Mom's balance issues

This page http://www.americangeriatrics.org/education/forum/falling.shtml does a wonderful job describing Mom's balance issues.

In part, her med's cause the dizziness in addition to the fact that her blood pressure drops when she stands up (I measured this repeatedly last week with Mom walking around, standing up, sitting down etc.) and the Physical therapist said that it can be offset by increasing her fluid intake).

Also, Mom has lost some of her physical strength and this is probably because she isn't doing her weight bearing exercises as regularly as she used to.

Also, Mom's eye's do not adjust quickly to changes in motion like turning your head, lifting your head etc. ( a function of age) which is why we do the eye exercises.. I would compare that to spinning around, stopping and wondering why the room still spins.

The good news is that most of this is treatable which is why we have spent the last 6 weeks in therapy. Mom has responded well and has improved but needs to keep up the good work and practice what she has been taught. It would be helpful if she would add some strength building exercises to her regimine so that her legs would hold her up. Too, bicycling or treadmilling would be great for increasing her stamina. And then there is the issue of fluids... Mom needs to drink more during the day to keep her blood pressure from dropping when she stands up and moves.

I'll copy this onto the blog for long term keeping. If more comes up on Thursday, which could be our last day in PT, I'll let you know.