What have you stopped doing because you're afraid of falling?

Well I'm still climbing ladders, altho' not as Gung ho about it as I've always been... so I take more care, altho' I wouldn't climb a ladder up to the second story of the house..

I've stopped wearing open back shoes or slippers, because twice I've had nasty falls due to those shoes, slipping off my feet.. so now it's fully enclosed shoes slippers or trainers for me..
 
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All I can think of that I stopped doing because of falling is walking on ice. I used to be fearless until I thought a place I was visiting didn't have icy steps and down I went all the way to the bottom. Half of me was purple and black & blue for a long time. 😭 Now I just stay home when there's a chance of ice... you can usually see it, but when it's black ice, it's even more dangerous.
 
CallMeKate said:
All I can think of that I stopped doing because of falling is walking on ice. I used to be fearless until I thought a place I was visiting didn't have icy steps and down I went all the way to the bottom. Half of me was purple and black & blue for a long time. 😭 Now I just stay home when there's a chance of ice... you can usually see it, but when it's black ice, it's even more dangerous.
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you should get snow /ice grips for your shoes Kate . I did because I cannot afford to fall due to my lower lumbar disc issues, and they work very well..
 
No ladders, no climbing on any furniture to clean. I hire a neighborhood student to do my yard work and I try to watch where I'm walking, especially paying attention to where the cats are. I don't have many steps but I'm very careful on them. I watch the forecast and plan to stay home when there is snow. I'm just a lot more careful now than before last year's fall. I don't like this part of aging but I am adapting.
 
It's not so much as stopped doing as started. Following hip replacement surgery, my surgeon recommended an aid just in case I needed to hold on if I lost balance. A walking stick has proved invaluable, saving me not once, but twice from what could have been a calamitous fall. We Brits don't use the term cane, but I do, by inference. One of my sticks I call Michael (Caine.) Another is known as Abel ( Cain & Abel,) A third I named Dean, (Cain,) as in Superman. Actually my Godson came up with the last one, he probably knew that Superman would have gone right over my head.
 
hollydolly said:
you should get snow /ice grips for your shoes Kate . I did because I cannot afford to fall due to my lower lumbar disc issues, and they work very well..
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Agree. Since I do so much walking and we have snow & ice as well as hills everywhere, I permanently have a set of cleats attached to my hiking shoes that prevent me from slipping and they work very well.

Note: My man won’t let my climb on ladders: not sure why.
 
Myrtle said:
No ladders, no climbing on any furniture to clean. I hire a neighborhood student to do my yard work and I try to watch where I'm walking, especially paying attention to where the cats are. I don't have many steps but I'm very careful on them. I watch the forecast and plan to stay home when there is snow. I'm just a lot more careful now than before last year's fall. I don't like this part of aging but I am adapting.
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Ageing in general sucks.
 
Instead of running up two stairs at a time while holding a bag of groceries in each hand, I walk up one stair at a time with one bag of groceries & one hand on the rail.
And it's been many years since I jumped from the 4th stair to the bottom. :giggle:
 
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I'm still able to climb, but, as always, I'm very careful. I hire someone to clear the gutters and trim the large tree limbs, but I do the rest of the work myself. When I get close to not being able to do it, I'll sell my home.

I've never been a big fan of driving at night. I'll occasionally venture out at night to meet for dinner, but I won't travel more than a few miles from home. If it's too far, I'll pass.
 
No ladders or stairs.....I always make sure the path to kitchen and bathroom is clear and that I have furniture or something that I can hold onto when I have to get up in the night. My driving has changed....I'm way more careful and caution....try to time driving when there is less traffic and double check the location of where I'm going if it is somewhere I've not been before.
 
It must be at least 15 years since I felt safe on any except small ladders, and even then I remember the last time I cleaned gutters on a tall ladder I wore my riding helmet and equestrian body protector (padded safety vest)! Around 13 years ago one of the barn cats got stuck up high in the barn, and I was too scared to climb an extension ladder so I spent hours building a giant pyramid of hay bales to climb up and rescue him.

Also stopped riding bareback 12 yrs ago (and for the last number of years before that I'd only wobble around a token amount bareback (less than a minute!), usually only rode bareback when it was too snowy/cold to want to bother tacking up). And I gave up riding at all 10 years ago (though that had more to do with my old horse and mother both having died and I didn't feel it was safe to ride the young horse when I was all alone out in the country with no one to know if I got hurt).

I also had to have/use the safety bar on my mini-trampoline, but I gave up jumping on that several years ago because it was hurting my hip.

On the last hike I went on with the retirement community's 'Baby Boomers' club, I had to find a stout stick in the woods to help me feel safer navigating up and down the hills and over the tree roots and rocks (the other hikers helped me too).

It is time I look into getting a walking stick of my own. Someone this week was telling me she knew someone with a type that you use two sticks (one for each hand).
 
The other day I startled myself when I started to lose balance while drying off after my shower. I had one leg raised and was able to grab the towel bar. This has never happened before.

I’ve never liked walking down stairs. Now that I have no depth perception and limited vision, I really hate it. It’s one hand on the railing and one on the wall. Sometimes I do it one step at a time..
 

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