Avoid the FOOSH

This post might best be filed in the "Stating the Obvious" drawer, but after witnessing several falls over the past week, I thought this might serve as a friendly reminder.

A couple of Sundays ago (January 18th), I stepped outside to grab the paper.  I nearly had by legs fly out from underneath me, but fortunately caught myself.  I didn't see any obvious ice on the ground, but it certainly was present.  Later in the evening, I saw numerous images of folks and cars sliding all over the place while enduring a nasty black ice event.  I knew that I would be seeing people in my clinic over the following weeks with injuries sustained due to these hazardous conditions, and unfortunately I have been correct.

A FOOSH injury is a fall on outstretched hand.  Your arms will shoot out reflexively when you lose your balance in an attempt to protect your head.  While you may avoid catastrophic injuries by doing so, typical injuries to the upper extremity due to a FOOSH would include wrist fractures, elbow fractures, humerus (upper arm bone) fractures, dislocated and/or separated shoulders, rotator cuff tears, and labrum tears.  All of these are painful and debilitating injuries, but pale in comparison to a more tragic outcome.  For you N.Y. Giants fans, you were likely aware that Ann Mara, the matriarch of the team, passed away this week at the age of 85.  As it turns out, she had slipped and fallen on January 18th and never recovered from her injuries.

Falls can happen any time and anywhere.  But the two simplest yet effective pieces of advice I can give you to avoid them in treacherous weather are the following:

1)  Give yourself more time!  If you keep your regular schedule during bad weather without giving yourself some wiggle room, you're setting yourself up for trouble.

2)  Wear practical footwear!  The young lady I saw fall this morning was wearing fashionable boots with 5 inch heels on them.  Fortunately she got right back up, but hopefully she'll rethink her shoes tomorrow.

Let fashion take a back seat when it comes to your safety.  Carry your professional shoes with you, or keep an extra pair in the office.  And slow down.  An ounce of prevention may save you the arduous, expensive, and painful experience of having to rehabilitate an injury.  And if it's fashion that's paramount to you, I'd suggest purchasing coats and pants that will match the slings, casts, braces and boots you might find yourself needing should you take a spill.

Take caution.  Be safe.  Stay upright.  Summer will be here soon enough.  Falling on the sand at the beach hurts a lot less.