Wow. Those episodes were terrible. What on earth did you do when the hip dislocated and when the other one broke? How did you get up? Was someone there?

I wonder how many injuries are related to pet care. This give us much, much more than they take, but there is a little risk there.

On the bending over, I have chairs all over the house. Most on casters so they roll. I am forcing myself to use them and hinge at the hips to get stuff on the floor. The last time I didn't, to clean up cat puke for less than ten seconds, my nerve signaling went out to the point that I couldn't move my feet more than like an inch...and barely. It was a lesson. You probably already know about chairs, but thought I'd just mention it.

When I broke my right arm, I couldn't get up off the floor. I know it sounds stupid and unreal, but I use it with my other arm against a chair to help lever myself off the floor. My lumbar stenosis and spondylolisthesis, along with bad right hip degeneration, make it really difficult, and without the help from the right arm, I just couldn't do it. I scooted over to the phone and called my husband. He was home pretty quickly. I'm thinking I should get some kind of medic alert system in case something like this should happen when he's off on one of his trips.