Improving balance and preventing falls!

[Fancy1959]

Hello everyone Fancy1959 again. I I have been reading a book and it made me so excited that I've been working or should I say playing non-stop on improving my balance. To say the least the book is awesome and I believe it can benefit most of the people in this chat room. It was passed along to me from my physical therapy and everyone should go out and pick up a copy immediately. The book is titled, "How to Prevent Falls."

In a nutshell the book is made up of 6 chapters. Chapter one encourages everyone to go through a series of stretches before we get out of bed. This will help to wake up our muscles and loosen them up before we expect them to carry us safely from point A to point B.

Chapter 2, asks you to work on finding our balance point. It stresses the point of having very good Footwear that is very stable and practices our walking with our feet going head to heal like we're on a tightrope, marching, spinning, etc.

Chapter 3 was one of my favorite and it encourages everyone who has balance issues to play with a ball. Toss it from one hand to the next, toss it over your head, dribble it, play catch with someone, etc. When we focus on playing with the ball we forget about are balance issues in our body and move our body in ways that improve our balance so that we can catch the ball. How elementary and perfect is this idea.

Chapter 4 asks us to do something as simple as walking while talking on phone. To be safe when we start doing this make sure we choose the area of our walk while talking on our phone very carefully. If we walk over hazardous areas or rough ground and attempt to talk on our phone the results could be disastrous.

Chapter 5 teaches us how to relax our body as we fall to help prevent injury.

And finally chapter 6 encourages to dance with a pillow. This reminds us that dancing is a fun and valuable form of exercise. Dancing inspires our body to move in many directions, spin, relieve tension, and makes us forget about our MS if only for a little while.

The entire book is only a hundred and thirty some pages so it's not a big, complicated read. It goes fast and it's fun. I've been working mostly with a ball and I feel more confident after working with a ball only five or six days. I am anxious to hear what you all think of this book. You can find it on this website: senior-fitness.com. Those who are in physical therapy might be able to ask the therapist for a copy of the book. Mine was given to me free and has proven to be very beneficial to me.

Wishing you all a future free of falls, filled with confidence and joy, while becoming more fit than we thought possible! 😆😉

[Raingrrl]

Thanks for this suggestion Fancy1959 ! Maintaining my balance is a struggle so I'm going to look into getting this book. I would love to retire my membership in the MS Stuntpersons Club! I've had so many falls its ridiculous and have the scars to prove it. Its why i tell my primary care doctor that I don't want to ever be thin because I need the padding for fall protection! She hasn't been amused so far....

[Fancy1959 in reply to Raingrrl]

Raingrrl I would also like to tear up my membership in the MS stunt person club. Over the past two years I can easily count 15 - 20 major Falls that I have taken. The only thing that has saved me is that I have a hard head and my bones are very tough thanks to me being so active and fit prior to the MS attacking me.😳🤕😲

Check into the book because I believe it's already helping me a bit. Besides the activities in it are so much fun to do it is not hard to find 10 -15 minutes every day to play at improving your balance!😆

[Raingrrl in reply to Fancy1959]

I've ordered the book and will let you know what I think after I've tried it out.

[erash]

Fancy1959 thanks! Looks great. The web site mentions "fear of falls" and this is a "biggie" that really increases the risk of falling. So anything that improves confidence and decreases fear of falling is terrific 👍

[Fancy1959 in reply to erash]

Erash, you are so right. If we think about and worry about something so hard the action can often becomes self predictive! I hope you like the book as much as I did. It's fun and easy to do. I love playing with balls and it's an easy way to work on improving my balance for me. Fancy1959🏐⛹😆

[rlh1974]

Maintaining balance is awful. I may look into this. I fell in the shower yesterday. Put my knee right through the side of the tub and cracked a tile with my head. MY ribs hurt like HE^& Let us say balance is an issue for me. If I close my eyes or spin. Im done. Just stick a fork in me. I am 42 and was just prescribed a freaking walker. GAH! Anyway, Fancy1959 Thank you! You are always an encouragement for me on this site. You are always so positive and helpful. So I can say thank you on behalf of all of us! I love to see in my mailbox that you have written a new post!

[Fancy1959 in reply to rlh1974]

Rih1974, it's Fancy1959. Losing my ability to keep my balance has been one of the hardest and is one of the first things I deal with on a day-to-day basis. It seems like, no matter hoe careful I am, I take about one fall a month.😩😲I was an athlete who played competitive volleyball, backpacked, rock climbed, etc. and now not to be able to walk across the yard without taking a header is like living in a nightmare for me. So I understand. We have to always remember and again believe me I know how hard it is is that we have to protect ourselves to keep ourselves from even more harm. And if that means we have to use protective gear, be it a Walker, walking sticks, or even a wheelchair, we cannot afford to keep hitting our heads or breaking bones. Have you been able to take advantage of Physical Therapy anywhere? That made a huge difference to me. But since my MS went from RRMS to SPMS I have had much more trouble with my balance. I'm anxiously awaiting getting started on Ocrevus. Hopefully I will get it approved by the end of the summer.

Try out the book. I don't feel as if I am working on my balance, I feel as if I'm playing! Especially the section about playing with balls.🏐😆

[Hidden]

Fancy1959 - Thank you very much for your post. The books are ordered. The information in them may be "the sense of direction" I have long sought. This is a nice site, and now it's also a very nice day.

[Fancy1959]

ZoomjoeT, it's Fancy1959. It has been quite a while since I have spoken with you and I hope all is well with you and yours. I think you will find to be extremely fun to work at and beneficial for your balance. We both know that when we enjoy something we will do it more often and keep at it longer so that was what excited me so much about this book on balance. I think it's a win-win situation for everyone who struggles with their balance which is the majority of people with people with MS. After you have tried the excercises in it for a couple of weeks, please let me know what you think of it. The input would be VERY helpful to me. Take care until we speak again I'm glad I was able to help you find this resource. Remember together we are stronger!

[Sukie427]

Wow, Fancy1959! It sounds as if it could have been written by my physical therapist! I discovered mainly when I kept having flares and just had this mosts recent relapse, that the probable reason was because I hadn't fully recovered from the relapse I had in June 2016 when I broke my back in a horse accident in October 2016, which of course interrupted my PT and aquatherapy program as it took many months to finally heal. I got back into PT for my back after it had fully healed almost 6 months later, but the therapist did not work with me on land enough and it didn't do much good. I am now with a different therapist and she has not only really helped my back, but she also is teaching me balance and coordination exercises. And it sounds just like this book! I am going to get a copy and show it to my therapist. Thanks for the heads-up, Fancy!