"I don't fall."

I used to say that, and it used to be true.  For a long time, probably my entire adult life, I had good reflexes, balance, and coordination.  Likewise, for at least five or six years post-diagnosis, it continued to be the case tat I did not fall.

Then the exceptions started.

First there was the infamous broken leg after the BRR in September 2022.  That was quite serious, of course . . . but as a fall?  I stepped off a ledge that I could not see in the dark, and at that point my options consisted of fly, float, or fall.  I'm not a bird nor a balloon, so of course I fell.  That situation was so freakish and unlikely to be repeated, though, that it was hard to say that the I-don't-fall era was at an end.

Next there was a nasty spill on a trail run nearly a year later, in June 2023.  I wrote about it at the time (https://grapplingwithpd.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-good-bad-and-ugly.html); that was another freak accident, although not nearly as unlikely to happen again as the post-BRR incident.  In fact, it seemed quite likely that this *would* happpen again (and again), so I decided to cut way back on trail running and stick mainly to the street.

A third fall came another year later, in the Utah Spartan Beast on July 20, 2024 (https://grapplingwithpd.blogspot.com/2024/07/2024-utah-spartan-beast.html).  I'm still recovering from the finger injury sustained over a year ago, but again, is that the kind of fall I should concern myself with?  I can see both sides, but I'm leaning toward 'no'.

Finally, there was today.  I had a fall today.  It was in the house, and completely preventable.  I was walking from the den into the kitchen.  Our house has a single step demarcating the border between the two rooms, and I did not quite step high enough.  The front of my house-shoe snagged on the corner of the step, and I went sprawling.  Not only did I end up on the floor, but on the way down I also knocked over some of the nearby clutter.  Very little harm was done--just a minor scrape or two--but in my mind, today is the day.  The I-don't-fall era is officially over.

Time to face a new reality, of increasing age and inexorably progressing PD.