“Help, I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up!”

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“Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” An elderly woman claimed that a sudden, sharp pain in her big toe caused her to fall one evening at home. The woman admitted that similar sudden pains in her foot or toe were not uncommon. Upon falling, she noted an incredible pain in her hip (which took the brunt of the fall) and mild pain in her elbow (which she also landed on). It was noted that after the fall, the anterior tip of the femoral diaphysis was protruding through the skin. She complained later that she could no longer pronate or supinate her arm. When asked about any oddities in behavior that may have made her susceptible to the fall, the woman admitted to a diet high in liver and shellfish. To address the original cause of the patient’s fall, we must take into consideration the oddities in her recent diet. She stated that her diet had been high in liver and shellfish. According to Marieb and Hoehn (2013), foods high purin-containing neucleic acids promote the overproduction of uric acid. Build up of uric acid in the blood may deposit needle-like urate crystals in the soft tissues of the joint, most often in the big toe (p. 272). Liver is the problematic food in this case. The patient complained of mild pain and loss of some range of motion in her arm. The joint likely damaged here was the radioulnar joint. This joint controls the supination and promation or movement of the radius around the ulna of the arm. Given her age and the complexity of fractures after a simple fall suggests osteoporosis. According to Marieb and Hoehn (2013), Osteoporosis is a disease in which bone resorption outpaces bone deposit. The composition of the bone matrix remains normal but bone mass declines due to lose of calcium and the bones become porous and light (p.192). When the bones become porous and light, they become fragile and

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