FALLING…

Hi friends/family. Happy Superbowl Sunday. Go Packers!

We’ve decided to use today’s post to focus on a specific area in which MS has affected Gary. An area that many of us may have witnessed through the past few years. An area most of us brushed off as his innate clumsiness.

The fact that Gary falls. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. No, seriously.

Gary has always been clumsy. When he was a kid he always found a way to make a dramatic fall/dive/slide in order to make that play. He liked making contact with the ground and felt accomplished when he could get right back up and brush it off. His friends, catching on to his seemingly high rate of falling/diving/sliding started to call him out on it a bit explaining that it wasn’t always cool.

Fast forward to college where we often witnessed Gary falling out of a chair, or up the steps (yes, UP the steps), or even tripping over someone else as he crossed the living room. Was it too much to drink? His clumsiness? His lack of balance and depth perception? Was he wearing his glasses? Did he get enough sleep last night? He is a night owl.

No, we didn’t always run down the list of excuses/reasons he might have fallen and we don’t want to make it seem as though, if Gary was around, someone was bound to fall (specifically, him). However, Gary fell enough so that we all began to joke within our inner circle of friends that he was one clumsy guy.

Fast forward to a few years ago. Gary started noticeably losing his balance more often and usually when totally sober. He didn’t fall more often but did notice that his balance was impacted by whatever was happening. There were a few spills, but nothing out of the ordinary. We already established that Gary falls alot by this point. 

Actually – side note – when we lived with Gary’s mom we lived in the basement and the stairs leading down to our room were wood. Sadie was so paranoid that Gary was going to fall that she would never walk down the stairs in front of him. Sadie is a paranoid person to begin with but those stairs were slippery and given Gary’s track record she’d rather walk behind him. She’s a better wife now.

Fast forward to now. Gary falls. He falls now because his legs sort of just fold up under him. That coupled with the dizziness and fatigue that MS can bring on lead to a hard fall. He rarely can brace his fall and so he just goes down. He’s learned to just let his body fall and sort of realizes “ok, I’m going to fall, let’s just let it happen.” In September we were all walking to the wine festival and Gary just went down, hard. There was a moment of fear from all of us not knowing what just occurred – but really, he had not been able to pick up his foot enough to go over a lip in the sidewalk and so down he went. He got right back up, a little embarassed and maybe cursed the sidewalk for his bloody knee for a second then we were on our way. Recently he’s fallen in the shower, as well.

Hopefully by the time Gary is old and brittle he won’t fall as much. Thankfully, these days, he get’s right back up and goes on with his day – with maybe a bruise or scab here and there but nothing more. We’re thankful for that. 

The biggest problem is going up stairs too because lifting his leg that high can be problematic. Going down stairs is tough too. Needless to say, we’re thankful for elevators and escalators 🙂 Thank you technology.

So, while falling has been a lifetime thing for Gary, it has evolved as he has. From rolling on the ground as a kid to telling himself “don’t try to stop this, it will only hurt more” he still has a close relationship with the ground. And maybe, he’s still just clumsy.