I know, not exactly an earth-shattering question, but I’ve had friends and acquaintances over the years who seem to have a new falling down story every couple of weeks, and it strikes me as odd - I have only fallen down a couple of times in my adult life, and most of them involved ice. I’m wondering if I’m some kind of champ at walking, or these people are just really bad at it.
I fall down regularly, its a hazard of my job. I fall down so much it doesn’t even make a story, like 4 of 5 times a day.
I slip on ice once and a while. It happened about 6 weeks ago when I was rushing to the hospital because hubby was having surgery. I twisted my knee, which kind of sucks.
Before that - I can’t actually remember the last time I wiped out.
I have a torn ACL and I still don’t fall down but maybe once every 18 months because of it.
Damnit, you made me post in both threads. Now I’m going to stand up and fall down, just because.
Because of the nerve damage in my leg, my foot will occasionally droop as I take a step. I’ve only hit the ground twice as I’m usually near something to grab.
You bring up a good point, runner - if you have an issue that makes falling down more likely than not, you’d do something to mitigate that, wouldn’t you?
When you work at night outside in the winter north of 60th N falling down’s an occupational hazard. I still only fall down roughly once per winter.
My predecessor died after slipping on icy stone stairs and a workmate doing the neighboring route has a lame thumb due to a fall but I’ve managed to fall like a pro so far, avoiding injuries. Maybe I should get those attachable studs for my shoes next winter, actually …
I have displayed a tendency to fall on stairs when carrying a laundry basket. So I’ve stopped carrying one, I just bundle the laundry up into a ball I can carry under one arm.
I tend to stumble on steps – almost always as I’m going up because I’m just that talented. (And also because I don’t pay attention and don’t always lift my foot up as far as I should on steep stairs.) I also fell more than I used to the past couple of winters because the weather was much icier than it had been in the past and I just wasn’t used to paying attention to slippery patches.
That said, I only actually make it all the way to the ground a couple times a year at most and even that makes me feel like I’m clumsier than most, seeing as I’m generally an able-bodied adult. Falling every few weeks would probably make me too paranoid to move.
Nope, I don’t fall regularly. However, I do have a side anecdote:
I studied abroad in a town in Spain where the streets were largely paved with cobblestones. Let me tell you: cobblestones are some slippery mothers. Almost all the other exchange students I knew slipped and fell down within the first week of arriving and continued to slip and fall throughout our stay. I had some close calls, but never actually fell. Then, in the very last week of my year-long stay, I slipped and fell down some crumbling stone steps. Dammit, record ruined!
I can’t recall the last time I fell down, but I’m thinking it must have involved a support shattering beneath me rather than any clumsiness on my part. I don’t mean to imply that I’m especially graceful, as I am not; rather, I am careful.
I have a form of MD, and when I trip, it’s almost impossible to stop myself from going all the way to the ground
Joe
Falling down in public is my number one fear. I’d rather do public speaking than fall down so I pretty much never fall down because I’m super careful.
I trip a LOT. I’m one of the two who has so far voted ‘falls down often; no medical reason’ but it’s more tripping than falling. Even when I do fall, I usually manage to roll or hop up in such a way that nobody knows what just happened. I’m just a klutz, but I’ve been a klutz a long time and have learned how to roll with it. 
I don’t fall down regularly, although I do fall down occasionally. Most of my falls involve ice, hiking, or both combined, but occasionally they involve dancing or getting tangled in a leash while running with my dog (or even, dancing while getting tangled in a leash while running with my dog, because he’s very irresponsible).
I have fallen down three – no, wait, four – times in the last ten years.
- Slipped on some ice, broke my ankle
- Was walking along a curb without realizing it (sidewalk next to a roadway that didn’t actually have any traffic in it, in a public park, making it not look like a roadway). Lost my footing. Very embarrassing.
- Twice, walking up stairs, going too fast, didn’t pick my foot up enough to get it past the last step. Both times in public. Both times on very hard surfaces. Badly skinned my knee the first time, nothing but a red face the second time.
So I do it roughly once every 2.5 years – does that count as often?
I rarely fall down. When I do, it is almost invariably from stepping in some sort of small. round depression in the ground–hole my dog dug and then it got filled with leaves so I didn’t see it, some random camouflaged hole in the ground I encounter while walking in a field…The thing is, I could probably recover from many of those falls instead of actually hitting the dirt, but it has been my experience that the attempt to recover often results in far worse injury (I’m no longer in my 50’s, shall we say) than simply doing a good job of going with the fall. I am certain these sudden collapses for no apparent reason must look extremely comical to any companion, once it has been established that I simply fell down. After the last one, I laughed so hard trying to picture what that must have looked like that I almost peed.
I think I’ve fallen about three times in the past ten years. I trip and stumble more frequently, but actually hitting the ground? Just the three I can remember. One was coming out of my front door onto a newly-sealed deck and stairs right after it rained…so slippery…I took one step on the wet deck and flew off the steps and landed on the front walk. Only sprained my ankle.
Then I got my foot caught in some over-long pajama pants and fell in my living room. Dislocated my shoulder, weeks in a sling and physical therapy, but managed to avoid surgery, to my surgeon’s surprise.
And then walking out of the grocery store, there is a slight slope down to the parking lot, and the temperature had dropped while I was shopping and ice had formed on the blacktop. Down I went onto my hands and knees. Scrapes, but nothing worse.
What’s “often”? I tend to stumble some - partly because I’m a klutz, partly because I navigate a daily obstacle course of kids/dogs/tree roots/etc., and occasionally because my left foot tends to turn inward if I’m really, really tired. Some stumbles result in a fall because, as Legs Akimbo mentions, sometimes falling “well” is less likely to cause injury.
I’d say I hit the ground once or twice per year - including this morning at work, when an uneven tile “jumped out” and attacked. I broke my foot. Yay.