audio1865573648

The conversation covers various topics, including osteoporosis and hypertension. The individual has had osteoporosis for about five years and hypertension for around eight to ten years. They manage osteoporosis with a tablet and hypertension with medication. They also follow an exercise program. Walking long distances can make them feel unsteady due to the conditions. Uneven surfaces like grass or their driveway can be challenging to navigate. Their day-to-day life is mainly affected when they overexert themselves physically. Okay. All good. How are you today? Very well. Thank you. Good. So today, I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. You're going to ask some similar questions. Intricate changes. Right. We're not focused before. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. You're going to ask some similar questions. Intricate changes. Right. We're not focused before. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. So I'm going to have to repeat myself a little bit from last time. Yeah. Not that it changes. More because recently I had an assessment that's based off user experience. than other bones. So that causes them to be able to break easier than bones without osteoporosis. Most common effects, older women who are post-menopausal and it can increase the risk of fractures. And that's why falls prevention and balance classes are really quite important for your population. I was just wondering, have you been to any strength classes or balance classes? No. No. Would you be open to any of them? I don't know. Because I'm all right as far as that goes at the moment. And I'm prepared to go anyway. Yeah. Well, for these classes, a lot of the time they're good for prevention. Yeah. So, you know, you nip it in the bud before it even gets close to you risking a fall or anything like that. And you can work on your balance and your lower limb strengthening. Exercises. Pardon? Do you do exercises? Yeah. What are those exercises for? Do you know? Are they for your hypertension or for your osteoporosis? No, osteo. And do you know how, sort of, if they, for example, could be sitting up and standing out of the chair a few times in a row? It could be anything to do with your upper body. Sort of. Yeah. I do my back. Put my hands behind my back. And then switch my phone. And I'll hang on to my kitchen bench and I'll bend down as much as I can. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. And then I'll sit down. But each one, is it sort of like a circuit sort of style? So like 30 seconds of each, you might do a couple rounds of that? Yeah. You're probably right. You're probably right. Until the day. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Fair enough. I don't know. No, I'll scrap that. And do you know about your hypertension or your high blood pressure? Do you know what that is? My blood pressure? Yeah. Same thing, isn't it? Yeah. Well, at the moment, it levels out at 148. And then sometimes it's 130 something. And sometimes it's 120 or something. It never gets over 148 ever. And that's the base grade. Yeah. Yeah. See, if I take it myself, and then I write it down and I take it to see the doctor, and she'll check it on her phone. And sometimes her phone works better than mine does, and it comes to the more things. OK. Cool. She's not upset with my blood pressure at all. Yeah. Good. And you're still taking medication for that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I am. Yeah. Beautiful. I take one in the morning, one in the middle of the day, and one at night. Yeah. Yes. And I know this is a repeat from last time. Do you know how long you've had osteoporosis and or your high blood pressure for? Now you've put it. I try and work out when I actually moved back from the city of Sydney to up here, and I cannot remember. But I do know I – well, I'll do a thing. I'll put it down to about eight years, eight to ten years. And then I had never – and then I had to find a doctor because I hadn't been to the doctor for a long time. So when I got there, she took my blood pressure straight away, and she said, do you know you've got blood pressure? I said, no, I didn't know really because I've never had it taken. Yeah. Anyway, it turned out she's been really good, and I've been really good with my blood pressure, so that part. But the osteo, five years, I'd say, about five years. And the management for either one of these, is it medication for both of them and your exercise program on top for the osteoporosis? Oh, sorry. The osteo, I take a tablet. That works fine. And the other one is my blood pressure tablets for hypertension. And what was the other one? Sorry. Salad. Salad. No, I just do that. She gave me a sheet to use, and I've turned it around a little bit where I find that it's easier to do the one that I pick than the one that she picks. Except for one, when it said I had to roll over and really roll over, and I couldn't do that one on the bed. But that's the only one I couldn't do. Yeah, well, I mean, that's a really good idea to change exercises to things you're actually going to do, rather than just look at the one piece of paper. Yeah. It's really good. I spilled water over all of this one. That's why I had to choose another one. Good idea. With these conditions, either or, could you give me a summary, I guess, of how they affect your day-to-day life? For example, last time, you said that walking longer distances can make you feel drunk, which I assume is the combination of the osteoporosis, maybe affecting the little bones in your ears, and then your hypertension, maybe the blood to your ears, because your ears, if you balance, might be affecting that. Well, I think that's different things. My doctor told me not to walk too far because of that, and I did because I could have got a bus, I could have got a cab, I could have got anything, but I thought I was stronger than what I was, and I found out I wasn't, so now I don't do it. Okay. And that's really the only thing that's been affected? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, still driving, still doing everything else. I can walk, as long as I'm not walking really long stretches. I can walk up and down where I live in the centre. I can do all that without a problem at all. It's just when I'm out and I overdo it, and that's about it. Just to extend on this point, what about grass or other uneven surfaces, such as your driveway even? The driveway is like that. So when I get out of my car, I've got to cross the road. I've got to get out of the car, I've got to cross the road, and then I've got to walk up. Sometimes I can run up, sometimes I can walk up. Well, I've got no choice. Either I've got to run or walk, otherwise I'll be down at the bottom. But I can't walk. My son put pavers down the side of the thing, and he put pedals down that fell over, and that's how I fell over one day, because he puts those, and the pedals were there, and I fell over. I didn't hurt myself, but I don't use those anymore. Okay. So do you now use the driveway? Yeah, yeah. It's not too bad. It just depends on whether there's a lot of shopping or not, really. You have to do it all