me some basic exercises to help my balance. She also referred me to a local organization that helps seniors, called Lifespan. It basically helps us with any financial or health care related transitional issues we may have. Also they have a service called "Managing your balance" or something like that. I am going to give them a call tomorrow. I do want to look into how to best change my eating habits, and see what vitamins would help me out.
 
I'm not a furniture hugger but I could become one, LOL!!!

I try to look for new ways to do things that I took for granted when I was younger. I have found some helpful videos on YouTube that explain ways to get out of a chair without assistance, get up off the floor, climb stairs, etc... IMO the two most important things are to slow down and to clear the decks so you have less chance of a trip and fall.

I suppose a little exercise can't hurt!

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Nope; thankfully I don't have any balance problems. My little MIL does navigate using furniture quite often since she hates to use her walker in the house.
 
It's important to make bathrooms safe by installing grab bars in the shower and near the toilet for support and to steady. I have to hook my elbow on the shower grab bar to maintain balance while shampooing my hair.

So many put off doing these things because they don't want others to think they are old.

I do take vitamins and I do work out daily on my Nordic Track and I have worked on balance exercises but I still have balance problems so I do use a cane and walker and use furniture and walls for support and don't feel guilty about it.
 
Exercise becomes doubly important, as we age. Sitting around all day will insure "balance", and many other, problems. There is also the issue of inner ear problems developing as we get older...the inner ear is the mechanism that allows us to remain balanced as we move around. The bathtub and shower are the two most dangerous areas in the house for people with balance issues....and should be equipped with extra bars, and handrails, etc., to help prevent falls while bathing. I've had a couple of old friends take a tumble in the shower in recent years, and hurt themselves badly.

I tend to agree with "Whatinthe" about people who don't want to take some responsibility for their own health and well being. There isn't a pill or surgery that can overcome "stubbornness".
 
I go to PT twice a week and try to say as active as I can, but I almost never use a cane or walker. I stumble a lot and lean on whatever is handy, but I rarely fall. I don't use the electric carts when shopping but I couldn't get by without the basket to lean on.
 
I've taken capsuled herbs and a few vitamins since 1977. I have seldom missed a day in all these years. I loved my 12 PT sessions and the therapist was such a cute guy I asked my doctor for more but she said no. (She's never liked me!) So I'm suppose to go in tomorrow to get a referral for an MRI. I had a nasty fall in our bedroom one night a few months ago and hurt my right shoulder but didn't break it.

I don't think just because a person doesn't use a cane or walker it means they don't take vitamins or believe in exercise. Maybe I'm wrong but it seemed like that is what you were saying. I am like Larry and lean on a shopping cart when I go to Super Wal-Mart for my tri-weekly speed walking round. I can fly pretty fast around the perimeter of Wal-Mart. I own a cane but I leave it at home and use my husband to lean on and hold me up when we are out in public and my knees give out. Isn't that what he promised 53 years ago?? He would be there for me to lean on? It was something like that. Now his hips are bad so we sort of have to lean on each other.

My daughter gave me a Wii, which is some sort of a game playing devise, and it has something for me to stand on and a program for exercises. I plan to use it soon. You hook it up to the TV like an Xbox.

Anyway, yes, I am a furniture hugger sometimes. It depends on how I'm doing on a particular day. I know the night I fell (my foot got caught in the top sheet on my way to the bathroom) my finger tips were trying to hug the drawers on my dresser, but no, I went down like a ton of bricks on my right shoulder. My husband almost had a heart attack when he heard the crash. He thought the aliens had finally landed.
 


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