Yes falling is a great fear of mine and it has happened to me quite a few times but not seriously. I am really wobbly and I use a wheelchair out in public but I have a walker for use at home. I insist on sitting in a booth at a restaurant and ungracefully get seated but hey I want to feel normal eating out. The dang chair is hard to sit in anyway. I am like the princess and the pea chick with feeling every seam I am sitting on after a while. But I cant walk around in the real world yet although I have ventured outside a few times. There is so many hazards like broken spots in cement in walkways. I am so easily tired. Then add the big feet swelling that is so painful to stand on so I am forced to live life sitting down. Not the way we are meant to be really but it can be done.  Falls are a huge risk when at any moment I may get vertigo or dizzy or just weakness. I have lost my balance and leaned against something as I try and go steps in my house. I can walk which is frustrating I can't have any balance. I admire that you can stay out of the chair. I am most scared in the bathroom and put some cushions in front of the tub I don't use anyway since I have a shower chair. It looks weird in the bathroom but I don't want to lose teeth. Forget fatalities I just worry about teeth. 

I just take aspirin. I was on Plavix with the aspirin and neurologist said combo can cause fatal internal bleeding. PCP scoffed at this but I just take aspirin just in case. I am not a gambling girl. I don't know much about the blood thinners on the market, My PCP said there was a study done and that 81 mg of aspirin was not good enough and that I needed more. I chose to just stay on the little aspirin I have been on now and not get my stomach any more upset than it is and I don't want any bleeding issue. You are so right that some of this stuff is really stuff you have to be careful with and watch.

I put things out of my path just in case I lose my balance and it has worked. I put some clothes baskets with pillows on them on the chairs I have so that I have something to lean into when I walk to my bed. It helps for making speedy trips to the loo. I have swayed using the walker and so this way I don't hit anything that will be dangerous. I don't fall to the floor like I did in the beginning when I could lean and not even be aware of it and I would go walk without someone holding my belt. so I guess  I have made some improvement. Stairs is my huge fear.

Lets all be safe.

Hi Betsy,

Vertigo is the pits. I find it to be the worst of the stroke effects and it is rapidly increasing along with a myriad of other symptoms. I refrain from using a walker or cane, preferring to bounce off walls and counters, which also are instrumental in guiding me. I occasionally use a cane when having visitors, not only for balance, but to impress that I am sober and not under the influence.

I use a conventional walker for most doctor visits,  as I only walk to the bottom of my driveway to a waiting county bus which leaves me curbside

at my destination. I sometimes use my rollator which offers more security if I have to roam through corridors or rarely, supermarket aisles.

Use of a rollator occurred to me when I noticed I felt more secure using a grocery cart than I do using my conventional walker.but  It is awkward and heavy, causing difficulty getting it on the bus.

I have been taking Plavix in combination with baby aspirin for ten years without any bleeding problem other than the frequent unsightly hematomas that appear following the slightest bump or scrape.

Ray had lots of falls, instability, inattention, walking too fast, leaning too far forward all played a part.  When he finally broke his pelvis and was hospitalized for six weeks the radiologist showed me his xrays and it looked like a kid had scribbled all over it, each scribble being the result of a previous fall.  He had pain after a fall but would always say he was okay and he didn't want to go to hospital thank you.

Falls can be inconvenient, dangerous or fatal so slow down and take care.

I want to use a rolling walker but I was told this past week that it is too dangerous for me to use it in public yet and to keep using the chair. I am impatient to learn to walk again and my leg is unreliable. I hate this so much but wishing isn't going to change it. I will heed the advice to not get too ambitious and fall needlessly. It is tempting to not ask for help or to be overconfident. I still have vertigo despite the therapy, I am too disappointed for words right now and can't accept that my life will always be this way. I can't think about that now and just keep trying.