You’re absolutely spot on. It’s terrifying how much one accident can mess you up as you age. The thing about falls in an elder is that it isn’t just the body that gets hurt - it’s the brain, too. I knew a sweet lady who started as someone who simply forgot important things sometimes, who was living in the independent “assisted living” part of the nursing home I worked in. One fall in the bathroom later, and after spending a few weeks in the hospital to heal her broken leg, she ended up transferred to the end stage dementia floor. She had become so irritable and confused that I barely recognized her. In fact, a lot of stories of people coming to nursing homes start with a simple fall, it’s scary. People come in confused why they can’t “go home,” with brains so damaged they aren’t even aware of how serious their disabilities have become.

It kind of makes me wonder if similar accidents in younger adults can be making changes to our brains that we simply don’t realize yet.