the time. And last, have you had any, besides the two from last time, which will, again- The two falling over? The two falls, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, sorry. Have you had any other near misses? No. Where you caught yourself just before you, anything else that's happened? No. Yeah. When I was hanging clothes, bringing clothes in the other day, one of the pavers, I put my foot on it, and I did have to hold on to the clothesline then, because my foot hit that. But apart from that, no, haven't. Okay, cool. And with those two falls, they were caused, what were they caused by again? Sorry. Stupidity, on my part. Really, no, I'm serious when I say that, because I had washed my car, and I had my car, and there was this much before the pavers and the pebbles came, and me thinking I'm better than I was, I put my foot down, and the pebbles just got under my feet, and I fell over. That was that one, and what was the second one? I fell out of bed. But both of them were my own fault. The first one was my little table was pushed back too far, and I went to get up, and I went to put my elbow on it to get me out of bed, and it wasn't there, wasn't, and I fell out. Then I had to crawl from my bed to my sitting, just so I could get up, and it's hard to get up once you fall down like that. Yes, I bet it is. That was a long time ago. Okay. Well, at any strength or falls prevention classes, what they also tend to teach is actually a specific way to get up off the floor if you do find yourself there. Did you know that? Yeah, you grab hold of something and get up. Yeah, sort of like that, but they give you specific movements to do, so it's the easiest way for you to get up and back on your feet, or at least for you to get to a phone or something along those lines. The phone's right next to my bed. Yeah, well, it is obviously up to you, but it's a pretty good force a lot of the time. Do you have any specific goals in terms of your health, or is it more just to stay at your current level of activity, independence, and mobility? I'm happy the way it is. I'm lucky in my age that I'm healthy as I am, and I don't actually fall over anymore. I'm not saying I haven't sort of lost my balance a little bit, but I've always been somewhere where I can hang on to. But look, I'm happy with my health. My doctor's happy with my health. But for my age, I think I'm pretty good. Yeah, that's fair enough. I would agree. This sort of touches on the first question I asked. Would you be open to doing anything to help stay strong and steady besides for the exercises that you do at home? I'm sure there's somewhere around here that I could go into. I could look into that, because I do Meals on Wheels, and near that is a place where I think they do exercises and stuff in the building just down the road. Yeah. I could think about that. Yeah. Have you had to stand for a prolonged period of time recently at any point? If required, I have. I might sit down for five minutes. And how does that make you feel? Do you feel uneasy or unbalanced at any point during that? Actually, no. But last Friday, I don't know whether it was the weather, but I had to sit down because I was sweaty. It was really hot. And I went and sat down. I sat down. I took a couple of Pindadols. I sat down. I was there for five minutes. I got up and just carried on. Okay, cool. That's the first time that's ever happened. So I don't know what it was all about. And when you go shopping, nothing's happened like that before? I haven't fallen over there. Not fallen over, but I think you said you felt drunk. Oh, no. That's when I was coming back from Deepwater Plaza. You never felt like that again? No. And I came back. No, it hasn't happened again. That was because, as my son said, I should have got the bus down. Yes, I had to leave the car. I should have got the bus down. I should have got the bus back. But thinking I was better than I was, I agree with him. He's not always right, but, you know, you think that. But I might look into that exercise thing. Yeah. I mean, I know people that have done it and they say it's worked for them, at least for an extra bit of confidence, if anything. And we've got a place to do the pull. Walk up and down the pull. Oh, yeah. You know, hurt my legs. Mine's going to look terrific. Oh, good. I can help you look at that if you want, then, as well. What, the exercises? Yeah. But it has to be around here. Yeah, yeah. I know someone, like one of the people I work with, it's not too far, but I can ask them if they know anyone local for you. Yeah, I wouldn't mind going up the internet. Yeah. I don't want to push you into anything. Go on. No, but sometimes I have to be pushed, and that's just the way I am. If you don't push me sometimes, well, that's it. Fair enough. I think all your questions have been really good. I hope I've answered them for you. Yeah. No, you've answered really well. I know. Thank you very much. No problem. Just sort of one more. Yeah. What would make it easier or, well, for now, what would make it easier for you to stick with, I'm going to pass on about, going to classes, for example, or continue doing exercises or increase your exercise load? Well, yeah, I'll go on. Keep going. Okay. Oh, okay. I'll still do my exercises here, but if Ruth can find me someone around here, because I'm not prepared to go any further, then I'll give it a go. Around here, like within ... Boy, boy. Yeah. Within how far of a drive, roughly? Well, I ... Or walking distance, even. I don't know anyone at walking distance, Landy, but there's got to be ... I'm sure there's somewhere where I do meals on wheels, I'm sure they have exercise classes just around the corner from there. Yeah. Probably. You're probably right. Because it's got swimming. No, no, this one doesn't. But it's got all sorts of things there, and I'm sure I've seen people doing exercises in there. Yeah. On the other side of that point, what would make it a non-negotiable or harder for you to ... Would it mainly be that geography being further away? I don't want it to be further. I wouldn't go if it was further away. Yeah. And is that the main sort of barrier, I guess? Yeah. Just that if I can go somewhere and then find somewhere else that's close, I'm happy. Yeah. Of course. I still do the ones in the bedroom. Yeah. But I could ... I'm still walking. I think that's all for my recorded questions, which is very good. You can do that as far as you want. I don't know where else I could answer. Do you need any of them like assessmentified? Does that make sense? What? Sorry? I was just talking to Alex quickly. Did any of it you kind of want to manipulate a little bit to get the answers you need, or have you kind of got what you want? Not really. Like, I'll splice the austere process once you find out about it. Yeah. The day-to-day life is fine. Important things to do. No. Yeah. No. Very good. Of course. Yeah. As long as I've answered and I've talked to you, that's ... No, no, no. You have. You have. More than enough. Thank you very much. You're a nice young man too, I have to say. Who? I'm looking. A nice young man. Thank you. Now, I'm serious when I say those things.