I fell

Well it happened. Yesterday, going down the stairs, I fell. They said it would happen eventually.... falling. It's part of the progression, my life with Al, my gait becoming more unsteady, my balance more unsure. It was a hard fall. A concussion and a broken/cracked rib. I've long lost that ability to catch my fall, to protect myself from injury. Outstretched arms when falling are now only a symbolic gesture of protection. An artifact of a prior healthy time when my arms were strong and could cushion my fall. Now, they simply crumple on contact, assigning impact absorbing duty to my face, shoulder and/or back. Fortunately, I've only fallen only once, about 9 months ago; increasing vigilance in face of unsteadiness has served me well up to now. Not sure exactly how this one happened. I can't recall much around the fall, but by best guess I lost my balance, my grip on the handrail and then went timber like a tree down the stairs. I don't know what went wrong, it was probably a misstep that caused me to go head first down onto the stairs. Kathy was just outside the front door when she heard the loud thud signaling my contact with the ground. Once inside, she saw me laying there on my back at the base of the stairs, legs sprawled up a step or two. My eyes open, unfocused, staring blankly at the ceiling. The lights were on but nobody was home. It was a like a solid right cross was delivered to my temple. My brain was out... scrambled and was now in reboot mode. At first, I just moaned, unresponsive then mumbled incoherently. Gradually I began to gather my thoughts but it was a solid hour before I could think straight enough to get up. Initially I didn't want to go but decided later that it would be prudent to get checked out. In the ER, CT of the head was negative, no damage except for the tender left temple and stiff jaw. X-Rays showed a break/crack in one rib in the back, second point of contact with the stairs. I'm okay now, not 100%, but doing well. The room still spins a bit when getting up or laying down. Getting up, laying down and moving about hurts. The pain from the rib combined with the muscle weakness makes it especially challenging to get up. I need more assistance now... Gotta work on it to regain more independence.