Dear LPG, 

Over recent years, a couple of my older friends have found themselves confined to bed for an extended time due to very different accidents which have involved falls.  It is pretty sobering to know how much more drastic the effects of such an accident can be when you are a bit older.   

Each has been well and truly laid up for months with a simple broken leg, and the challenge of getting back on your feet is not just negotiating how to use a pair of crutches or a Zimmer frame.

Both of these friends have a few things in common: they are both over 75, both broke bones in their upper legs and are both (after a stay in hospital) now at home being cared for by family, visiting carers and visits from people like me, who try their best to get over for a short chat at least once a week.  

Another thing that I have noticed in each of them is that recovery is taking a lot longer than they would expect, and getting back on their feet is one of the most frustrating aspects of their suffering.  

While physiotherapy has played its part, it is evident that visiting therapists have concentrated on getting them walking. I have noticed that both find getting back on their feet challenging, but their hands are also suffering due to a couple of months of inactivity.  

Hands need help, too, and I have found a few exercises.  I can’t do them as well as I used to, even though I have had none of these problems and continue to cook, do the household work and keep mine busy, but I have found them helpful to work on when I visit for a few reasons.    They give me something to focus on those days when my bed-bound hosts are less than positive and only have their lack of mobility on their minds.   

I have made it my mission to take the videos on my mobile phone to encourage them to have a little go with me.  If nothing else, that can be a recurring topic of conversation during regular visits where I get those bedbound hands having a very gentle go at some of them each time I visit them. Getting them thinking about getting their fingers working again helps their hands, and mine benefit from it. It also gives us a positive subject to focus on when the conversation gets a bit thin.

It is not something everyone can do, and when I visit, the way we do some of them can only be seen as laughable. We spend more time looking at them than doing them, but they give us something to focus our conversations on.  

OD, Bellingham

OD shares the exercises she has found, and LPG stresses our recommendation that anyone attempting them starts gently…

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