Many seniors are anxious about the risk of having a fall – and the damage isn’t limited to the actual injury that can result. It’s also the resulting loss of confidence, and the way that may restrict people’s enjoyment of life.
Marlene’s journey to The Physio Co began with the realisation that not everything was working as it should.
One morning she realised there was severe pain in her right hip, which meant she had trouble walking. The hip kept giving way, which raised Marlene’s fears of falling.
She was assessed in hospital, where scans and injections were carried out, but that didn’t help much with the pain and Marlene was unable to walk far.
Marlene loves to go shopping and visits her local retail centre at least twice a week, as well as going to the hairdresser, so the restricted mobility was adversely affecting her quality of life.
Unfortunately for Marlene, things were going to get worse before they got better.
Hip replacement
The doctors decided Marlene needed a hip replacement, and the operation was duly carried out and Marlene spent some time in hospital recovering.
Not long after she got home, she had a fall in the bathroom and returned to hospital. Scans showed Marlene had fractured the area around the replacement hip, causing her severe pain, and she underwent more surgery to put in a plate and pins to hold the femur together.
After several weeks in respite, Marlene finally returned home again and contacted The Physio Co for a visit.
Marlene quickly set about achieving some key milestones on the road to recovery: her first goal was to be able to walk from the middle of Adelaide’s West Lakes Shopping Centre to Coles at one end, then to Woolworths at the other, once a week to do her shopping. She achieved this and was soon doing this at least once or twice a week.
Love of gardening
With that first target achieved it was time to set a new goal, so Marlene used her love of gardening to spur on her recovery.
She had been unable to tend to it for several months, so Marlene set her new goal as: “I want to be able to be strong enough to go outside to do some gardening on sunny days so that my pots look beautiful during winter.”
To help Marlene achieve this required work on her leg and arm strength. Her physio Karleen set up an exercise program for Marlene to complete at least four times a week, plus a walking program. She also started doing some gardening, but only for short periods to avoid aggravating her lower back pain, and the arthritis and numbness in her hands.
Little by little, Marlene managed to get to her pots, first to do some weeding and then change the soil so new plants could be planted for winter.
Marlene achieved this in good time and was able to reap the rewards through winter, sitting in the garden when the sun shone and enjoying her beautiful colourful pots.
Great work, Marlene, on working so hard to achieve this goal – another TPC success story.
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